Nassau cops outline impact of budget cuts

Fewer cops will be assigned to catch drunken drivers and address quality-of-life complaints under the Nassau County Police Department's budget-trimming plan. And more cutbacks are on the way.

Reassignments of plainclothes anti-crime officers to patrol duty are also in the works, according to police and union officials. The permanent closing of a North Shore precinct remains a possibility.

"We were given a goal of $9 million in reductions, and we made that objective," Acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter said in an interview this week. "I'm not in a position to say what tomorrow brings."

Shuttering the Sixth Precinct in Manhasset -- one of Nassau's eight precincts -- "is still on the table," Krumpter said.

On Tuesday, Mangano outlined his plan to reduce the county workforce by 184 employees and make major revisions in police assignments to save the county $32 million in recurring costs.

The reorganization now being implemented for cops and civilian employees is aimed primarily at filling patrol cars and cutting down on so-called "light roll calls" that have required overtime to fill patrol staffing gaps.

"This entire redeployment is about pushing people back into car seats," Krumpter said, projecting $7.7 million in overtime savings by the end of the year. Nassau police spent $44 million on overtime in 2010 and budgeted $39 million for overtime for this year.

Three of the four officers in each precinct who focus on quality-of-life issues such as noise and parking problems will be switched to patrol.

The "problem oriented police," commonly known as POP cops, also act as liaison with community leaders. One of their jobs, attending community meetings, will fall to commanders and other supervisors, Krumpter said.

"One thing I would like to see is those people [supervisors] become more involved in the community," he said.

Mangano said Tuesday that residents will see no decrease in services.

Nassau police union president James Carver disagreed, pointing to the plan to move three highway patrol officers now assigned full-time to drunken-driving stops on the Long Island Expressway and elsewhere. "These people are highly trained at spotting the characteristics of a drunk driver," he said. "If you take people away from a dedicated patrol like that, there will be a negative impact."

Six cops will be transferred from the marine bureau, leaving 52. Reassignments are also expected among precinct-based, plainclothes officers who work in surveillance, drug investigations, and anti-crime efforts.

"There probably will be decreases, but that has not been finalized," said police spokesman Det. Lt. Kevin Smith. "We don't have numbers at this time."

Krumpter said cutbacks can be modified or reversed should better fiscal times arrive. But the same would not hold true for a potential precinct closure, he and others acknowledged.

With Nassau's finances in tatters, Mangano first raised the idea in May last year of shuttering the Manhasset precinct building and merging its territory with that of the Second Precinct to the east, creating a nearly continuous coverage area from the Queens border to the eastern edge of the county.

Legis. Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn), whose district includes part of the Second Precinct, said the Sixth Precinct was targeted because it's a relatively low-crime area, and surrounding areas are covered by several village police departments.

The costs and benefits of a merger have never been determined, he said.

"There are still so many unanswered questions about the costs of a closure that I think it begs for legislative oversight," Wink said.

Changes ahead for Nassau police

Current and planned changes in the Nassau County Police Department include:

• 24 "problem-oriented" precinct cops reassigned to patrol