County Executive Steven Bellone announced his plans to tackle gangs at a press conference in Huntington Station yesterday.
“Today, I am glad to be back here in Huntington Station to announce that we are taking a major step forward in the fight against gangs,” stated Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone. A message of hope was delivered by Bellone, Acting Police Commissioner Webber, and others to residents of Huntington Station, an area in the Town of Huntington that has been plagued by increasing crime, violence, drugs, and gang activity.
A press conference held yesterday was initiated by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone to announce the decentralization of the Suffolk County Police Department’s (SCPD) Gang Unit. By doing so, more police officers will go back to the precincts bringing their knowledge back to the community. The members of the Huntington Station community have been promised a lot over the last few years, including a revitalization of the area, while serious problems of crime and violence have escalated.
In the parking lot of St. Hugh of Lincoln, New York Avenue, Huntington Station, not far from the area where recent shootings occurred (see villagetattler.com/2011/11/27/triple-shooting-huntington-station/), Bellone; Webber; Legislator Kate Browning, Chair of the Legislature Public Safety Committee; and Legislator Dr. William Spencer spoke about putting more cops in the local precincts. The move is expected to help address the local crime and gang violence and hopefully prevent it. Many members of the community and the press were in attendance, along with Huntington School District #3’s Superintendent James Polansky and Board of Education members Emily Rogan and Jen Hebert.
The day was warm for January, hitting close to 60 degrees, and the mood was positive and hopeful. But residents of Huntington Station have been promised relief and revitalization so many times in the past and they remain watchful and cautious. Will this move finally bring the results that are needed to reduce gang-related violence? “If they get rid of some of the gangs, won’t new ones just move in,” wondered one woman in the crowd, echoing the concerns many other residents have vocalized at past conferences.
The gang unit that has been deployed was called the Patrol Special Operations Team (PSOT), created in 2009 to focus on gang “hot spots,” such as those in Huntington Station and other areas in Suffolk County. However, Bellone and Acting Police Commissioner Webber have decided to redeploy PSOT personnel back to the precincts.
“Today, I announce with my colleagues that we have re-formed the precinct-level gang units in the Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD),” stated Bellone. “The gang officers are back in the precincts where they belong so that they can fight these gangs on the streets in the communities where the problems are occurring.” The statement met with lots of applause from the crowd gathered for the press conference.
“There are 39 members of SCPD that have now been returned to the precinct level to fight gangs: 32 police officers, 6 sergeants, and 1 lieutenant,” continued Bellone. “Here’s why this is so important. In order to be effective against gangs, we need to have the intelligence on the ground and at the street level, understand what they are doing, who is doing what, and how they are doing it. You can’t do that based in headquarters, you can’t understand what is happening. So now these assets are at the precinct level where they can be effective. Also, each of our communities is different. The problems in Huntington Station, or in Wyandanch, Brentwood, or North Bellport are all different; they have similarities but there are many things that make them different. That’s why we need officers at the precincts partnering with the people who understand what’s happening in their communities.”
Bellone also believes that if the gang units are at headquarters and not in the precincts there is no effective collaboration with the patrol officers. “I talked to one of our police officers, a patrol officer, and asked him what interaction he had with the Gang Unit?” said Bellone. “His answer was none, he had no interaction with the Gang Unit. Of course, this is not an effective strategy to attack gangs. This is an important move forward.
“Legislator Browning has been fighting this fight for a long time, and Town Supervisor Frank Petrone and the town board members have been fighting for the resources that they know they need at the local level to fight the gangs. We are in the fight together, we are partners, and we will win this fight.”
Commissioner Webber spoke after Bellone, highlighting the major problems with gangs plaguing Suffolk County. “This is one of our department’s and our new adminstration’s focal points,” noted Webber. “We can’t let the gangs take over the streets. We are determined to fight them. We need to partner with the private sector, with the community, and with other law enforcement agencies. We are in this together. We need to fight them directly, efficiently and immediately.”
Webber spoke about the introduction of a new concept they will be using to fight the gang problems called intelligence-led policing. “This includes the real-time accurate recording of offenses and getting this information as quickly as possible to police commanders so that they can provide the resources necessary to fight these crimes,” continued Webber. “And we will introduce a new concept of immediate follow up, which will require relentless follow up on the part of the administrators so we can fight this crime.”
