New Cold Spring cop wrote children's book

Barrett Magistro has been a police officer since 2009, and he wasn't long into his career when he realized not everyone sees law enforcement as an honorable profession.

"There was a huge downturn in the way police officers were viewed through the media," says the officer, who lives in Fishkill and joined the Cold Spring Police Department last year. "A five-second TV newsclip is a tiny sliver of what police work is; it's not the whole situation."

Magistro wanted to change that perception and felt that any shift would begin with children. "I wanted to show them the human side of being a police officer and that for a community, law enforcement is a positive."

To that end, in 2017, Magistro wrote and published a children's book for ages 4 to 7 called How I Found Hope. It was inspired by an encounter on a cold, snowy morning in January 2010, while he was on patrol in Mount Hope, in Orange County.

A passerby waved him down, alerting him to an abandoned pit bull puppy. "She was about 8 months old, and you could tell she was abused," says Magistro of the dog. "You could see her ribs and spine."

As soon as Magistro opened the door of his squad car, the dog jumped in. He took her to the Port Jervis Humane Society and began checking in daily. Soon, he had adopted the pup, which he named Hope.

Like police officers, Magistro felt pit bulls suffered from misperceptions. "Pit bulls were originally nanny dogs because they're loyal, sweet and loving dogs," he says. Their reputation for aggression is "about how they're raised."

Magistro says that, as someone who worked as an engineer before joining the police academy, writing didn't come easy. "I was actually terrible academically in school," he says.

He didn't have time to promote the book, he says, and put it on the back burner once he had sold 125 copies and recouped his investment.

Hope lived for 15 years, three more than expected for a pit bull. But her story didn't end there. "I started thinking of a way to keep Hope's memory alive," Magistro said. Last month, he published a second edition of the book. He also found a manufacturer to make a black-and-white stuffed animal. He sells both online at hopethepitbull.com.

Last month, Magistro began scheduling readings at schools and daycare centers, with a toy version of Hope at his side. He plans visits to the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital in Westchester County and hospitals in New York City.

Magistro is partnering with Angels of Light, a Millbrook-based nonprofit that supports families in the Hudson Valley who are dealing with a life-threatening illness or whose lives have been altered by an accident or death.

"Barrett's compassion and caring for children has evolved not only through his book but also by giving comfort and love to very ill children with his stuffed animal," says Lori Cassia-Decker, a co-founder of Angels of Light.

Magistro has more books in mind and has written two stories featuring himself and Hope as protagonists. "One is about a dog that's scared of the dark, and I make a nightlight for her, and the other is about dealing with loss," he says.

He smiles when recalling Hope. When she was adopted, Magistro and his wife had two chihuahuas, Junior and Bobbi. "Hope always thought of herself as small because she was so young when we got her," he said. "She actually thought she was a chihuahua and tried to sleep in their tiny beds."