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Law enforcement is facing the prospect of devastating cutbacks, and for some agencies, the axe has already begun to fall. Police patrolling the numerous parks on Long Island in New York have had their budget slashed 25 percent over the past five years, at the same time that crime is going up. The situation has gotten so bad that the cops themselves are speaking out about their concerns.
They say staffing and deployment issues that were raised in a 2005 audit by then-Comptroller Alan Hevesi are still unresolved. State officials say the Hevesi report didn’t appreciate the nuances of staffing state park police, and that the current force is sufficient.
According to Marc Beja, a reporter for New York Newsday, Hevesi’s report recommended that the Parks Police maintain a comprehensive inventory of equipment, that commanders maintain documentation supporting staff assignments in each region, and that they develop a strategic statewide deployment plan for public safety positions and allocate the positions to the regions on the basis of the plan.
The report said inadequate manpower and resources meant that officers were unable to quickly attend to emergencies. “Many calls are handled by other police forces because park police officers are responding to other calls or are too far away to respond in a timely manner,” said the report, which was based on auditors’ interviews with several park regions, including Long Island.
The parks department was not required to respond to the report and they have not done so. There is still no equipment inventory or deployment plan. Duty rosters that list officers’ originally-assigned posts show that at least four state parks on Long Island – Bethpage, Caumsett, Hempstead Lake and Belmont Lake – have no cars patrolling the grounds at night.
Sgt. Manny Vilar, president of the New York Park Police Supervisor’s Union Local 102, said that rather than adding officers in advance to big events, such as concerts, officers are pulled from other posts after problems arise. That leaves their originally assigned stations understaffed.
“They scramble afterwards and leave other regions exposed with skeleton crews,” Vilar said. Lack of manpower has also led to a critical understaffing problem at big rock concerts including an Allman Brothers event at Jones Beach on August 13, and a Police concert. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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