Crime stats debated in Upper Brookville

A comparison of the Nassau County and Old Brookville police departments -- from crime rates to force size -- has fueled a surprisingly bitter election in a pastoral North Shore village.

Upper Brookville, with two trustee seats up for grabs Tuesday, has become a battleground between incumbents wanting to control Old Brookville police costs and police union leaders, who back challengers.

The seeds of the dispute were planted earlier this spring, when Upper Brookville mulled leaving Old Brookville police for Nassau. That's when the Old Brookville police union distributed a map showing many more residential burglaries over recent months in areas covered by county police.

Village trustees called the snapshot misleading then, and this week, fired back by citing crime statistics.

From 2006 to 2010, Old Brookville police's seven villages (covering just under 14,000 residents) averaged roughly 20 burglary reports per year, according to state Division of Criminal Justice Services data. Nassau police (covering 1.05 million people) averaged about 1,960 burglaries annually.

That's a rate of 1.4 burglary reports per 1,000 residents for Old Brookville police, and 1.9 for Nassau. The 2009 national rate was 7.16, per FBI statistics.

"It's a scare campaign," Upper Brookville Trustee Michael Schwerin said of the map, which gave the impression Nassau had a far-higher crime rate. Schwerin is seeking re-election.

SEE PHOTOSNotable LI crimes

Upper Brookville ultimately stuck with Old Brookville police, which now covers six villages. But Muttontown's departure forced cuts to the 38-officer force, including detectives.

Through layoffs, retirements and departures, 12 positions were erased, leaving 18 patrol officers, six sergeants, two administrators and no detectives.

Old Brookville PBA president Chris Sweeney mailed a letter to residents this week, calling the new staffing "unimaginably low" and a danger to the public. He's advocating keeping at least two detectives, a function now handled by Nassau police.

"This is not a 'downsizing' or a 'right sizing,' " Sweeney wrote. "This is a dismantling of your police department."

Sweeney said his union's concessions offer, to save jobs, was rebuffed. Schwerin countered that the union wants to divert reserve funds set aside for long-term liability costs like officer health and termination pay.

"This shell game," Schwerin wrote, "would only compound the considerable fiscal problems of a department with an unsustainable level of staffing, increasing entitlement costs and unfunded liabilities."

As with the crime data, each side claims the other's cost projections are misleading.