In January, Nassau County police disclosed that major crime had spiked 41% in Nassau in 2022 led by a sharp increase in property crimes.
“There is a message out there that crime is on the rise and that’s true,” Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder told Newsday while pointing out the murder rate was the lowest in more than 60 years.
The 41% rise in Nassau crimes compared to a 15% increase in Suffolk County, according to Newsday’s report. New York City reported a 22% jump in major crimes for 2022 tempered by a year-end drop.
In April, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Ryder announced a new crime-fighting initiative to combat the rise in violent crime locally and across the country.,
The initiative, known as the Overwatch program, divided Nassau into four quadrants to be patrolled by 20 police officers in police vehicles focused on preventing potential crimes from occurring at places of worship, schools and other high-profile areas.
“This is not a place where it’s going to be opportune for you to commit a crime,” Blakeman said. “To our residents and our business visitors and our guests, this is a safe county and we’re going to keep it safe. We’re on the offensive and we’re going to be proactive.”
The county executive, as he had routinely in the past, blamed cashless bail and raise-the-age laws that determine when minors are subject to adult courts as reasons Nassau should be more proactive.
Since April Blakeman and Ryder have gone silent on crime in Nassau and the impact of the Overwatch program.
The county had also been silent on the county’s crime rate in 2023 – until this past week.
For the first time since October 2022, county police updated crime statistics on their website and the results were generally very positive.
The department’s Strat-Com Comparison showed a 1.07 decrease in major crimes in the first five months of 2023 compared to 2022 led by a 41% decline in stolen vehicles.
Among the few negatives was a 13.65% increase in all other crimes, a 150% increase in murders from two to five and a 25% increase in robberies.
The 3rd Precinct showed a 2.55% decline in major crimes. The 6th Precinct had an even larger decline with major crimes falling more than 32%.
The 3rd Precinct, located in Williston Park, serves the communities of Albertson, Bellerose
Terrace, Bellerose Village, Carle Place, East Garden City, East Meadow, East Williston, Floral
Park Center, Garden City Park, Herricks, Mineola, New Cassel, New Hyde Park, North New
Hyde Park, Roslyn Heights, Salisbury, Searingtown, Stewart Manor, Uniondale, Westbury,
and Williston Park
The 6th Precinct, located in Manhasset, serves the communities of East Hills, Flower Hill
Great Neck Plaza, Harbor Hills, Manorhaven, Munsey Park, North Hills, Plandome, Plandome
Manor, Plandome Heights, Roslyn, Roslyn Estates, Roslyn Harbor, Russell Gardens, Saddle
Rock, Sea Cliff, Thomaston, Glen Head, Glenwood Landing, Great Neck, Greenvale,
Manhasset, Roslyn Heights and University Gardens.
Strangely, we have yet to hear from Blakeman or Ryder on the good news about Nassau
But Nassau County residents should not have had to wait until June to find out the positive trend in Nassau – especially because of the 41% spike in 2022.
This year’s decline shows that the county is holding even with 2022 – not that the 41% spike in 2022 was reversed.
By contrast, New York City releases its crime statistics monthly, usually by the fifth of the following month. The city’s report breaks down crime by category. It also presents what the city is doing to bring the crime rate down.
The county Legislature should insist Nassau police do the same. Nassau residents should not have to wait six months or a year to find out about crime in the county or determine whether more needs to be done.
Blank Slate Media was also forced to use Freedom of Information Law requests, which requires Nassau police to respond, on several occasions in 2022 to obtain updated crime statistics during the year.
Nassau County and the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association agreed earlier this year to a 8-1/2-year contract running retroactively from Jan. 1, 2018 until July 1, 2026 that increases the top base pay for officers from $122,000 to $141,000. The starting pay for new officers would also be increased from $35,000 to $37,333.
“I believe this agreement keeps our police department at the highest levels of salary in the nation, but at the same time has provisions that enhance the safety of our communities and guards the taxpayers’ money,” Blakeman said.
If Nassau police are going to be asked to pay for among the best-compensated police in the nation, shouldn’t taxpayers and legislators receive more regular reports indicating how Nassau’s highly compensated police are performing?
But the only crimes that Blakeman has commented on since April are those that have taken place in New York City.
Blakeman traveled to New York City in May to hold a rally in support of Daniel Penny, a white former Marine from West Islip arrested for the chokehold death on a subway car of Jordan Neely, a homeless, 30-year-old black man suffering from mental illness.
The New York City medical examiner’s office said the cause of death was compression of the neck and ruled it a homicide.
Penny was arrested by New York City police and indicted on manslaughter charges by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a week later after the fatal subway incident.
Blakeman objected, citing the safety of Nassau County residents who work and play in New York City for his comments.
Blakeman also called the expected indictment of former President Trump on 34 felony counts related to payments to a porn star a “political and malicious prosecution” – five days before the expected announcement of the charges by DA Bragg.
Newsday reported Saturday that political analysts say Blakeman, a Republican from Atlantic Beach, is playing to his party’s conservative base as it tries to build on wins in 2021, when the Nassau GOP flipped top countywide offices, and in 2022 when it took two congressional seats historically held by Democrats.
Some black leaders and Democrats, they said, expressed concern that Blakeman may be trying to follow a political playbook that attempts to stoke fears of crime by using language that feeds on racial stereotypes.
They cited the Penny indictment and Blakeman’s effort to block a portion of the recent Summer Jam hip-hop concert at the UBS arena.
Blakeman denied race is a factor in his support of Penny or the Summer Jam lawsuit. In both instances, he said his views stem from a concern for the safety of residents.
“My job is to protect the people of Nassau County,” he told Newsday in an interview. “I represent a county that is larger than 10 states, and I think I reflect the values of the residents. I think people appreciate my candor and I have heard from Democrats in Nassau who believe their party has gone too far.”
Blakeman cited similar concerns when he and other Republicans were running for countywide seats in 2021.
Their focus at the time was bail reform laws that they blamed on a spike in crime in New York following COVID.
Critics said there was no statistical correlation between crime and the laws intended to protect people too poor to afford bail, mostly black and brown people, for being needlessly imprisoned for misdemeanors and non-violent crimes.
All this raises the concern that Blakeman is using crime statistics for political purposes, not the safety of Nassau residents.
He and Ryder can answer those concerns by releasing monthly Nassau crime statistics and explaining what the police are doing to combat wrongdoing.
