WEST VILLAGE — Eigthteen-year NYPD veteran Sgt. Gregory Abbott was taken aback when he heard he had been selected as the 6th Precinct's "Officer of the Year."
Abbott, 44, thought the honor should have gone to an officer of a lower rank, he said in an interview this week.
"It originally didn't sit well with me," said Abbott, who was chosen by 6th Precinct Commanding Officer Brandon del Pozo to receive the honor.
The more he thought about the award, though, the more he appreciated the recognition.
"It's truly an honor that I was considered by my commanding officer," he said.
Abbott, a born-and-raised Long Island resident who leads the precinct's six-officer street narcotics enforcement unit, was recognized Thursday at the Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce's eighth annual Safe City Safe Streets ceremony.
Del Pozo said he selected Abbott, who has been in the 6th Precinct since 2002, for his tireless work to fight crime in the Village.
"Sergeant Gregory Abbott encompasses the drive and initiative that is the hallmark of every good police officer, and the excellent leadership expected of every police sergeant," del Pozo said in a statement.
"He is responsible for addressing the most recurring and persistent crime and quality-of-life complaints in the command," he added.
An arrest Abbott helped make early this year stands out in his record at the precinct, del Pozo said.
In the early hours of Sun., July 24, Abbott and another plain-clothes officer questioned a man on Christopher Street for public urination, Abbott said. As the officers arrested Brooklyn resident William Green during the videotaped incident, he broke away and tore down the block.
"I tackled him in the street, he got up, we were fighting, he hit me in the face, he got away and then I caught up with him again," Abbott said.
After Abbott chased Green, 30, for blocks, he escaped into a "maze of fences," where Abbott lost him.
Abbott's shoulder was badly injured in the incident, and he requires surgery for it, he said.
In September, another set of officers spotted Green not far from the site of the first incident. He was arrested and has pled not guilty to felony assault and misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest, according to court records.
Abbott, who can retire with 20 years on the job within the next year and half, called the arrest the result of "good old-fashioned police work."
In his next act, he said he plans to "take a year off," travel to Finland, where he has family members he has never met, and "find a new passion."
