Increased police presence seen as answer to reduce speeding in Atlantic Beach

Atlantic Beach resident Joel Leef said he hardly ever sees police patrolling in the area and said he is accustom to seeing vehicles speed by his Park Street home which has a 30 mph speed limit.

“This is a terrible street,” Leef said of Park Street. “Cars speed by at 50 or 60 miles an hour and police are never here.”

Village of Atlantic Beach Mayor Stephen Mahler said for 15 years, he’s been complaining about traffic enforcement. In April and May, he was concerned when he saw that Nassau County police officers issued less than 20 summonses. “Last month (June) they gave out 87,” Mahler said. “If we complain, the next month they’ll be a lot more tickets given out but the following month it will be the same; nothingness.”

Mahler added that police officers should be issuing 65 to 70 summons a month. “It’s hard to strike a happy medium,” he said. “You do your best to regulate traffic and put up signs but we get no traffic enforcement on our local streets at all.”

On Park Street, according to Mahler, pedestrians are given 20 seconds to cross the street that he said is not enough time to get across. “Park Street is a dangerous street,” he said. “A lot of people need more time to cross which can cause accidents and fatalities.”

In November, Gloria Moreira was killed in Atlantic Beach when she tried to cross the road by a bus that was believed to be speeding at the intersection of Park Street and Vernon Avenue.

Richard Libby, an Atlantic Beach resident, said his experience with Fourth Precinct police officers has been positive. “They are very responsive and in many cases respond in under a minute,” he said.

To stop or reduce speeding motorists on Park Street, Libby said the solution is simple. “If they want to stop speeding, they need to control the lights by sequencing them,” he said. “They can make longer red lights and red lights on both sides of the street. It’s so easy to do but it never seems to get done.”

Last month, Mahler went meet with Commanding Officer Patrol Precincts North Deputy Chief James O’Leary to discuss a higher police presence in the Village due to the ‘inadequate’ response from the Fourth Precinct. “I left satisfied,” he said, adding that he hopes more police presence in the Atlantic Beach will come out of the meeting.

Fourth Precinct Deputy Commanding Officer Lorna Atmore said there are always officers patrolling Atlantic Beach and writing tickets. “To say there is no officer there to catch speeding motorists is not accurate,” she said. “Residents may only see them once a month, but they’re there.”