Webber cited many benefits to the decentralization of the officers. One of these benefits is that precinct commanders will have more resources and flexibility to address the local crimes, not only the local gang crimes but all crimes, on a daily basis. “The officers will bring a lot of experience and expertise to the precinct level,” added Webber. “We didn’t have the flow of information we needed from the patrol officers to the Gang Unit.”
According to Webber, it is equally important to meet with local community members to really fight this crime. “We believe these individuals are in a better position to know who these gang members are and we want to try to prevent future problems, to prevent crimes from happening and not to just arrest people,” said Webber.
"Putting the gang units back into the precincts is going to benefit all communities plagued by gang violence," stated Legislator Kate Browning.
Next, Bellone welcomed Legistor Kate Browning and then, County Legislator of the 18th Legislative District Dr. Spencer, who spoke mostly about ShotSpotter and some ideas he has to make it even more effective.
Dr. William Spencer, County Legislator, is excited to work with Bellone and the team he has assembled to find creative solutions for the crime and gang issues in our neighborhoods.
“ShotSpotter gives our police officers the advantage of being able to locate gun fire and quickly respond,” noted Spencer. “But even if that response time is a matter of minutes, there is the opportunity for those involved in the violence to flee in different directions. Since we also have cameras in place, I have been investigating the potential to take ShotSpotter to the next level. The idea is that if there are over 39 cameras within Huntington Station and you fire a gun that message goes to our officers but also to the cameras, and the cameras can turn and focus in on the location, they can see the criminals, what they are wearing, what direction they flee in, the automobiles they might get into. So, if the cameras can communicate with ShotSpotter, we are going to give our officers a big advantage.”
Spencer was eager to introduce this to Huntington. He stressed that Huntington currently has the software that is necessary to connect ShotSpotter to the camera systems, and that there are municipalities already connecting the two across the country.
“I want to send a very clear message,” stated Spencer. “If you fire a gun in Huntington Station, you had better smile because you’ll be on camera and we will catch you.”
Supervisor Petrone had a few words to say. "We share your concerns and we applaud you for taking this step, and we applaud Webber and Burke. We pledge our full support, 100% to your efforts in Huntington Station. Thank you so very much for caring and remaining loyal," said Petrone at yesterday's press conference.
“Shoot and gun and smile for the cameras in Huntington” Perhaps we should change the “All American City” to be this quote.
When will we be seeing a report on the gunfire that shotspotter has already picked up? Don’t tell me there isn’t any either. 3 shots were fired 1/21/2012 at 1041pm. I would like to know the outcome of that.
Did Bellone get a copy of the letter Dormer sent to Petrone about him not enforcing code violations leading up to the current state of gangs? Should we be expecting one from Bellone next election cycle? Democrats LOVE pointing the finger of blame everywhere else they can.
Spencer is looking for a “creative” soultion? How about-rid this town of ALL illegal housing. Not so creative but a start in the right direction. An approach that no other elected official has EVER tried.
laughable
Wait….didn’t “someone” say at a BOE meeting not that long ago the gangs were all gone????
Gunfire? Didn’t hear anything about that!
Unless you heard it yourself or someone actually got shot in front of witnesses, you would’nt hear anything about it.
Just once I’d like to see a Press Conference with all our local politicians AFTER they solve a problem.
Attaching fixed plate scanners in the area is something hempstead, kings point, and other long island towns have added that have greatly provided ‘preventative’ crime solutions. The shot spotter is key, but combined with a plate scanner, flagged gang member cars could alarm a patrol car in advance of gun fire. These are already affixed to some police cars in the county…but that isnt much help, on a few street lamps would help. After this, I feel we exhausted the tech options and need warm blooded police officers…especially ICE enforcement officers who our federal govt (thats you Steve Israel) has failed to offer to HS and other trouble spot areas in nassau and suffolk.
It is the police, they do not need intrusive license plat scanners
We as taxpayers pay over 100k per officer and retire and health benefits a king or queen of wall street would love, for what a force always looking for a way to game the system for themselves.
