Less Cops, More Crime

The police have some numbers to back up the claim. Between Jan. 1 and June 6 of this year, violent crime spiked, with 20 percent more sex crimes, 23 percent more robberies and double the number of murders, compared to the same period a year ago. The figures include crimes reported in the Nassau County Police District and not in villages or cities with their own police departments.

"Crime has gone up 35 percent in the Five Towns alone," says Jeffrey Katz, a Republican challenging Democrat Jeffrey Toback for a legislative seat. "I have multiple neighbors who have experienced home invasions—been accosted getting out of their cars and assaulted in their homes. A man was attacked walking to synagogue on Sabbath morning just a few weeks ago. We've got a serious crime problem here."

To be sure, the PBA has no love for the current administration, and police unions nearly always complain that staffing levels are too low. Plus, such moves can save money for a county that is still struggling for financial health.

"I'm taking resources I have and using them how I think they will be most effective to service the people of the county," says Nassau County Police Commissioner James Lawrence. Lawrence says he consulted with police departments nationwide to come up with a set of "best practices" for Nassau, and that any allocation that turns out to be ineffective can be changed.

Yet some personnel decisions, combined with a certain creeping shabbiness—precinct houses are falling apart, the cruisers are clunkers and a few new recruits are even stuck with secondhand uniforms—are chipping away at morale.

And even as security forces were being cut, millions of dollars in police department funds went unused. Over the course of 2003 and 2004, some $41.5 million piled up in Nassau's law-enforcement piggy-banks, money that eventually wound its way into other county accounts—discretionary funds that the administration can tap for purposes other than public safety. It's not clear that low staffing does save money in the long run. What is saved in benefits may be eaten up by expensive overtime.

In September 2001, soon after becoming police commissioner, William Willett sent a memo to Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta, saying the department faced a crisis and requesting at least 250 new hires within the year. He also warned of the loss of experienced personnel and its effects on the department. In 1998, the law enforcement staff had consisted of 3,139 people. By 2001, when Willett penned his memo, the number was down to 2,795; today, it's closer to 2,500.

Pick a department, any department. Narcotics/vice, homicide, arson, they've all lost personnel. The gang unit has a czar, but still no rank-and-file officers. Astoundingly, even the Emergency Services Unit, first responders in the event of a terrorist attack, has about 30 fewer officers today than it did on 9/11, according to Gary DelaRaba, president of the PBA.

"They handle all hazardous materials, all bomb threats, anything terrorism-related, as well as serious rescue-related," says DelaRaba. "When cops need help, that's who they call." Those officers are highly trained and not easily replaced, he adds.

Meanwhile, the reduced ranks face increased workloads. Police received about 474,000 calls for service in 2002. Last year's figure was 26,000 higher, and in 2003, police received an astounding 67,000 more calls than the year before.

Just how all of this is affecting the general public is difficult to say. But what's worrisome is that it's not crime overall that has risen, but specifically violent crime.

On the evening of Friday, June 10, a man and his wife were in the bedroom of their home on Walnut Avenue in North Merrick. Suddenly, four men appeared, two armed with small handguns and two with large knives. The terrified family was forced into another room and bound with duct tape and rope, not knowing if they would be killed. Fortunately, they survived without injuries. The robbers, who had entered their home through a rear basement window, fled with cash and jewelry. There were 17 home break-ins in Nassau from January to June of this year, according to the robbery squad. That's more than double the number of break-ins for all of 2004.

The home invasion situation has gotten so bad that as recently as Sept. 1, Commissioner Lawrence issued a rare advisory, warning Nassau residents to take extra precautions at night: Lock all doors and windows; close drapes and blinds; make sure to set alarms; leave exterior lights on and consider keeping a television running, to give the impression an occupant is still awake.

Suozzi's anti-gang plans haven't amounted to much, either. In 2003, the county exec announced a gang task force. It never got off the ground and was eventually dissolved. Last year, he appointed a gang czar, but assigned him no personnel. Just two weeks ago, in what has all the markings of a pre-election public relations effort, the county executive again formed a gang task force. But the gang group displaced the unit which, among other duties, is responsible for the county's enhanced 911 emergency system. That team's desks line the hallways at police headquarters in Mineola.

"In the past, we went above and beyond with our service. No matter what the problem was, it would be resolved," says Lt. Gary Learned, president of the Nassau County Superior Officers Association, which represents cops with the rank of sergeant and higher. "Now we're willing to accept that a certain level of crime is just going to happen."

"For example, it used to be at the holidays that if you went to Roosevelt Field, you would see a lot of police cars," he goes on to explain. "Now they're busy on calls."

What's more, Nassau police have been prohibited—by a mandate handed down by the commissioner at the end of 2004—from investigating most cases of car- and credit card-theft.

"If a car worth $40,000 is stolen, a cop takes a report but no detective calls or follows up," says Det. Thomas Wildigg, president of the Nassau County Police Department Detectives Association, Inc., a union. "But if a victim loses a $40,000 watch, we'll call and investigate." A detective will only take up a stolen-vehicle case when the vehicle is recovered, Wildigg says, adding that reduced investigations "just open the door for insurance fraud in our county."

Lawrence says he's still considering whether to continue that rule. "When you manage an agency of this size, you do things and then you review them, and some things might even reverse themselves," he explains.

