Mangano: 8 Police Precincts to Merge Into 4; Plainview Area Affected

Claiming it will save money and not diminish police protection, announced Monday that the county's eight police precincts will merge into four.

Four precincts, including which covers Plainview north of Old Country Road, will remain intact. Four others, including , which covers south of Old Country Road, will be transformed into new community policing centers, Mangano said. The Second Precinct's coverage area will actually be extended south of Old Country Road, well into Massapequa.

"Keeping residents safe is my number-one priority," Mangano said. "This plan keeps all 177 patrols cars in their current neighborhoods, assigns more cops to POP and opens four new community policing centers throughout the county while increasing efficiencies."

According to a release from the county, the Second Precinct in Woodbury, Third Precinct in Williston Park, Fourth Precinct in Hewlett and Seventh Precinct in Seaford will continue to operate as regular precincts.

The First Precinct in Baldwin, Fifth Precinct in Elmont, Sixth Precinct in Manhasset and Eighth Precinct in Levittown will become community policing centers.

Mangano's proposal was immediately met with derision.

James Carver, President of the Nassau PBA, told 1010 WINS he is going to fight the plan.

"We currently have eight police precincts and they're trying to tell everybody that having four police precincts is a better way to police Nassau County, well they're dead wrong on this," Carver said.

“It’s a brand-new concept and I’ve not had a chance to digest it or study it financially, but I have serious doubts that it will save $20 million,” said Nassau , D-Woodbury. "There are a lot of answers I need."

Jacobs said this was a “terrible” time to alter police procedures when the Plainview and Syosset areas were filled with concerns about rising crime and burglaries. While not doubting that some precincts have heavier caseloads than others, there are other factors to consider, she said.

"And he said some of these are going to remain as 'police community centers.' she said. “I have no idea what that phrase means."

Mangano plan eliminates more than 100 desk jobs and slashes "costly" built-in overtime benefits, said Mangano at a press conference, flanked by Police Commissioner Thomas Dale. A total of 48 police officers will be reassigned from desk jobs to Problem Oriented Police (POP) positions.

While the number of precincts and desk jobs will shrink, Mangano said the number of patrol cars will remain the same.

The plan, which could take six months to implement, corrects a "workload imbalance," Mangano claimed. He said three police precincts presently perform twice the workload of the remaining five precincts.

"This plan saves taxpayers significant dollars while streamlining duplicative work, redistributing workload and assigning more officers to POP and special patrol," Dale said. "... Residents should know that response time will not be impacted as police officers will remain in their current neighborhoods and additional officers will be assigned to our neighborhoods."

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