Democratic county Legislator Laura Curran, a candidate for county executive, told the leaders of the Council of Greater Manhasset Civic Associations on Wednesday that she supports reopening the Police Department’s 6th Precinct.
“I totally think this should happen,” she said. “It wouldn’t even take a lot of money.”
“I’ve talked to police who support this,” she added, noting that some of those police were high-ranking officials.
The 6th Precinct, located in Manhasset, merged with the 3rd Precinct in Williston Park in 2012 under a countywide cost-saving plan proposed by County Executive Edward Mangano and passed in a party-line vote by Republican legislators.
The 3rd Precinct was then split into two divisions — the 3rd South Subdivision, which covers New Hyde Park, Roslyn Heights, East Williston and Mineola as well as the 3rd North Subdivision, which covers Manhasset, Great Neck and parts of Port Washington.
The Levittown-based 8th Precinct also merged with the 2nd Precinct in Woodbury.
In October 2014, county officials reversed the prior merger of the 5th Precinct in Elmont and the 4th precinct in Hewlett.
About one week later, the county canceled plans to merge the 1st Precinct in Baldwin and the 7th Precinct in Seaford.
Thomas Krumpter, the acting police commissioner, told Newsday the reversal of half of the consolidation plans would be “cost-neutral.”
“We don’t think we’re getting the attention and services we need,” said Richard Bentley, the president of the Council of Greater Manhasset Civic Associations.
Bentley and the group’s secretary Susan Auriemma said the quality of enforcement in Manhasset has declined since the merger, and the promised fiscal benefits have not been realized.
“Nobody has ever seen those cost savings,” Bentley said in January. “On the contrary, what we see is police overtime having gone through the roof.”
Auriemma said in January the Nassau County police have assured the Council of Greater Manhasset Civic Associations that the number of daily police patrols has not waned since the merger. But Auriemma questioned the effectiveness of such patrols.
Curran said on Wednesday the reopening of precincts like the 6th would bring “a local, granular focus” to policing.
The statements came as part of a question and answer session held with the Curran at the Council of Greater Civic Associations’ monthly meeting.
Curran also vowed to introduce a bill mandating two-term limits for the county executive and six-term limits for county legislators.
“We have a dearth of trust between politicians and the people who live here,” she said. “We need to rebuild that trust.”
Besides Curran, two other Democratic county executive candidates have entered the race: state Assemblyman Charles Lavine and current Comptroller George Maragos, a former Republican who changed parties in September.
Curran received the endorsement of the Nassau County Democratic Committee on Jan. 30.
Asked about prospective candidates from the opposition party, she said, “The Republicans don’t know what they’re doing.”
