Nassau County - Long Island, New York

February 1, 2012

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LEGISLATURE TO REVIEW COUNTY EXECUTIVE’S

COMMUNITY POLICING PLAN FOR NASSAU COUNTY

County Executive Mangano and Acting Police Commissioner Dale have announced a new community policing plan for Nassau County. Under the plan four precincts will remain and four other precincts will be converted to community policing centers. The precincts were last configured 40 years ago. Under the current configuration, three of the precincts handle twice as much activity as the other five combined.

Information regarding the new plan may be found here: http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/CountyExecutive/NewsRelease/2012/01-30-2012.html.

We were provided a briefing on the plan, which must ultimately be approved by the Legislature after full and complete public hearings. Local residents will be interested to know that 3rd Precinct will remain in its current location.

The plan appears to have a number of positive features, including:

 

  • There is no change to the number of police patrols or the areas that they patrol. In other words, the same patrol cars will be patrolling the exact same areas under the new plan.
  • An additional 48 POP (problem oriented police) officers will be assigned to work throughout the county.
  • More than 100 back office positions within precincts will be eliminated. This is estimated to save the county $20 million annually.
  • The community policing centers that will replace four precincts will be staffed with officers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • The county is proceeding with plans to enable residents to obtain copies of accident reports online. The most common reason for a visit to precinct is to obtain an accident report.

Before and during the Legislative hearings, we will be seeking as much information and detail as possible regarding the proposed plan. Among other things, we will insist that police officials provided assurances that the plan will not diminish public safety in any way.