By Nyssa Francis and Nick Buglione
Philip Aievoli, captain of the Nassau County Police Auxiliary Unit 126 in East Meadow, is pushing to reinstate auxiliary police patrols of the schools, though the school district has not voiced support for the plan.
In the evenings and on weekends, residents complain that teenagers hang out on the secluded grounds of a number of East Meadow schools, where they often drink, smoke and vandalize property.
Aievoli worked as an auxiliary police officer in Uniondale when that school district was experiencing a similar problem. He said it was the auxiliary police's diligent patrols that curtailed the loitering. The auxiliary police act as the eyes and ears of the police force, patrolling communities in marked cars and radioing in disturbances.
"We had to go in there and keep chasing them out," Aievoli said. "It took a while, but they eventually got tired of us chasing them out."
Starting similar patrols in East Meadow might help, he said, but it would require the school district's OK, since officers would be venturing onto school property.
Though the assault at Parkway has many in the community alarmed, the school district has no current plans to allow the auxiliary patrols or increase security. School district officials suspect, though it has not been confirmed, that the Parkway incident was premeditated and thus unrelated to loitering.
"The level of vandalism [in East Meadow schools] is extremely low," said the district's director of facilities and operation, Joseph Barbera, who has experience in several different school districts. "Our security is working adequately."
Two cars, manned by private security guards, currently patrol East Meadow schools year-round. One watches all buildings north of Hempstead Turnpike, the other all buildings to the south. The security is supplemented by police patrols from the 1st and 3rd precincts.
According to Aievoli, the East Meadow auxiliary police once had a close partnership with the school district, patrolling school yards and keeping loiterers out. The auxiliary police, which in its heyday had some 40 volunteers but today has only six, even operated an office in McVey Elementary School.
In exchange for its services, the school district funded the auxiliary unit to the tune of $3,000 a year, Aievoli said. That funding was cut off in the early 1990s, however, and a few years later the auxiliary office in McVey was closed.
If the auxiliary police were to start patrolling local schools again, the financially strapped district would have to at least restore funding, Aievoli said. "We can't help the school district unless they help us somehow," he said.
Citing unfavorable past experiences with the auxiliary police, the school district is unlikely to rekindle its partnership with the unit, said East Meadow Assistant Superintendent Leon Campo. One of the problems was that officers failed to comply with demands that they patrol schools on a specific schedule, he said. "They patrol wherever they want to patrol," Campo said.
He also noted that the auxiliary police would not offer personal information about its members, such as driving records. "We have a responsibility to the community to know who they are," Campo said. "We are dealing with kids here."
If the school district were to spend more money on security, it would most likely invest it in private patrols rather than the auxiliary police, Campo said.
Robert Zafonte, president of the East Meadow Civic Association, believes the school district would be foolish not to use the auxiliary police's services. "I think we should utilize the services of the trained professionals and use that to eliminate problems at our schools," Zafonte said. "To me, it's a no-brainer that the school district should adopt this."
Meanwhile, a committee of civic leaders, parents, elected officials and students is working on opening an East Meadow youth center that could prove effective in the fight against loitering. "One thing East Meadow is lacking is a place for kids to go after school and on the weekends," said Laurie May, immediate past president of the East Meadow PTA Council, who is working on the project.
Student involvement has been encouraged in the youth center project so it will adequately cater to the needs of East Meadow youth, May said. "We want to give them ownership," she said. "We want the center to appeal to them." With funding and a prospective location still up in the air, though, it's not yet known when the center will be open.
While May remains enthusiastic that the youth center will provide adolescents an alternative to hanging out behind schools, she acknowledges that loitering could continue to be a problem after it opens.
