LOWER MANHATTAN — For retired NYPD Chief Joseph Fox, Feb. 17 is a very special date. In fact, it’s one of the most important dates in the history of his family.
For it was on that date back in 1943 that his late father, Walter Fox, joined the NYPD — marking the start of the Fox family’s legacy of service in the police force.
Joseph Fox would eventually follow in his father’s footsteps and become a cop in 1981. He retired in 2018 and serves the Diocese of Brooklyn as a member of the Diocesan Review Board, the panel that investigates sex abuse allegations against clergy.
His son, also named Joseph, would maintain the family’s legacy by joining the NYPD in 2015.
As the 81st anniversary of the start of his father’s NYPD career approaches, Joseph Fox recalled his dad’s dedication to public service and how it set the tone in the Fox household for the years to come.
And Joseph Fox also chuckled at some of the stories his dad told him — including the curious way he dealt with the 5-foot-8 height requirement in order to win acceptance into the NYPD.
“He didn’t meet the height requirement,” his son explained. It seems Walter Fox was just shy of 5-foot-8.
“But he was determined. And then he learned that when you lay down for a long period, you’re actually a little bit taller when you first get up. Your bones condense as you walk around all day,” Joseph Fox recalled.
It gave Walter an idea. On the day his height was to be measured, he laid on a board for a long time. He laid on the board in the back of a station wagon while two of his friends transported him to the testing site. He only got up when it was time to go in.
The tactic worked. He met the height requirement and was accepted into the NYPD.
But the first phase of his career in law enforcement lasted only a year. In 1944, he dropped everything to enlist in the U.S. Navy. World War II was raging and, tragically, his brother Buddy had been killed in battle. He felt the need to honor his brother’s legacy. Walter Fox served as a Navy signalman in the Pacific Theater.
Walter Fox returned home in 1946 and picked up where he left off, rejoining the NYPD. He was assigned to the 71st Precinct and worked there his entire career until his retirement in 1966.
“He was a patrol cop and he was proud of it. A lot of guys wanted to move up to sergeant and captain. He never wanted anything else but to be a street cop,” Joseph Fox explained.
New York City was very different in the 1940s than it is today. “There weren’t many cars on the road. If you drove a car, you could pull up on any block and find a parking space easily,” Joe Fox said.
Crown Heights is now known as the world headquarters of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement. But in the 1940s, “they had a very small presence,” Joseph Fox remembers his father telling him.
As a patrol cop, Walter Fox spent a great deal of time building relationships with community residents to earn their trust.
“He always shared with me how he was the first one in the precinct that found out from talking to people that there was a civilian patrol in the neighborhood,” Joseph Fox said, adding that the fledgling group went on to become Shomrim of Crown Heights, one of the city’s most well known civilian patrol organizations.
Fifteen years after his retirement, Walter Fox watched with pride as his son Joseph joined the NYPD. He was even prouder as he watched his son move up the ranks and eventually becoming a three-star chief in charge of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South and then the Transit Bureau.
Father and son would often talk shop. “He used to give me good, practical advice. It was logistical advice and fatherly advice,” Joseph Fox recalled.
“One of the things he always told me was to check the train stations if you’re looking for a perp. My partner and I caught a guy that way. He robbed a cab driver on Ocean Parkway and ran into a train station on MacDonald Avenue,” he said, adding that his father’s advice came in handy.
Walter Fox passed away in 1998. His NYPD legacy lives on in his son Joseph, who served for 37 years, and in his grandson, Joseph, who is currently a sergeant at the 70th Precinct in Midwood.