Top cops reveal police plan details

The County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee approved the Police Department’s revamped Police Precinct Efficiency Initiative along party lines, 4-3, at a public hearing on 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 Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Dale initially proposed the plan during a legislative hearing on Feb. 6, but the hearing 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, merging the 1st and 7th precincts, the 2nd and 8th precincts, the 3rd and 6th precincts, and the 4th and 5th precincts.

Under the realignment, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th precincts would remain, and the 1st, 5th, 6th and 8th would be converted into 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 $20 million annually, he said. 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 March and take eight months to implement.