Mixed review for Muttontown's new officers

In their first three months on patrol, Muttontown police officers handled a steady number of calls: 143 in June, 142 in July and 144 with four days left in August.

Then came Irene. The tropical storm provided the department's first major test. How it fared is a matter of dispute.

The storm walloped the small North Shore village, felling hundreds of trees and cutting power to many residents for a week. Between Aug. 28 and Sept. 4, Muttontown officers answered 95 calls related to the storm.

"Our village was hit very hard," Muttontown Police Chief William McHale said last week. "Given the circumstances, I think we responded very well."

He said his seven patrol officers didn't require Nassau County police assistance, as they did 28 times in June. Even with the village police phone line down in Irene's immediate aftermath, they maintained a connection with county dispatchers, whom the village uses to assign cars to respond to calls.

All officers "worked 12 hours a day, with no one off," McHale said. Storm response yielded an overtime bill that he said is yet to be determined.

The staffing level -- already strained to provide 24-hour coverage until four more officers are hired -- is being criticized by residents who opposed forming the new force instead of continuing to use the Old Brookville Police Department.

Pericles Linardos, a village resident and paramedic, doesn't think officials met their promise of offering law enforcement superior to Old Brookville, which Muttontown left May 31.

He said the small Muttontown police staff isn't always positioned to respond swiftly in the 2-square-mile village of about 3,500 people, and couldn't consistently direct traffic at intersections with downed signals during the storm.

Muttontown trustees, citing cost concerns, voted in March to form their own police department and break away from the decades-long pact they had with six area villages funding Old Brookville police.

They promised nine officers to start. But because of the lengthy county civil service process, they could only hire seven that were street-ready -- from New York City and state parks police -- by June 1.

"We [the village] were unprepared to do this," said Linardos, 47, who sued Muttontown last spring in an effort to block the new department. "We're putting citizens in harm's way."

McHale pointed out that the village had no reports of traffic collisions during the storm. And he said he was unaware of any Muttontown residents unable to reach an officer after Irene.

Old Brookville officials, however, said they fielded a number of Muttontown inquiries during the storm.

From Aug. 27 to 29, department dispatchers took "several dozen" calls from Muttontown residents, Old Brookville Police Chief Rick Smith said.

"Some callers [were] still unaware that they had their own police department," Smith wrote in an email, "and the majority of callers stated they were unable to get through to the Muttontown police phone number."

McHale said the majority of residents in the low-crime village provide positive feedback about his new patrol force as operations remain a work in progress.

Officials are developing their own written policies, using Nassau County's as a guideline.

"In the first couple of weeks, I really just think our officers were becoming comfortable," the chief said. "And we may be a new department, but all our officers are experienced."