Vote to close precincts passes, 10-9

In a contentious meeting on Monday, the Nassau County Legislature voted 10 to 9 along party lines to implement a new Community Policing Plan, in which four of the county’s eight police precincts will be closed over the next seven months and replaced with “community policing centers.”

According to County Police Commissioner Thomas Dale, whose appointment was approved at the meeting, the first precinct to close will be the 8th Precinct, a month from now. One precinct will be turned into community policing centers every two months following the first closure.

Under the plan, which is also known as the Police Precinct Efficiency Initiative, the new centers would not handle any administrative paperwork or criminal processing, and would see a reduction in the number of police operating out of them from an average of 39 officers to just two.

 Mangano has said that the plan will move 48 officers from desk jobs into Problem Oriented Police units and special patrols, allowing for more officers on the streets.

The plan will likely merge the 8th Precinct in Wantagh with the 2nd in Woodbury, the 6th in Manhasset with the 3rd in Williston Park, the 5th in Elmont with the 4th in Hewlett and the 1st in Baldwin with the 7th in Seaford.

The vote had originally been scheduled for Feb. 27, but was postponed while County Executive Mangano negotiated with the police unions in an effort to make the plan more acceptable. The negotiations continued even as the legislators voted on the plan, and though the Democratic minority leader, Kevan Abrahams, who represents the 1st District, made a motion to table the vote in order to allow the negotiations to continue, the motion failed.

All 10 of the Republicans in the Legislature’s majority voted for the plan, and all nine Democrats voted against it.

The Democrats made it clear that one of the main reasons they opposed it is because the details of the plan have not yet been finalized.

More than 100 concerned residents, police officers and political officials attended the meeting to make their opinions on the plan known.

Both Milagros Vicente, a resident of Valley Stream, and Sue Auriemma, a resident of Manhasset, presented petitions to stop the plan, with 2,500 signatures and 5,244 signatures, respectively.

“The residents are saying, ‘Do not pass this.’ Don’t vote by party lines,” Vicente said. “Don’t do a disservice to the residents… that voted for you.”

While many community members were given a chance to speak, many called out in frustration when it became clear that the plan would pass, with some shouting out, “shame,” and others, “just vote no.” While Legislator Francis Becker, Jr., representing the 6th district, explained his vote, a member of the audience said “Time’s up,” repeatedly while he rang a bell, which earlier in the meeting was used to signal a resident was out of time to speak.

According to Jim Carver, president of the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association, the plan will drastically cut the number of officers in the precincts being closed — the 1st, 5th, 6th and 8th — and will result in unacceptable delays in the time it takes to respond to and investigate crimes. Carver asked the legislators to allow more time for the negotiations to work.

“We’ve had talks with the county executive to try to alleviate the concerns for public safety,” Carver said. “We’ve talked for a week and we made a lot of strides. We’re almost there, and to take a vote now is premature, in my opinion.”