Legislature committees approve precinct changes

The legislature’s Public Safety, Finance and Rules committees approved the Police Department’s revamped Police Precinct Efficiency Initiative along party lines, 4-3, during a public hearing on Monday, Feb. 13. The plan will now be voted on by the full legislature during the next legislative meeting on Monday, Feb. 27, where it will require a majority vote to be passed.

The hearing came a week after the Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Dale initially proposed the plan during a legislative hearing on Feb. 6, but was postponed when shouting broke out between legislators, some of whom wanted more details.

“This plan has evolved over the past seven days since it was introduced to the legislature,” said Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker. “And we believe that input that we received from the community has made this a better plan.”

The plan would realign the command structure from eight precincts to four precincts, merging the first and seventh precincts, the second and eighth precincts, the third and sixth precincts, and the fourth and fifth precincts.

Under the realignment, the second, third, fourth and seventh precincts would remain, and the first, fifth, sixth and eighth would be converted into community policing centers.

“After a thorough evaluation of emergency calls for service, current staffing levels and other factors, the department has deemed that four precincts, as opposed to the current eight precincts, are necessary to effectively address public safety while meeting the needs of the department and the community at the same level that we’ve always had,” Dale said.

The plan would eliminate 148 administrative positions, 48 of which would be reassigned to special patrols working out of the newly created police centers, according to Dale. The other 100 positions would be eliminated through attrition, saving the county up to $20 million annually, said Dale. All 177 patrol cars would remain in their current posts.

According to Dale, the plan comes as a result of an extensive analysis of public and officer safety, the county’s 911 system, workload analysis, building conditions, geography and services. If approved by the full legislature, the realignment would commence in stages starting on March 15 and would be complete by September.

The realignment would not affect the current police dispatch system, said Dale, as all 911-calls would go to a call center in Westbury, where they would be transmitted to the appropriate patrol car.

The Nassau County Police headquarters, located in Mineola, would see an expansion of its Prisoner Processing Center, and would be converted into an Arrest Processing Center, in order to alleviate overcrowding in the newly merged precincts, said Dale.

The Public Safety Committee consists of seven legislators — Republicans Dennis Dunne Sr., the chairman of the committee, Norma Gonsalves, Denise Ford and Joesph Belisi, and Democrats Dave Denenberg, Wayne Wink and Joseph Scannell.

Like on Feb. 6, dissension existed between the Republican and Democratic legislators, the latter of which strongly opposed the realignment plan, citing that the reduction of precincts would compromise public safety. “[Nassau County police officers] put their lives on the line every single day for the people of Nassau County,” said Wink, representing the 11th District. “So your plan is a disgrace. We should do everything we can to support the police throughout the years. This realignment plan is completely unacceptable.”

“There is no way I would compromise public safety,” Gonsalves, who represents the 13th District, told the Herald on Tuesday. “This was a lengthy hearing. Everyone had the opportunity to ask questions and nobody wants to see any precincts close however, we are in a very dire fiscal situation.”

The 2012-2013 county budget, said Dale, allots $150 million less for labor than the prior year’s budget. “The fiscal crisis that is affecting Nassau County is also in turn affecting the police department,” he said.

Gonsalves said to raise this money the county could either enforce layoffs or raise taxes. She said the county would need to raises taxes by 19 percent, or about $300 per household, to raise $150 million. “We need to be more efficient and save money we don’t have to spend,” said Gonsalves. She added the 33 percent of taxes go to the police budget.

Scannell, a Baldwin resident who represents the 5th District, criticized the plan as just another cutback by County Executive Ed Mangano, a Republican from Bethpage. “Our job as a Legislature is to protect the public, not take an axe to it,” he said.

Denenberg, a Merrick resident who represents the 19th District, argued that the alleged $20 million in savings would total much less once the plan is implemented. “The independent budget review came up with $20 million at best, without even taking into account the cost of termination pay and the cost of the construction of all these policing centers,” he said. “Once you factor that in, there’s no savings at all. We’re not going to stand here while our quality of life and our public safety is compromised for no savings at all.”

“Nothing is cast in stone,” said Gonsalves. “We can still use the amendment process . . . and we will be looking for assessment reports.”