Town of North Hempstead officials, Manhasset civics and the mayor of East Hills have joined a growing call to reverse the merger of the Sixth Precinct in Manhasset with the Third Precinct in Williston Park, citing a reduction in policing in the old Sixth Precinct.
It is hard to find any reason not to.
When he presented his plan to merge the county’s eight police precincts into four in 2012, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano predicted a savings of $20 million with no impact on crime.
But a county legislative budget analysis said the police department’s rising overtime costs had negated any savings.
Acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter disputed the budget analysis.
But after the county decided to reverse the merger of the Fifth Precinct in Elmont with the Fourth in Hewlett in November 2014, followed later that month by the decision to cancel plans to merge the First Precinct in Baldwin with the Seventh Precinct in Seaford, Krumpter was quoted in Newsday saying the change would be “cost-neutral.”
So merging the Levittown-based Eighth Precinct with the Second Precinct in Woodbury and the Sixth Precinct in Manhasset with the Third Precinct in Williston Park saves money, but the merger of the other two precincts don’t?
Not very likely.
The impact on crime is a little less clear, but still argues for returning the Sixth Precinct, which was designated a community police center, to a full operational precinct.
Krumpter said crime in the county is down 25 percent over the past five years and down 6 percent year-to-date.
But those numbers include the two precincts that were never merged and the two precincts in which the consolidation was reversed.
The numbers also do not hold true for the Third Precinct.
Crime rose 7.9 percent in the newly formed Third Precinct in 2012, dropped in 2013 and 2014 and then increased 2.2 percent in 2015, though still below 2011’s total.
Richard Bentley, the president of the Council of Manhasset Civic Associations, said the elimination of the Manhasset precinct has “dramatically affected” the police coverage of crime, safety and quality-of-life issues.
Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth, who as a county legislator joined her fellow Democrats in opposing the consolidation, said the county has failed to keep its word in maintaining staffing levels in the north at a time of heightened concerns about terrorism.
This, she said, in a precinct, that extends from Manorhaven in Port Washington to Nassau County Medical Center on Hempstead and includes Roosevelt Field Mall.
Bosworth predicted in 2012 that the merged precincts would be “stretched so thin that the current level of personalized service will be compromised.”
Time has proved her right.
In responding to questions about the county’s reversal of the merger of the Fifth Precinct in Elmont with the Fourth in Hewlett, and the decision to cancel plans to merge the First Precinct in Baldwin, Krumpter said: “That’s how government works; it’s give and take.”
We think as far as the merged Third and Sixth precincts are concerned it’s time for the county to give.
