Lakeview split on ShotSpotter proposal

A gunshot location system could be coming to Lakeview and not everyone is happy about it.

The Nassau County Police Department is considering placing the ShotSpotter Gunshot Location System in the small community in response to a recent uptick in crime there, but some area residents believe it will cause more harm than good, creating a stigma that Lakeview is a crime-ridden community.

During a forum held last week by the NAACP Lakeview Branch, the county’s Second Deputy Commissioner William Flanagan joined a number of elected officials and local leaders to discuss the benefits of ShotSpotter as a tool to aid police and a potential deterrent to gun violence.

“This is about a investment in a good community where people are concerned with their children’s safety,” Flanagan told the small audience gathered last Thursday night in the Howard T. Herber Middle School auditorium. “This is about taking care of good people in good places.”

Lakeview, Flanagan repeatedly emphasized, is a safe community. But, he noted, incidents of gun use there are high when compared with levels of gun use in the surrounding communities of Malverne and Rockville Centre, each of which have their own police departments. Even a “minimal level of firearms-related violence there is frankly unacceptable,” Flanagan said. “I don’t know how anyone can say that some level of gun violence is acceptable in a community as good as [Lakeview].”

It’s not, according to NAACP Lakeview Branch President Bea Bayley, who supports bringing the ShotSpotter system into the community.

“It’s a good thing for Lakeview,” Bayley said, citing statistics of ShotSpotter success and its accuracy in locating shooters. “I truly believe it’s a deterrent,” she added. The system, which picks up the sound of a gunshot and transmits its location to police with seven seconds from the time shots ares fired, could help police combat the rise in crime Lakeview has experienced throughout the last three years, and prevent it from becoming a high-crime neighborhood, according to Bayley.

According to the 22-year Lakeview resident, the uptick in crime results primarily from the rise the community has seen in renters, group homes and transient families. “We’re easy prey here [for outsiders],” Bailey said. “We’re so used to being trusting here that we don’t even know until we’re being robbed.”

This year alone, there have been 21 robberies in Lakeview, compared with 17 in 2009 and 13 in 2008. Six of the 21 robberies involved a gun. Of the nine assaults that occurred in Lakeview in 2010, five were shooting incidents; none of 2009’s seven assaults involved guns.

One person was killed over the summer after a gunman opened fired at a birthday party on Locust Court. Celebration turned to sorrow on June 12 when 25-year-old Hempstead resident Bryan Coardes was shot to death and two others, ages 17 and 27, were wounded during the sudden shooting. The police have not yet located any suspects.

It appears many shootings occur at house parties, which draw outsiders to the community, according to Flanagan, who added that having ShotSpotter in place would improve police response time in the event of a shooting. More importantly, he said, it would notify police that shots have been fired — something that happens too late, if at all, in communities that have adversarial relationships with the police.

“People are afraid to dial nine-one-one,” Bayley said. “Historically, the black community and the police force are adversaries. But we don’t have to be: we can work together.”

That attitude seems to be working in Uniondale and Roosevelt, where the police department placed the ShotSpotter system in July, and across the country. According to the department, ShotSpotter is the world leader in gunshot location systems for public safety, homeland security and the military. In some cities where it is deployed, the information provided by the system has reportedly helped reduce gunfire rates by 60 to 80 percent and violent crimes by 40 percent.

The county used several hundred thousand dollars in asset forfeiture funds to pay for the ShotSpotter system.

County Legislator Robert Troiano, who co-hosted last week’s community forum, said he supports the police department’s attempt to be proactive. But, he added, he’s just there to bridge communication between the community and the cops.

“My role is just to bring information to the community,” Troiano said, “People need to make informed decisions.”

The legislator, whose district includes Lakeview and parts of West Hempstead, believes ShotSpotter to be a useful tool that provides intelligence, improves response time and prevents a greater uptick in crime. But he said he understands why members of the community are reluctant to accept it.

“It’s their belief that installing ShotSpotter will create a perception that Lakeview is a high-crime area, which is not the intent at all,” he said. “The intent is to nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem.”

Bayley agreed that ShotSpotter would serve that purpose, and she believes the majority of community residents — even those concerned about the effect of the system on home values — recognize that potential as well.

“Naysayers are not giving us any solutions,” Bayley said. “How could it possibly hurt our home values if it’s keeping people from shooting guns?”

Additionally, Bayley said, ShotSpotter will allow the police to come into the community and proactively handle crime — something they cannot do without the community’s help. The current “no snitch mentality” has prevented the community from working with the police, and it’s time to change that, Bayley said.

It’s a starting point, according to Flanagan. “This is not a panacea,” he said. “This is an integrated effort to reduce violence related to firearms. The technology is one piece of the pie.”

Flanagan, Bayley and Troiano said they will continue doing community outreach and working with local leaders and clergy members to disseminate information and educate the public about ShotSpotter.

“This is, to me, a proactive measure that represents an investment in the community,” Troiano said. “If it were my community, I would want to have it.”