Coming to police Nassau with fresh eyes
Thomas Dale, new police commissioner of Nassau County (Dec. 2, 2011) Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams, Jr.
The big knock against bringing in an outsider to run a police department like Nassau County's is that it will take the newbie too long to figure out how to operate "the Nassau way." We hope Thomas Dale, the NYPD chief of personnel whom County Executive Edward Mangano chose for the role, never does.
The Nassau department is a model of bureaucratic inefficiency, arrogance and secrecy. Mangano was right to go outside for leadership, and Dale appears qualified.
A 40-year veteran of the NYPD, Dale will lead a department facing layoffs and precinct closings. The public image of the force is still reeling from the case of Jo'Anna Bird, murdered by her former boyfriend after cops failed to respond to his violations of a protective order. The department is also under fire because its now-shuttered crime lab has been substandard for years. Thousands of old samples must be retested to support cases now called into question.
The retests, at a cost of $100,000 per month, are being paid for out of a Nassau County Police Department forfeiture fund. How much is in that fund, Nassau cops refuse to say.
Adversity is a big part of Dale's resume. Officers under his command were responsible for the shootings of Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell. In both cases Dale was praised for his response.
Mangano now must give Dale the support he needs to change the Nassau department's culture, lest he adapt to it instead.
