Post by onthejob on Jan 30, 2012 23:41:27 GMT -5
Time for hard choices on Nassau police
January 30, 2012 by JOYE BROWN / joye.brown@newsday.com
A plan to cut by half the number of police precincts in Nassau County is certain to raise a ruckus. And covering those losses by dubbing the proposed non-precincts "community policing centers" is likely to add fuel to that fire.
But wait a minute.
It's high time Nassau County had it out over what communities want, what they need and what the county can afford when it comes to policing.
Safety is a core county service. And Nassau residents certainly pay enough in taxes for it.
Will the proposal offered up Monday by County Executive Edward Mangano significantly impact police services?
No, according to Mangano and his choice for the county's new top cop, Thomas Dale. Both point out that the number of officers and police cars serving each county sector will remain unchanged under the proposed reconfigured precinct lines.
And in communities whose precincts would no longer be precincts, officials point out, the buildings would remain open and staffed, 24/7, by two police officers at any one time.
During a news conference at police headquarters Monday, James Carver, head of the county's police officers' union, shook his head as Mangano and Dale outlined the proposal.
"I don't see how this is going to work," he said at one point. And it is likely that police unions will challenge the plan as an attempt by the county to get around contractually mandated minimum-manning requirements, which spell out how many cops are supposed to work each shift in each precinct.
Mangano and the county police unions have been at loggerheads for years now, over everything from concessions demanded by Mangano to whether an earlier proposal to close two precincts would hurt the public.
Mangano's newest proposal will need approval from county lawmakers, who have the ultimate decision on whether to realign precinct lines. Republicans, who hold the majority, were slated to be briefed Monday afternoon.
Lawmakers will get several chances to dissect the matter during committee and a full legislative hearing. And, Mangano said, the county also intends to air the proposal at a series of community hearings -- the first of which could come within the next two weeks.
Already, some communities are complaining. Legis. Carrié Solages (D-Elmont), one of two Elmont residents who attended the news conference, was concerned that a community policing center would not be enough for communities that line the Queens border in southwest Nassau.
And residents in Baldwin looking forward to completion of a new precinct building are certain to balk at learning that the building is now slated to be a community policing center.
Nassau is considering the proposal -- the first major realignment in personnel and precinct lines in decades -- because of its finances.
Monday, Mangano said the county would save up to $20 million annually with the move. But if money was an issue, why didn't the county just shutter four and leave four open?
"After listening to the public, we came to the conclusion that we could provide what people wanted in those precincts by making them community policing centers rather than shutting them down," Thomas C. Krumpter, the department's first deputy commissioner, said in an interview.
He was acting commissioner, when, last December, the department floated an unpopular proposal to close two of eight precincts in Nassau -- where roughly a third of the county is served by village and city police departments.
More than a decade ago, Nassau -- a county geographically smaller than Suffolk County's Town of Brookhaven -- actually considered adding a ninth precinct.
No more.
January 30, 2012 by JOYE BROWN / joye.brown@newsday.com
A plan to cut by half the number of police precincts in Nassau County is certain to raise a ruckus. And covering those losses by dubbing the proposed non-precincts "community policing centers" is likely to add fuel to that fire.
But wait a minute.
It's high time Nassau County had it out over what communities want, what they need and what the county can afford when it comes to policing.
Safety is a core county service. And Nassau residents certainly pay enough in taxes for it.
Will the proposal offered up Monday by County Executive Edward Mangano significantly impact police services?
No, according to Mangano and his choice for the county's new top cop, Thomas Dale. Both point out that the number of officers and police cars serving each county sector will remain unchanged under the proposed reconfigured precinct lines.
And in communities whose precincts would no longer be precincts, officials point out, the buildings would remain open and staffed, 24/7, by two police officers at any one time.
During a news conference at police headquarters Monday, James Carver, head of the county's police officers' union, shook his head as Mangano and Dale outlined the proposal.
"I don't see how this is going to work," he said at one point. And it is likely that police unions will challenge the plan as an attempt by the county to get around contractually mandated minimum-manning requirements, which spell out how many cops are supposed to work each shift in each precinct.
Mangano and the county police unions have been at loggerheads for years now, over everything from concessions demanded by Mangano to whether an earlier proposal to close two precincts would hurt the public.
Mangano's newest proposal will need approval from county lawmakers, who have the ultimate decision on whether to realign precinct lines. Republicans, who hold the majority, were slated to be briefed Monday afternoon.
Lawmakers will get several chances to dissect the matter during committee and a full legislative hearing. And, Mangano said, the county also intends to air the proposal at a series of community hearings -- the first of which could come within the next two weeks.
Already, some communities are complaining. Legis. Carrié Solages (D-Elmont), one of two Elmont residents who attended the news conference, was concerned that a community policing center would not be enough for communities that line the Queens border in southwest Nassau.
And residents in Baldwin looking forward to completion of a new precinct building are certain to balk at learning that the building is now slated to be a community policing center.
Nassau is considering the proposal -- the first major realignment in personnel and precinct lines in decades -- because of its finances.
Monday, Mangano said the county would save up to $20 million annually with the move. But if money was an issue, why didn't the county just shutter four and leave four open?
"After listening to the public, we came to the conclusion that we could provide what people wanted in those precincts by making them community policing centers rather than shutting them down," Thomas C. Krumpter, the department's first deputy commissioner, said in an interview.
He was acting commissioner, when, last December, the department floated an unpopular proposal to close two of eight precincts in Nassau -- where roughly a third of the county is served by village and city police departments.
More than a decade ago, Nassau -- a county geographically smaller than Suffolk County's Town of Brookhaven -- actually considered adding a ninth precinct.
No more.
