Ken Puccio 1L
PERTH AMBOY – Ken Puccio is a Perth Amboy example of the American spirit of courage and dedication to duty. While serving as a police officer, he put his life at risk, and as a teacher, he helped nurture success in our community’s children because he attributes his own success in life to educators that guided him.
Born in Perth Amboy and raised by his mother, a single parent, Ken Puccio attended our city’s public-school system. After graduating from Perth Amboy High School in 1974, Ken Puccio enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he served four years in active duty and spent another eight years in the Army Reserves.
While stationed with his army unit in Texas, Ken Puccio participated in the Big Brother Program. He remained involved in community service when he returned home, as a volunteer firefighter for 10 years and by serving as coach and president of the Perth Amboy Babe Ruth League.
Ken Puccio became a police officer in September 1983. After seven years in the Perth Amboy Police Department patrol division, he became one of 35 police officers selected by the Middlesex County Prosecutor to bring Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) to classrooms from Kindergarten through 12th grade. D.A.R.E. is a drug prevention program that teaches students good decision-making skills to help them avoid high-risk behavior and to ensure they grow up healthy, safe and secure.
In 17 years as a D.A.R.E. Officer, Ken Puccio has taught more than 4,000 Perth Amboy 5th graders. There are 46 police officers (in Perth Amboy and Woodbridge) that are a direct result of Kenneth Puccio’s influence on Perth Amboy youth. Puccio also taught the G.R.E.A.T. Program, a law enforcement officer-instructed classroom curriculum with the primary objective of immunizing children against delinquency, youth violence, and gang membership.
Ken Puccio is a recognized expert on street gangs, graffiti, and the juvenile justice system. He has lectured on the subject of gangs at Rutgers, Monmouth, and Rider Universities.
He also taught classes at the Jersey City and NYPD police academies, trained with the Los Angeles Police Department Gang Unit and worked with the FBI, New Jersey State Police, and NYPD gang units.
In his capacity has a gang investigator, Puccio was targeted for assassination by the Latin Kings, Bloods, and Trinatarios, a prison gang that emerged during the early 1990’s. In 2007, Puccio was assaulted by members of the Trinatarios.
Throughout his career as a police officer, Puccio has been accredited by other police departments and law enforcement agencies such as the N YPD, FBI, New Jersey State Police, and New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. He was called to work with the FBI’s Innocent Images Program, an undercover operation to catch pedophiles attempting to lure young sexual victims through the internet.
He has been recognized as ‘Police Officer of the Year’ three times: 1987 by the VFW, 1995 by the FOP and PBA, and by the Perth Amboy Merchants Association in 2003.
Puccio has earned two valor awards; once for disarming an individual wielding a handgun and for rescuing a victim trapped in a burning building; and a lifesaving award for performing CPR on a 14-month-old baby.
He has been widely recognized for his community service, earning the Perth Amboy Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Community Service Award in 1995 and being recognized by the Perth Amboy Police Department with more than 30 plus letters of commendation. He has been presented with several citations from the Senate and General Assembly.
Puccio served on the Middlesex County Youth Services Commission, as a board member for the Middlesex County Minorities Issues Committee, and on the Attorney General’s working group on stationhouse adjustments. He administered the grant that funds Perth Amboy’s police stationhouse adjustment program. Since 2004, he has been a member of and participated in the Police Unity Tour, riding his bicycle from Ground Zero to Washington, DC, and raising over $220,000.00 for the Law Enforcement Memorial.
In addition to having served as a team member of the Juvenile Intensive Supervision Program and as president of the Middlesex County Juvenile Officers Association, Puccio was the commander of the Perth Amboy Police Youth Academy (PAYUP) and Perth Amboy Police Department historian.
In his 24 years as a juvenile detective, Ken Puccio served on the School Leadership Committees of Shull, Ceres, and Perth Amboy High. Since 2003, Ken Puccio has sponsored a scholarship in memory of his grandfather, Giovanni Puccio, to benefit graduates of Perth Amboy High School and the Middlesex County Vocational School.
Puccio was elected to the Perth Amboy Board of Education in 2009. He served as Vice-President of the Board from 2010-2013, and was elected president in 2017.
In addition to being a community-spirited volunteer, advocate for Perth Amboy youth, heroic law enforcement officer, and gifted teacher, Puccio is a dedicated parent who has been gifted with six children and five grandchildren.
