James S. Garside has spent 30 years saving lives, offering aid

A Suffolk County police officer and paramedic was recently celebrated for his “unwavering heroism” during a decades-long career in which he has saved numerous lives — including three people during a two-week span in 2012.

James S. Garside, 56, has served more than three decades as a patrol officer for the Suffolk County Police Department’s Second Precinct in Huntington. His achievements have ranged from making more than 100 DWI arrests to implementing GPS-enabled trail markers to help emergency personnel reach hikers at Cold Spring Harbor State Park. He has also used his medical skills to save about half a dozen lives, deliver two babies and assist three people who “passed out” on flights, he said.

Garside was honored for his efforts by Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) during a ceremony this fall at Fireman’s Park in Cold Spring Harbor.

“I really think I’m just doing my job,” said Garside, who is a fourth-generation police officer and his precinct’s most senior patrol officer. Of being recognized for his heroism, Garside said: “It was tremendous, humbling and flattering.”

Garside’s career began as a part-time officer for the villages of Asharoken and Northport in 1991 before he joined the Suffolk County Police Department in 1993. As a county officer, he received press for helping save three lives in two weeks in 2012 — a 23-year-old overdose victim, a 19-year-old Suffolk County parks employee who suffered a heart attack and a 46-year-old woman who had gone into cardiac arrest.

Before joining the police department, Garside became an emergency medical technician in 1988 and a paramedic in 1990, working with volunteer ambulance corps and hospitals including Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens. Today, he is a paramedic for a local volunteer agency as well as for the Suffolk County Police Department’s Medical Crisis Action team, he said.

One person who has crossed paths many times with Garside and calls him “the best of the best” is Henry Waldron, the president of the Huntington Community First Aid Squad and a former rescue squad lieutenant for the Halesite Fire Department.

“You breathe the biggest sigh of relief when you come on a call and you see Garside,” Waldron said. “That’s the high regard that we all have for Jim.”

Connor Beach, chief of the Cold Spring Harbor Fire Department, added: “Officer Garside is always a calm, reliable presence in sometimes very challenging situations...and he is a real asset to have working as a police officer and responding to emergencies in our community.”

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.