Officers should be on foot and bicycle patrol.
No technology is going to replace real police work and the fact that most cruisers are parked at the firehouse, beach or deli,
It is ridiculous to spend more $$$$$ when we should have no crime at all at these over inflated pay rates.
Jack,
To your point, an officer’s true cost is 500K every three years considering cost of training, salary, overtime, sick days, pension/medical cost, equipment/cars, etc. So not only do I agree…but you are under on the cost. At some point, having a highly paid officer doesnt make them have more eyes and increasing headcount or seeking cheaper tech solutions (within limits) are the only alternative. And each head count increase for police is continuously shot down by the county exec as county residents dont want to pay more in taxes. You’re right, no technology will replace a body, but without increasing taxes, headcount won’t increase and all we are left with is cheaper tech alternatives (that we often seek federal/state funding for anyway with zero local funding). I also keep stating this time and time again, Federal ICE enforcement is highly lacking and our rep, S.Israel is our person to complain to. Also, the Suffolk Sheriff needs to send resources to the town to enforce housing violations.
They need to stop Petrone from destroying the zoning in the town. It only helps the real estate corporations, landlords, slumlords, lawyers, and a few corrupt individuals/businesses,the rest of us pay higher taxes because of them. Look at all the houses in town with many families living in them or large groups of adults and the houses are still taxed as single family. Outrageous.
What is Patrone doing about closing down the illegal rentals where these gangs live ??this is so long over due it;s not funny!
PETRONE IS THE PROBLEM, HE CREATED THIS MESS WITH ALL THE ILLEGAL HOUSING AND NOW WE SEE THE RESULTS OF HIS GRAND PLAN.
BELLONE TO ME SOUNDS LIKE LIP SERVICE FOR PETRONE TO COVER HIS POOR LEADERSHIP
BELLONE “GO AFTER THE SLUMP LORDS” IF FRANK LETS YOU
This press conference happened on Wed. and on Thurs at 540 am a HS Deli was robbed. Since it was only 3 guys doing the robbery, I guess it not a gang.They had guns but never fired them, so much for shot spotter on the corner.
You will never rid this town of gangs as long as there are illegal housing. and now they lower the property line so that more people can lease their home to these vandals it’s only going to get worse before it every gets any better.
Petrone just passed a law to make single family houses into two family houses. This applies even to houses only a few feet from one another. The taxes will remain the same on the single family house though it’s now two dwellings in one. The school districts should be crying foul.
Marshal could you be more specific? What law and when was it “passed” by Mr. Petrone? The town supervisor can pass laws on his own without the town board voting on it?
Wundaboy, it should be on the Town Hall site from recent meetings. I think it was Oct or Nov that they passed this, but could be wrong bout the time. Obviously, not just Petrone. It was put to vote. My question is, is this two family law the same as or on top of the move to reduce property frontage to less than 50 feet to have an accessory apartment?
The democrats on the town board passed the law to allow a single family house to become a two family house at the same board meeting that was about Avalon Bay last June. Avalon Bay issue overshadowed this corrupt housing law to make two family houses out of one. This is even permissible when houses are right up against one another on land of only .16 of an acre and less. Imagine how this will change neighborhoods and houses are still taxed as single family. School districts and single family homeowners who do not rent should be up in arms at this corrupt town law.
It’s not a Republican or Democrat issue it’s a town and school district quality of life issue and unfair assessment of taxes issue with town government making a profit on this downzoning of single family houses.
It’s going to be great to buy the worst run down single family homes on the cheap, not put a dollar into them, and rent them to as many people as possible. It will be even sweeter that the school costs will be paid by single family residents. Thanks for the $$$$$ Frank! Slum lords get it all in this town.
Saw letter in Newsday. Said town school districts should be up in arms along with taxpayers on how Petrone has eroded town’s tax base at same time increasing the town’s population.
How can we stress this to the town’s eight school districts ? Also police and even library costs are effected by Petrone’s corrupt housing agenda.
I think any of the districts affected by this are already well-aware. Certainly Huntington SD has taken action several times over the years!