Auxiliary Police Officer Raphael Hajos

Raphael Hajos is a 26-year-old grad student at the University who was born in Guatemala but came to the United States as a baby. His parents worked at various tracks: Belmont, Aqueduct and in the summer would go upstate to Saratoga. He would have gone into racing like his brother, but at 5'8" he is just too tall to be a jockey like his older brother, Estuardo.

Raphael has a slender build and a face described as that of a Mayan king, and is a natural peacemaker. He can get people to calm down and back off merely by talking to them in a quiet, dignified manner. "Rafe" speaks several flavors of Spanish, and a couple of native Central American Indian dialects. A graduate student, he is currently working on a doctorate in crowd dynamics and volunteered to be an Auxiliary Police Officer in order to gain "invaluable hands-on experience".

The Police Department Auxiliary Police is an unpaid, unarmed reserve police force which is a subdivision of the New York Police Department. Auxiliary Police officers assist with uniformed patrols and provide traffic and crowd control at vehicular accidents, fires, demonstrations and other major events. Auxiliary Police officers wear virtually the same uniform as regular officers, and are equipped with straight batons, bullet resistant vests, police radios directly linked to the Central Dispatcher, other Auxiliary officers, and regular officers, flashlights, whistles, handcuffs, and reflective traffic vests. Their badge is a seven point star, in contrast to the shield worn by regular officers.

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