Lavine: Let’s Really Set the Record Straight – Says Mangano Must Abandon Dangerous Plan
In an August 11 press release, County Executive Ed Mangano complains that “Assemblyman Charles Levine” was unduly critical of his plan to reduce the effective Nassau County Police presence for the entire North Shore by merging the 2nd and 6th Precincts.
I hope that the County Executive’s plan has more attention to detail than his press release, which spells my name wrong. My name is “Lavine.” That is the way it was spelled when my illiterate grandfather came to this country as a laborer a century ago.
But this isn’t about my name. It is about an ill-conceived and clumsily announced plan that endangers our citizens.
Nassau has eight Precincts. The 6th, headquartered in Manhasset, and the 2nd, located in Woodbury, cover a third of Nassau’s entire land mass and protect a total of almost 200,000 citizens. Merging them and reducing the number of officers will result in by far the largest Precinct in this part of the nation.
This means a reduced law enforcement presence in Bayville, Locust Valley, Lattingtown, Syosset, Oyster Bay, Hicksville, Plainview, Jericho, Laurel Hollow, Cove Neck, Woodbury and East Norwich, which are now protected by the 2nd Precinct.
And communities I represent in the 6th Precinct will also suffer. These include Sea Cliff, Glen Head, Roslyn, Roslyn Estates, Roslyn Harbor, East Hills and Glenwood Landing.
This will place extra pressure on the Glen Cove Police Department and our village police forces to make up the difference.
The 2nd and the 6th Precincts protect the North Shore of Long Island from county line to county line, a geographically huge piece of territory. Piecemeal consolidation is the least desirable method because it is not part of an overall plan or vision for the future.
Our North Shore citizens pay a lot of taxes to Nassau County and deserve their money’s worth.
I remain vehemently opposed to Ed Mangano’s plan to reduce police presence in northern Nassau and am vehemently against any piecemeal experimentation with the safety of our citizens.
I demand that the County Executive abandon this dangerous plan.
