10/17/2026
Sunday, August 31, 1975. 72nd Street and East Drive, Central Park.
Two New York City Auxiliary Police officers are sitting in their patrol car when a man walks up from behind, opens the door, and pulls the nightstick off one of them. They get out to make the arrest. He turns the stick on both of them.
Auxiliary Sergeant David Freed was 20 years old. Two years on the job. Two merit citations, five commendations, and a fiancée who wore the same uniform. He died of his injuries. Backup took the man into custody at the scene.
Here’s what people forget about the auxiliaries. They were volunteers. Unpaid. Same blue uniform, a seven-pointed star instead of a shield, and no gun — they were never allowed one. A wood nightstick, cuffs, a radio, a flashlight, a whistle, and a memo book. That was the whole kit. And 1975 was the year the city went broke and started laying off the paid cops, so the volunteers were out there more, not less.
This is an NYPD Auxiliary Police duty belt rig — the leather, the gear it carried, and the memo book that went with it. Central Park Precinct. 1975.
Same park. Same precinct. Same summer.
Was it his partner’s? A friend’s? Someone who stood in the rain at the funeral? We can’t prove it and we won’t pretend to. What we can tell you is that whoever carried this walked the same paths Freed did, that year, with the same stick on his hip and no gun, for no pay, because somebody had to. Sgt Freed’s auxiliary officer carried this belt!
It took the city until 2022 to put David Freed’s name on the Central Park Precinct memorial wall. Ten names on that plaque. Two of them volunteers.
This belt is the kind of thing that keeps a name like that from going quiet.
In the shop now. $265. We’d like it to go home with someone who understands what it is.
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