Announcing The New Community Policing Plan for Nassau
Dear Neighbor,
Today I released a new Community Policing Plan for Nassau County that keeps all 177 patrol cars in their current neighborhoods while protecting your wallet from nearly $20 million in higher taxes.
My plan, developed in collaboration with Police Commissioner Thomas Dale, reassigns 48 police officers from desk jobs to community policing jobs - known as POP cops/special patrols - and transforms four current police precinct buildings into new Community Policing Centers.
Keeping residents safe is my number one priority!
My plan eliminates over 100 administrative desk jobs and slashes costly built-in overtime benefits for workers. The plan modernizesNassau’s 1970’s eight precinct-building plan to account for the last 40 years of technologicalenhancements that have reduced theadministrative workload throughout the department. The plan is necessary as it corrects imbalances in the current workload, as three police precincts presently perform twice the workload of the remaining five precincts.
Over the past 6 months, the Nassau County Police Department hasanalyzed the distribution of workload within the department with the goal of addressing contemporary crime trends. This analysis also included identifying the reasons residents visit precinct buildings. Research indicates that residents, not subject to arrest, seldom visit precinct buildings. The common instance for visiting a precinct building is to obtain a traffic accident report. Accordingly, the department will make accident reports available on the Internet to assist residents, as well as at precincts and Community Policing Centers.
Police Commissioner Dale said it best when he stated, “Nassau County police officers change shift at their post and not at the station houses 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.”
Technological enhancements have truly helped make law enforcement response more efficient and effective in fighting crime. Patrol cars have become mobile precincts as they are presently equipped with computers, Shotspotter* and the REAL Time Intel System.** Officers receive briefings in their vehicles and input intelligence and key information right from their own patrol vehicle.
In the coming weeks, the Police Department and I will host public meetings to further discuss this plan. In the meantime, here are the facts about Nassau’s New Community Policing Plan:
Redistributes administrative workloadmore evenly among four new police precincts.
Transforms four current precincts into four new Community Policing Centers.
Assigns 48 more police officers to Problem Oriented Police (POP) positions and special patrols.
Maintains all 177 patrol cars in their current neighborhoods.
Saves taxpayers up to $20 million annuallyby eliminating 100 desk jobs.
Provides residents with the abilityto access traffic accident reports on the internet, at precincts and Community Policing Centers.
I am proud to report that since taking office, major crime is down over 11%. I expect our police officers to continue their excellent work, keeping our County the safest large municipality in the nation.
Please know that I will continue to seek ways to improve our ability to fight crime while working to protect your wallet. Should you have any further questions about this plan, please contact my office at 516-MANGANO (516-626-4266) or by downloading the “Nassau Now” Mobile and Web Application for your iPhone or iPad.
Sincerely,
Edward P. Mangano
County Executive
*Shotspotterprovides police officers with a GPS real-time (5-7 second) location of gun shots fired within certain communities. This technology has resulted in faster response times from police officers who now have links to the system in their cars. Gunshots fired in the Roosevelt-Uniondale area have dropped significantly, in large part due to the placement of ShotSpotter devices in patrol cars.
**REAL Time Intel System provides police officers with maps, crime data, pawn information, DWI stats, firearms, intelligence bulletins (including Homeland Security intelligence), gang databases and much more, right in their patrol car.
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