Longtime NYPD mail clerk Peter Farley dies at 72

Police commissioners and chiefs may come and go at NYPD headquarters but Peter Farley, a civilian clerical associate who daily delivered the mail throughout the building, seemed to know them all in the more than five decades he worked for the department.

Perhaps more important for the dyed-in-the wool police buff and diehard New York Mets fan, was that everybody — from commissioners on down the line — seemed to know and like Farley.

“He was a celebrity,” said Dermot Shea, who was police commissioner from 2019 to 2022.

After finishing his mail deliveries from an aluminum cart, Farley would stop by and talk with detectives to find out what was happening in terms of crime, particularly in his own Manhattan neighborhood around 79th Street, Shea recalled.

“He brought a smile to everyone’s face,” Shea said.

Farley died Wednesday after a long illness, according to NYPD officials. He was 72 and still an active NYPD employee, according to his sister Roseann Farley.

“For 51 years, Peter Farley was the heart and soul of the NYPD,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement to Newsday. “He was the ultimate source of joy and kindness. And one of the few things he loved more than his work were the people he worked with.”

“At One Police Plaza there is hierarchy of chiefs and executive staff and very powerful people,” said NYPD Det. James Rooney, of Suffolk County. “But Pete was somebody who everybody loved and made everybody smile.”

Rooney was among a group of NYPD detectives and officials who he said took Farley under their wings, driving him home after work and including him in various police functions. Farley’s apartment on 79th Street was filled with a collection of police memorabilia and photographs, and for background he kept a police scanner on to listen to crime reports, recalled Rooney.

His favorite meal was meatloaf with mashed potatoes at a diner near home, Rooney added. It was a repast he also got to know by attending meetings of the NYPD Emerald Society, explained a retired NYPD chief.

In addition to his sister Roseann Farley, he is survived by his sister Ruth Stabin, and a brother, William.

Farley grew up in Greenwich Village and went to school in Manhattan. He got a messenger job that serviced the 19th Precinct and later applied to the NYPD for a full-time job, Roseann Farley said, adding that he hardly ever missed a day of work.

Farley’s world and family really was the larger NYPD community and his love for the department was something he literally wore around his neck, in the form of a identification card holder that held various police insignia, medals and pins.

But if he was a fan of the NYPD, Farley was a huge fan of the Mets. A highlight was an appearance he made a few years ago throwing out the first pitch with Shea at Citi Field when Shea was chief of detectives. Both men practiced for the event in the corridor outside Shea’s office on the 13th floor of the headquarters building. When it came time for the first pitch, Farley took the mound and with Shea standing about 25 feet away threw the ball perfectly.

“He threw a strike,” Shea recalled.

After joining the department in 1973, Farley gravitated to handling the mail delivery in the 14-story headquarters building. If he needed a ride home, Rooney said he would drive him, keeping the police scanner on so Farley could hear all of the emergency calls.

A wake will take place Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan. A funeral Mass will be held Monday at 10 a.m. at The Roman Catholic Parish of St. Monica in Manhattan followed by burial at at St. Raymond’s New Cemetery in the Bronx.