Suffolk police restart patrol of youth gathering spots

With the summer break looming, Suffolk police will reinstate a task force to target hot spots and high-activity areas where young people gather, including parks and downtowns.

The six-person patrol team will work 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and concentrate primarily on 24 parks in communities from Copiague to Center Moriches, police said, as well as village downtowns.

Suffolk police Sgt. Jeff Walker, a former Third Precinct officer now assigned to the department's community outreach unit, will lead the team.

"We're not just shooing people out of the park," he said. "It's about making a presence, doing foot and bike patrols, and making sure people know we're there."

Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said officers will hand out summonses for being in parks after closing time, typically 9 or 10 p.m. After closings, the team will patrol downtowns that draw a crowd or areas holding special events. The initiative will not target gangs in particular, but Dormer said the team would be looking for gang activity.

"We don't want people congregating in parks after hours engaged in nefarious activities," he said.

The task force is an expansion of a similar initiative last summer in which a six-person team concentrated on parks in the First and Third precincts on the South Shore. That initiative was triggered in part by the June 2009 gang-related shooting of 13-year-old Wilson Batista Jr. in Timberline Park. Timberline is one of two in Brentwood to get extra patrols this summer.

The officers assigned to this year's team are from precinct patrol and will be temporarily replaced by officers assigned to HealthSmart, a school anti-crime education program, officials said.

County Executive Steve Levy said the initiative mirrors the permanent reassignment last July of precinct-specific gang detectives to a single team that now covers all seven precincts. Levy said the reduction of federal money for summer work programs will likely mean more young people with time on their hands this summer. Many school districts begin their summer breaks Friday; the team will be in place until Labor Day.

"We want to make sure that if they're not employed, they're not getting into trouble," Levy said at the announcement at Bellport Hagerman East Patchogue Alliance Center, a community service group in Bellport.