Nassau County Police Deputy Commissioner Thomas Krumpter offered members of the New Hyde Park civic associations reassurance last Wednesday that their community would be well protected following implementation of the county’s recently enacted precinct reorganization plan.
After introducing Krumpter at a civic associations meeting, Marianna Wohlgemuth, president of the Lakeville Estates Civic Association, asked Krumpter the question on the minds of many residents: “Will we still be safe?”
“We’re still safe,” Krumpter answered.
Under the reorganization plan, the 6th Precinct in Manhasset will be assigned the “community policing center” distinction and will have many of its duties covered by the 3rd Precinct in Williston Park.
The plan also calls for the 4th Precinct in Hewlett, the 7th Precinct in Seaford and the 2nd Precinct in Woodbury to remain fully operational, while the 5th Precinct in Elmont, the 1st Precinct in Baldwin and the 8th Precinct in Levittown will be designated as community policing centers.
Mangano said the reorganization plan, which was intended to help reduce the county’s’ deficit, would save up $12 million in 2012, and bring in $20 million during a full year of implementation.
Krumpter said the county faced “skyrocketing” pension costs and health coverage increases that had helped precipitate the county’s need to find ways to reduce overall operating costs.
“We’re trying to find a way to preserve public safety and save money. What this amounts to is an administrative realignment,” he said. “We had to make significant changes.”
A comparison of activities in the eight county police precincts prompted the decision to reduce administrative staff by replacing four precinct headquarters with community policing centers. He said the 2nd and 3rd precincts each currently have three detective sergeants and one detective lieutenant, but each supervisor in the 3rd precinct manages 1,900 cases annually while each supervisor in the 2nd precinct handles 250 cases.
“What we’ve done here is see what drives activity in the precincts,” he said.
Going forward, Krumpter said “core” detective functions will be handled by the four precincts, but two detectives would be on duty in the four community policing centers.
With the planned elimination of 156 existing administrative positions, the department will be adding 48 problem-oriented police officers in those policing centers. He said the average compensation for detective sergeants in the department is currently $237,000, including health and pension benefits.
On Wednesday morning, Krumpter said, the department had been notified that 103 officers – 25 percent of them senior officers – had opted to take early retirement packages that he said would results in a savings of $22 million.
Krumpter said the sophisticated intelligence techniques that have been developed in the department would enable it to keep functioning efficiently despite the drop in manpower.
“We are an intelligence-led police department,” he said, noting that the federal government frequently refers representatives of foreign governments to the Nassau County Police Department as a showcase in that regard.
He cited the details of one recent case in which a police officer ran 47,000 license plates through plate readers accessible in their vehicles to crack a burglary ring in Manhasset. A review of the 47,0000 license plates in what he called the department’s “huge data warehouse” to plates that led to identifying to three prime suspects.
“Within an hour, there’s actually a car that’s stopped by Floral Park police,” he recalled.
The police officer who stopped the car noticed items from a burglary committed the day before in the back seat and the suspects were ultimately charged with seven burglaries.
The department has a special unit of 12 intelligence analysts hired over the last year from agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, according to Krumpter. They are part of a staff of 22 people who apply specialized intelligence procedures to particular cases.
“We brought them on board to do things that are unbelievable,” Krumpter said.
As the number of officers on the force is reduced, Krumpter said there will be a “modest” increase in civilian personnel in the department.
He said after the issue of public safety, the things he “wrestles” with daily is overtime.
One resident complained that he had experienced a lack of response from the police department to panic alarms on recent occasions. Krumpter said the frequency of those alarms has prompted the police department to recast its response regimen to alarms.
“It’s such a flawed system, it has to be a prioritized system,” he said.
Asked about the first steps in the reorganization process, he said the 1st and 2nd precincts would be the first precincts to be reorganized under the county plan as of May 1.
