Roll of Honor
Incident
Police Officer Michael Califano was killed when his patrol car was struck by a truck as he conducted a vehicle stop.
Officer Califano pulled over a box truck on the Long Island Expressway near exit 39 for insufficient lighting. As Officer Califano was sitting in his patrol car writing a summons, it was struck by a flatbed tow truck. The force of the impact pushed the patrol car under the box truck and knocked the box truck into traffic. The flatbed truck ended up on top of the police car. It took rescuers thirty minutes to cut through the roof of the patrol car and remove the officer.
Officer Califano was taken to the Nassau University Medical Center where he died from his injuries.
The driver of the flatbed truck was arrested and charged with one count of criminally negligent homicide, three counts of assault, and failure to move over for an emergency vehicle. In February 2013 the subject pleaded guilty to reckless driving.
Officer Califano had served with the Nassau County Police Department for 12 years and was assigned to the Highway Patrol. Before that, he worked for the Nassau Corrections Division for 10 years.
He is survived by his wife and three children.
Survivors
He is survived by his wife and three children.
In Our Keeping
- Permanent identifier
BO-US-NY-73B0372C- Stewardship
- Maintained by NeuraWeb Global Inc.
- Added to badge.nw
- April 2, 2026
- Last updated
- July 23, 2026
Honored here by 1 sentinel - 1 tribute.
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Tributes
22 years. You could have gone home.
Police Officer Califano gave the Nassau County Police Department 22 years. Still answering calls at the end.
Thank you for your service to the Mineola community. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, Police Officer Califano.
— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993
Agency
Service Record
Incident Details
Police Officer Michael J. Califano is one of 10,088 officers lost to accidents in the line of duty across the full record of this memorial — 31% of all 32,508 officers honored here.
In NY, 645 of 2,147 officers were lost to accidents in the line of duty — 30% of this state's fallen. That is 1 percentage points below the national rate of 31%.
At Nassau County Police Department, 21 of 51 officers on record were lost to accidents in the line of duty — 41.2% of this agency's fallen.
National Cause Distribution
How Accident compares to all causes of officer death in the memorial record. Michael J. Califano's cause is highlighted.
How Michael J. Califano Compares
When Accident Deaths Occur
Monthly distribution of Accident deaths across the full memorial record. Michael J. Califano is highlighted in Feb.
Incident Location
Others Who Wore This Badge
50 officers from Nassau County Police Department are honored on badge.nw. Showing the 16 most recent.