One problem Lawrence doesn't deny is the lack of training. Officers are no longer certified as emergency medical technicians, and their skills as first responders aren't being updated. There's no ongoing training to address terrorism either, says DelaRaba, adding that the police officers' union was forced to file a grievance in 2004 so that officers would get firearms training annually.

"As of September 2004, only 60 percent of our department has been trained," he says. The commissioner admits that training is one of the issues he is trying to grapple with.

"We're working on solutions," Lawrence says.

The commissioner also remains optimistic that personnel numbers will rise again. He says the Nassau police department plans to hire 150 recruits this fall, although there haven't been any official announcements yet. But DelaRaba warns that about one-third of the patrol force and nearly half of the supervisors and detectives are eligible for retirement next year. With morale at an all-time low, according to union officials, retirement may tempt many.

Staff cuts aren't the only thing sapping police morale. Many cops are complaining that head honchos are sucking up more police resources than in the past. Since taking office in 2001, for example, Suozzi has transferred four police employees, including one advanced medical technician, to his offices in Mineola. Spokespersons from Suozzi's office and the police department were unable to explain why a medically trained employee is needed full-time at One West Street instead of, say, on a county ambulance.

Then there's the patrol car "situation." Suozzi, while campaigning in 2001, criticized his predecessor for having around-the-clock drivers, and assured the public he wouldn't do the same. But the county executive apparently changed his mind once he assumed office: Now several members of the police department are assigned to drive him, police sources say. Suozzi would not comment for this story.

Cars represent a sore spot also because cops are patrolling in high-mileage clunkers held together with "gum and silly putty," as one officer puts it. While county officials cruise around in late-model sedans and SUVs, precincts are making do with an aging fleet. Roughly a third of police cars were more than 10 years old in 2004. And those cars live hard: They're used 24/7.

To see how this plays out, consider the 6th Precinct, which is based in Manhasset and covers the northwest corner of the county. A source inside the detective squad explains that normally the squad has at least four cars, but at the 6th, two have been out of service for mechanical reasons for six months, and another has been out of service since late July, leaving the squad with only one full-time vehicle. Police sources say it has 96,000 miles on it.

Yet Suozzi, on taking office, took a brand new car. (Gulotta had a 1989 model with more than 150,000 miles.) Then Suozzi got a 2003 Ford Crown Victoria, but traded it in after just 35,000 miles for a 2005 model, on which he demanded tinted windows. Chief Deputy County Executive Anthony Cancellieri received a new Jeep Grand Cherokee last year. Both that car and Suozzi's are fully equipped police vehicles.

Twelve other unmarked, fully equipped police cars are assigned to civilian officials as well, including two deputy county executives, two county attorneys, the comptroller and the consumer affairs commissioner.

"We can't see how the chairman of the Conservative Party [Commissioner of Consumer Affairs Roger Bogsted] has a great need to have lights and sirens on his car, especially when there have been problems with unmarked cars and the public not knowing who the real police are," says DelaRaba. Bogsted says he uses the car for "code enforcement" and that his agency reimburses the police department for its use.

To cops, however, the whole thing smacks of a cronyism they believe is rampant in the administration. Take Denis Monette, whom Suozzi appointed assistant police commissioner in July 2003. A former Nassau police department detective, Monette retired in 1991 and filed for a tax-free disability pension. He joined Suozzi's campaign in 2000 and took on the role of volunteer for $1 a year shortly after Suozzi won the race for county executive. Sources within the administration verify that in 2002, Monette was appointed head of a newly created public safety department and his salary got bumped up substantially—to $61,700 (the maximum allowed, given his disability pay). Public safety then merged with the police department and Monette was appointed assistant police commissioner.

"Having him anywhere near the upper echelon of the police-department ranks is demoralizing and makes a laughingstock of the entire police administration," says DelaRaba. "He has no qualifications, and everyone in the police department knows it."

In the 2003 police budget, Suozzi added a new item—the retirement contingency fund—to which he allocated more than $38 million. That money was intended to cover planned-for retirements and pensions, but wasn't spent. Sources within the county confirm that the following year, more officers than expected decided to retire, lowering the contingency fund to $31.5 million. That money was then transferred to an accrued leave reserve, which the administration can tap at its convenience—without approval from the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, an agency established in June 2000 to oversee the faltering county's finances. The police headquarters fund accrued a $10 million surplus over 2003 and 2004, which was eventually transferred to the county's general fund, where its use is unrestricted.

And even police funds are being saved rather than spent on new hires or equipment. An additional $9,740,000 surplus that has accumulated in the Police District Fund remains earmarked for law enforcement and could be used to hire new personnel, but isn't.

Yet even as these surplus funds are moved around, officers' attire speaks of austerity. Suffolk County officers received honorable mention in a national uniform competition just a few months ago, earning the title of Second-Best-Dressed County Agency. Yet some of Nassau's finest are wearing hand-me-downs from other officers, according to the union.

"The recruits had uniforms that didn't fit and were torn. They wore long-sleeved shirts and were told if they wanted short sleeves to cut them," DelaRaba says with disgust. "It's my understanding that even if you go to work at McDonald's, they give you a new uniform."