The two police departments with the highest average pay in the state of New York are both on the North Shore.
Police officers in the Great Neck village of Kings Point averaged $223,995 in salary this year, followed closely by the Village Old Westbury with an average of $211,033, according to a recent report from the Empire Center for Public Policy.
The two village departments were the only two departments in the state — including cities, towns, counties and other villages — with an average pay over $200,000.
Village police departments, with their smaller staffs (Kings Point has 19 employees, Old Westbury has 26), tend to have higher payrolls than the larger county and city departments.
Another North Shore village, Lake Success, cracked the top five for pay in New York villages with an average salary of $172,234.
Average pay for the Kings Point police was up about $3,000 from last year, according to the report, but Old Westbury jumped up by more than $40,000 and moved from the fifth-highest pay to second highest.
Efforts to reach the Old Westbury Police Department were unavailing.
At the county level, Nassau had the third highest average pay in New York at $136,951, behind Suffolk ($162,265) and Westchester ($149,0250).
Average pay in Nassau was actually down about $13,000 from last year, dropping the county behind Westchester.
Of the top 50 highest paid county or municipal employees in New York, only three were not members of a police or a fire department.
Two officers with the Town of Ramapo Police Department, located on the New Jersey border in Rockland County, held the top two spots, followed by the police chief for Glen Cove.
Thomas O’Shea of the Old Westbury Police Department was the fourth-highest paid county or municipal employee in the state with a salary of $312,152. He was followed by Steven Bobrik of the Kings Point Police, who took home $310,375.
Other village officers in the top 50 included Ronald Scorzelli ($306,723) and Joseph Miloscia ($275,323) of the Old Westbury Police, Sean De Pasquale ($286,319) of Kings Point Police, and Richard Lertora ($266,089) of the Sands Point Police in Port Washington.
Of that top 50, 14 were members of the Nassau County Police Department, led by Lt. Thomas Karp with $308,113, the sixth-highest total in the state.
For non-uniformed employees of North Shore villages, Sands Point once again led the way with an average salary of $97,468 for its 12 employees. That is more than double the statewide average of $40,162 and the highest of any village in the state. It was also an $8,000 increase from 2017, according to the report.
Sands Point was followed by Thomaston, which paid its four employees an average salary of $86,894. Among North Shore villages, those two were followed by Kings Point ($79,158) and Old Westbury ($68,698), which had the fifth and eighth highest average salaries among Long Island villages, respectively. Average salaries in Kings Point actually dropped from $85,907 last year.
A majority of Long Island villages paid above the statewide average.
Only 10 North Shore villages — Kensington, Port Washington North, Roslyn Harbor, New Hyde Park, Floral Park, Saddle Rock and East Willison — paid an average salary less than $40,000. East Williston was the lowest at $25,594, ranking 77th of 86 Long Island villages.
Non-uniformed employees of Nassau County had an average salary of $71,465, about $3,000 more than Suffolk but only half of the average pay for a Nassau police officer.
Reach reporter Luke Torrance by email at ltorrance@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516-307-1045, ext. 214, or follow him on Twitter @LukeATorrance
