Protesting county's precinct plan

Dozens of residents and several county legislators rallied last week outside the 5th Precinct in Elmont, protesting County Executive Ed Mangano’s plan to transform four of the county’s eight police precincts — including the 5th, which covers West Hempstead and Lakeview — into “community policing centers.”

The proposal, announced Jan. 30, which Mangano said would save the county $20 million per year, differs dramatically from Mangano’s original plan, proposed last October, to close two precincts and realign the boundaries of the remaining six. Under the most recent proposal, the 4th and 5th precincts would be combined and the existing 5th Precinct headquarters would no longer handle administrative paperwork or criminal processing, though officers would remain on duty at all times.

The 1st Precinct, in Baldwin, the 6th, in Manhasset, and the 8th, in Levittown, would also become community policing centers. The 2nd Precinct, in Woodbury, the 3rd, in Williston Park, the 4th, in Hewlett, and the 7th, in Seaford, would remain normal precincts.

If passed by the County Legislature, the plan would be the county’s first realignment of precinct buildings in more than 40 years.

Due to county staffing changes and layoffs in 2011, POP units — essentially community-affairs units — were reduced, their officers reassigned to other units or special patrols. Residents reacted to the changes with outrage, saying that POP units are tremendous assets to communities like West Hempstead, where officers know community leaders by name.

The new plan is expected to restore some of the POP units: It would reassign 48 officers from desk jobs to those units and to special patrols. The proposal would also eliminate more than 100 civilian desk jobs and cut overtime benefits.

“This plan saves taxpayers significant dollars while streamlining duplicative work, redistributing workload and assigning more officers to POP and special patrol,” said county Police Commissioner Thomas Dale. “Nassau County police officers change shift at their post and not at the station house like you see in the movies. Residents should know that response time will not be impacted, as police officers will remain in their current neighborhoods and additional officers will be assigned to our neighborhoods.”

Viberta Caesar, president of the Lakeview Community Council, said she is skeptical of the new proposal. Caesar has led a community mission to reduce crime in Lakeview, and with the help of 5th Precinct POP officers — particularly Sgt. Ed Grim — she has been successful. Grim is in constant communication with Caesar and other Lakeview and West Hempstead community leaders, to whom his officers regularly provide crime statistics reports and analyses. Changes that would in any way limit Grim’s resources would likely have a detrimental effect on not only the local community, but the county, according to Caesar.

“It’s like a domino effect,” she said. “If they get rid of the police precincts, will they get rid of these [POP Unit] programs as well? And if they get rid of these programs, does that mean that the attention that each neighborhood is given gets eliminated? If that’s eliminated, then does that mean that areas like Parkside go back to being a ‘ghetto?’” she added, referring to a small rundown shopping center on Woodfield Road.

If slowly improving problem areas return to neglected or crime-ridden conditions, they could destroy entire communities, Caesar said. “Then people move out of the neighborhood, and the neighborhood looks abandoned,” she said. “Now the value of the neighborhood has gone down because nobody wants to buy into it.”

Rosalie Norton, president of the West Hempstead Community Support Association and a vocal supporter of POP units, asked her fellow residents to give the plan a chance. “Overall, I have seen nothing that would lead me to believe that we would have a diminution in the type of services provided to the community,” she said. “The POP unit certainly will take care of a lot of concerns in the immediate areas of the existing precincts.”

Norton said that although she wants to see more details before offering Mangano’s proposal her full support, she is optimistic about it.

A balancing act
According to Mangano’s office, the plan would correct an imbalance in workload, since three of the precincts currently have twice the work of the other five. The NCPD analyzed the distribution over the past six months, and found that the most common reason for visiting a precinct building is to obtain a traffic accident report and that residents not subject to arrest do not normally visit the buildings.

Mangano said that under the plan, traffic accident reports would be available online, at precincts and at community policing centers. He added that high-tech police vehicles are capable of many of the functions of a precinct house.

Members of the county’s Police Benevolent Association — which coordinated the Jan. 31 rally — argued that station houses are essential to residents. According to the PBA, more than 3,000 1st Precinct cases in 2010 resulted from reports filed in the station house. Nearly 3,000 arrests are made in the 5th Precinct each year.

“What they’re missing in all of this is that when you close a precinct, you go under the assumption that no one goes to the precinct other than to pick up accident reports,” PBA Treasurer Wayne Hartmann said. He added that in many cases, such as domestic violence or family-related incidents, victims do not call officers to their homes. Additionally, Hartmann said, residents take comfort in simply having a precinct building nearby — they view it as a safe haven.

“They may want to report seeing drug deals, they may think that their child is involved in drugs or they have a domestic incident, and there are always incidents where an officer at a station house could get involved,” Hartmann said. “There is always a reason to make a trek to the station house ... And many [precinct-made reports] lead to arrests.”

If the proposal passes, he added, many residents who are unaware of the change would still go to the precinct for help, and face a difficult reality — that the officers there couldn’t help them, and they would have to travel to the 4th Precinct to file a report.

“When you start taking away the symbol of what a safe neighborhood is,” PBA President James Carver said at the rally, “you’re showing everyone that you’ve given up.”

Safety vs. savings
Legislator Carrié Solages (D-Elmont), who helped organize the rally — along with county Democrats Joseph Scannell, Wayne Wink Jr., Dave Denenberg and Kevan Abrahams — said that Mangano’s plan threatens the integrity of the county’s police force, and would likely negatively affect crime rates.

Solages said he doesn’t believe that 5th Precinct residents would remain equally protected under the plan. “It’s not physically possible to divert police to another precinct that’s [miles] away and have the same level of police protection,” he said, adding that he is skeptical of the plan’s money-saving promises. “If one 911 call is answered 20 minutes late, then it’s not worth $20 million.”

Other protesters shared Solages’s sentiments, saying that it is difficult to believe the county’s promises when the previous administration made a promise not to close the 5th Precinct, and that the county’s money-saving efforts have fallen short in the past. “Mangano is saying we’re going to save $20 million, and we’re saying, ‘How do we know that?’” said Mike Florio, communications director for the Nassau County Democratic Committee. “We really shouldn’t be playing games with our policing right now. Crime is on the rise, the economy is in bad shape, burglaries are up, home invasions are up. People are starting to see what’s going on, and people are saying, ‘What’s going on here? What are we going to do about this?’”

Even if the proposal doesn’t save $20 million, it will save something, which is better than nothing, according to Norton. “Would I rather see a building close, and all the personnel that are there patrolling and keeping us safe remain the same, or do we have to increase the taxes?” she said.

Hempstead Town Councilman Ed Ambrosino (R-North Valley Stream) said he supports Mangano’s plan because it would eliminate duplicative personnel, put administrative services in the hands of one police officer instead of four and put more officers on the street. “Community policing centers will result in better and more efficient policing,” Ambrosino said. “…All communities within the 5th Precinct will receive better police protection and services, especially with the increase in POP officers.”

Florio said that several hearings focusing on the precinct changes are expected to be held in the coming weeks. Although none have yet been scheduled, residents can voice their opinions during the Legislature’s general hearings on Mondays.

“Unless there is public outcry on this, it’s going to go through,” Florio said, explaining that since the County Legislature has a 10-9 Republican majority, the plan will likely pass.

If it does, the station house closures would be gradual, and “if things aren’t going to work out with the first one that closes, or there are adjustments that need to be made,” Norton said, “they’ll be made with that first precinct.”

Aaron Axelson contributed to this story.