Nassau police bill villages for help

Nassau County police have long helped their village counterparts when day-to-day calls, such as checking alarms or covering traffic collisions, get backed up.

That assistance now comes at a cost.

The county has started billing village police agencies for sending Nassau patrol officers to their jurisdiction, said acting Commissioner Thomas Krumpter.

The new policy went into effect June 1, the same day Muttontown launched the county's newest village police force.

"There seemed to be a significant increase," Krumpter said of the requests for general call assistance. "It was becoming more of a routine thing."

He did not provide the exact number, or type, of village calls requiring Nassau assistance.

Eighteen of Nassau's 64 villages have their own police departments, with sworn staffs from 126 in Hempstead to six in Kensington. County police provide many of them with detectives, ambulances and other special units for serious crimes or accidents.

Headquarters taxes paid by village residents cover that specialty support, but not patrol aid for general service calls.

So while a Nassau tactical team can respond to an armed standoff to support village police at no charge, a precinct officer checking a burglar alarm would result in a bill.

Krumpter said only "several" bills have been mailed since June, mainly to Muttontown and Oyster Bay Cove. He didn't specify the amounts.

A village's tab for patrol help is calculated using the responding county officers' salaries and benefits, plus those of support staff such as dispatchers and clerks, divided by the time expended. Krumpter said a village could pay roughly $200 for a one-hour call.

Any funds this brings the county -- which plans to close police precincts to save money -- would be minimal, he said. The department handles 400,000 calls a year, and he estimated village patrol aid has never accounted for more than 300 of them.

"It's not about the revenue," Krumpter said. "It's about charging people for resources appropriately, and in this case, [the county] really shouldn't be supplementing people in villages that have their own police departments."

County Executive Edward Mangano, who has sought new revenue-generating measures, declined to comment.

In Oyster Bay Cove, Police Chief Kevin Cronin said his 11 officers need patrol aid from Nassau no more than two to three times a month. "So if that's how it has to be, that's how it has to be," he said about the county now billing for providing assistance.

Nassau police said they provided patrol aid to Muttontown 28 times in the seven-officer department's first month of operations. Village police Chief William McHale said billable responses totaled just five, disputing calls involving ambulances, mistaken boundaries and his officers quickly telling the county to disregard the call.

"I don't see it being problematic for us," he said, noting that Muttontown hasn't asked for Nassau assistance since July.

McHale, a Nassau police veteran of more than 30 years, said the county always had the ability to bill villages, but rarely did.

"When I worked the First Precinct, Freeport was next door and we were there all the time," he said. "I never heard anyone getting a bill."

Nassau Police Benevolent Association president James Carver said his officers fear that without billing, more villages will leave county police coverage to start their own departments with reduced manpower, yet still rely on the county.

"The thought may be, 'Hey, I don't have to come in with enough people, because Nassau is always going to be there,' " he said. "So the department should be aggressively following up and charging."