Nassau County Welcomes Return Of 2 Police Precincts
NASSAU COUNTY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - After having been closed for seven years, multiple community rallies and a push by Nassau law enforcement lead to two police precincts reopening on Wednesday.
"Welcome home, we are almost home," said Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder. "We are almost there, bringing back the police department from where it is, like a family that got split up."
The split came in 2012 with the controversial consolidation and closing of two Nassau police precincts to save money, reports CBS2's Jennifer McLogan.
That just changed with a $2.2 million deal between County Executive Laura Curran and legislators to reopen the 6th Precinct in Manhasset and 8th Precinct in Levittown.
The 8th is now a state of the art facility, while the 6th is a modular unit in use while the building on Community Drive is renovated.
Both are reopening without detective squads.
"We don't have enough detectives to fully staff the 6th or 8th precincts," said Detectives Association President John Wighaus, noting they are 48 detectives short – and concerned about public safety.
Fixing that gap in the two reopened precincts will mean increasing detective pay significantly in the new contracts the county executive and unions must negotiate.
Statistics show while the precincts were closed, crime here dropped 31 percent.
"In terms of staffing, in terms of funding, the amount of officers out of both precincts remains the same," said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. "That never changed, even during consolidation."
"We didn't lose any ground on crime fighting," said Ryder. "That is thanks to the good work of the men and women of the police department, but what we did lose was that community relationship,"
Residents are looking forward to the return of the precincts.
"Definitely a good idea," said Jani Jaatinen. "I think good relationship with local officers and them knowing the people on the streets."
"It's tough to spend taxpayer dollars on something that doesn't seem to be an issue," said Mark Koslovsky.
"I don't think it made sense to reopen them when crime was going down," said Raquel Friedman.
