Nassau County officials came together last week to call on County Executive Ed Mangano to reopen the 6th Police Precinct. Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth, accompanied by council members Anna Kaplan, Lee Seeman, Peter Zuckerman and other local officials, all joined together to urge Mangano to think of the safety and quality of life of Nassau County residents.
In 2012, Mangano announced a plan that would close half of the precincts in Nassau County to eliminate desk jobs and save taxpayers money. Legislator for the 10th District Ellen Birnbaum said this is not the case.
“As the then-director of the Office of Intermunicipal Coordination at the Town of North Hempstead, my job was to create efficiencies between governmental entities in order to save taxpayers money,” said Birnbaum. “But the merger of the 6th Precinct with the 3rd Precinct has not been proven to be a cost-saver. It was never a good idea for Nassau County to allocate resources away from police, who provide the most important service of this precinct—public safety.”
Safety has been a major concern as burglary spikes have occurred since the consolidation of the precincts.
“Residential burglaries are up 28 percent in Nassau County for the last year,” said Bosworth. “It’s not because of a lack of trying on the part of our great police officers. It’s just that our district is now spread too thin.”
Bosworth said she will be heading to the Nassau County Legislature, Executive and Police Commissioner with her message for the people.
