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Legislators force cop infusion
Override veto to hire 200 police in 2010, causing tax increase
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Suffolk lawmakers voted 16 to 1 with one abstention Tuesday to override a county executive budget veto on law enforcement hiring.
The Legislature had added the hiring of two new police classes, totalling 200 cops, into Executive Steve Levy's 2010 spending proposal. To fund the new recruits, the county will raise the police fund property tax by about 3 percent, an expense that a bipartisan group of 13 lawmakers Tuesday said is warranted by an increase in crime and public demand for greater protection.
While the county sees around 80 police officers retire each year, the last time the force was replenished was a 2007 police class that netted 53 recruits, according to Presiding Office Bill Lindsay (D-Holbrook). The Suffolk police department is at its lowest level of uniformed personnel in 16 years, according to Budget Review Office tracking.
Meanwhile, in the past year, violent crime in Suffolk has increased by 4.7 percent overall, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. The numbers of robberies have increased by 8.2 percent — with those that are firearm related up by 5 percent — and aggravated assault cases have grown by 6.6 percent, cited county lawmakers off the state report.
Many jurisdictions in New York have not experienced a similar rise in crime since last fall; Nassau, for example, has witnessed a 2.6 percent dip in violent offenses, according to the state. While they could not say for certain whether Suffolk's crime increase can be directly traced to its diminished police force, the figures indicate that the county's situation was a result of local factors, not simply the universal rise in crime associated with economic downturns, the legislators suggested.
"Some of our communities are absolutely under siege from gangs, from an epidemic of heroin," said Lindsay. "We feel we need more police officers on the street."
The lawmakers emphasized that the 2010 cop hiring was simply to backfill vacancies, an influx that would have likely eventually been necessary even without a spike in crime. The current emphasis on moving more of the diminished number of uniformed officers to street patrol robs specialized investigative units, according to Republican Minority Leader Dan Losquadro (R-Shoreham). "I don't know what that minimum staffing [level] is, but I know we're below it," he said.
To deny a recent increase in crime, particularly heroin and other drug trafficking, and say heightened law enforcement is unnecessary is "to put one's head in the sand," said Legislator John Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset). "The public tells us they want to be safe," he added.
In contrast with the Legislature's 200 new recruits, County Executive Steve Levy had proposed funding an additional 100 police officers, but without increasing property taxes, according to his spokesman, Dan Aug. Suffolk presently has over 100 more cops on patrol than when Levy assumed office in 2004 and his proposal would have doubled that increase, Aug said.
"I offered a compromise alternative that would place 100 more officers on the street without increasing taxes," Levy stated in a quote relayed through Aug Wednesday. "I'm disappointed this plan did not prevail."
The Levy administration has also contested the portrait of heightened crime in Suffolk painted by legislators.
Also citing state DCJS statistics, at a press conference Nov. 10, Levy maintained that crime was down for the first half of 2009 in comparison with 2008, according to a release from his office. In month to month comparisons, overall violent crime, robberies and aggravated assaults were lower by 13.4 percent, 9.7 percent and 12.4 percent, respectively, in September 2009 than in September 2008.
Robberies and aggravated assaults had increased in the first portion of 2009, Levy allowed, but actions have already been taken to counteract this uptick. Police Commissioner Richard Dormer implemented "a number of measures, including consolidating anti-gang officers into a comprehensive gang suppression unit and redeploying personnel into hot spots," stated the Nov. 9 Levy release.
The unsuccessfully vetoed amendment also hires 80 new corrections officers and 11 deputy sheriffs, authorizes the promotion of up to 29 police officers to the rank of sergeant and provides $50,000 for county Fire Rescue and Emergency Services personnel training.
The supplemental correction officers, twice as many as called for by Levy, are required to meet state mandates, according to Lindsay. The state Commission of Corrections has said Suffolk must have at least 866 corrections officers to staff its Riverhead and Yaphank jails, but it currently employs only 810. If the jailers' numbers aren't increased, Suffolk will have to ship its prisoners out of county at a cost of millions of dollars, he said.
Anticipating potential criticism for a recession-era tax hike, Legislator Brian Beedenbender (D-Centereach) said residents aren't worried about the price of government when they call on police to defend their lives and property. "You don't care, you just want them there," he said.
"I've heard loud and clear from my constituents that they want to hire more cops," said Majority Leader Jon Cooper (D-Lloyd Harbor).
Legislator Vivian Viloria-Fisher (D-Port Jefferson) said she recently visited a fourth-grade class, and when asked what they would like to see government do, they said they wanted "to play in parks where they felt safe," she said. A week later, a boy was shot in the eye in a county park, Fisher said.
"It's the responsibility of government to provide for the health and safety of people who live here," she said.
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