Southold adds 8 officers to police force

Southold Town has hired eight new police officers, following several years of understaffing and concerns over an alleged gang attack on the North Fork in mid-October.

Southold's town board voted 6-0 Tuesday to make the hires, shortly after approving the town's $38.4 million budget for 2015.

The new officers will increase the department's ranks to 52 members. Southold's PBA president and police chief previously said the department was understaffed with 44 officers.

Supervisor Scott Russell said the hires will cost the town about $800,000 next year.

"It makes a big difference for us," said Southold Police Chief Martin Flatley, who added that the town's growing wine and tourism industries and expanding year-round population have increased the department's workload in recent years.

The hires include the department's first Latino officer, Flatley said. Russell called that milestone "very important given the changing demographics of Southold Town."

Russell said the town board chose to expand the department in part due to concerns over an Oct. 14 shooting and machete attack that police said was connected to a dispute between the MS-13 and Mara-18 street gangs.

"The town board believed public safety to be a top priority, and rightly so," Russell said in an interview Wednesday.

Southold police arrested five people, including a 17-year-old Greenport High School student, in connection with the attack, which wounded two men.

Flatley said gang activity is a growing concern in the rural town of about 22,000 people, and his department is working with the FBI, New York State Police, Suffolk County police and other agencies to monitor the situation.

"That was the first really violent spillover that we've had from any gang involvement in a long time," he said.

Southold hadn't hired any officers in about four years as a contract dispute with the police union played out. But on Nov. 6, an outside arbitrator awarded the union 2 percent retroactive raises for the past two years.

Russell said Wednesday that he will work with the union over the next few weeks to reach a deal for the next two years.

PBA president Richard Buonaiuto said the new hires will "certainly take some pressure off the police department," where he said officers have been working extra tours.

Five of the officers will start this month; two will begin after they graduate from the police academy next year; and one other will start at an undetermined date.