A long awaited honor for a fallen NYPD detective. NY1's Erin Clarke has that story.

It was a day in February 1971 when 33-year-old NYPD Detective Joseph Picciano was shot and killed by a prisoner he had arrested for abducting a 13-year-old boy.

Forty-five years later the officer from the 41st Precinct Stationhouse in the Bronx was honored.

The street he lived on and raised a family renamed Detective Joseph Picciano Way.

"A very important day for my children that their father was honored in this way and it's a beautiful thing," said Theresa Picciano, the detective's widow. "The police department, I know because I know a lot of the widows and they are always with us."

Even decades later.

Law enforcement, friends and family crowded 62nd Street in Maspeth, Queens to celebrate the fallen officer.

NYPD Chief of Detectives, Robert Boyce saying the department never forgets its own.

"1971 seems like a long time ago," Boyce said. "The city was a different place because of the sacrifice of police officers it is what we have now, the safest city in America, so we're enormously proud of that and we can never forget who helped us get there. Joe Picciano did."

And decades later, the honor is just as meaningful.

"So proud," said Suzanne Picciano, the detective's daughter. "It's just a wonderful thing. We're so happy. And we couldn't be more grateful to everybody who did everything to make this happen today."

One of those people, cousin Ann. She and Detective Picciano were first cousins.

"He was a most incredible man," said Ann Cozzani. "He was my best buddy."

After seeing a story last year about a street re-naming for another officer, she thought why not Detective Picciano? She reached out to the Detectives' Endowment Association and local Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley to organize this as a surprise.

"Joseph served our city with pride and distinction," said Queens City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley. "And he never had this honor and it was important to the family and when I heard about the family wanted to do this we worked right away to get a bill drafted and passed into the City Council."

A fitting tribute years later for one of the city's finest.