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Health & Fitness

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: DWI OVER GANG ENFORCEMENT WRONG PRIORITY

Frank McQuade, Neighbor
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Nassau County recently announced a shift in policing policy that reflects a misguided priority that places public safety at avoidable risk.  Worse, I sense the policy was made not on merits but for political expediency. 

On May 22, Nassau County announced it would shift personnel and resources to add to enforcement units of Driving While Intoxicated crimes and to deplete personnel on gang-crime prevention units. 

Last month, twelve police officers were transferred from the Nassau County Police Department’s Gang Abatement Program, returned to uniform patrol, in what NEWSDAY referred to as a “surprise personnel shift."  On its face, police officials cited department statistics that showed crime had dropped in the county 10% in the past two years, and that the personnel shift would save $4.4 million.  On the same day, the County announced its intention to initiate the  DWI Alcohol-Related Incident Team (DART) and to re-establish the Selective Enforcement Team (SET) to address drunk driving enforcement.  Officials pointed out that DWI arrests had dropped from 1853 in 2012 to 1545 in 2013.  Yet, it was Nassau Police Commissioner Thomas Kumpter who once said of the anti-DWI unit “It was not an effective tool in the department’s DWI enforcement strategy." The new DWI initiatives are largely being funded by asset forfeiture funds from the District Attorney’s office and from the police department itself. 

The announcement was made by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice. Given:  both DWI and gang activity are social menaces.  I hate to be overly analytical when each phenomena brings such pain to our community.  However, with limited personnel, resources and finances, policing sometimes requires practically a triage analysis.  Why do I believe the shift in policy and priority is wrong?: 

  1. DWI usually does not involve a perpetrator who is otherwise criminal.  Gang crime invariably involves a person who has already served society notice of his mens rea and criminal inclination.
  2. Most DWI does not involve a felony.  Gang crimes most often involve serious crimes such as homicide, assault drug trafficking and extortion.
  3. Highway police can multi-task DWI patrols while in the course of regular policing chores.  Gang units involve specialized training that employ skilled and fearless undercover agents and long periods of sophisticated surveillance and investigation.
  4. DWI enforcement is preventative.  Gang enforcement is proactive.
  5. DWI can be effectively addressed by a number of social remedies such as education, civil penalties, raising criminal fines and the reduction of plea bargain deals in court.
  6. Driving while intoxicated rates probably have a natural peak at the general rate of alcoholism (6%) with an additional bump considering youthful offenders.  Gang activity can only expand and become more widespread.
Why do I believe there was political expediency behind the shift?  The move came a day after NEWSDAY revealed a drop in DWI arrests (disregarding perhaps there was concurrently a drop in DWI.)  Furthermore, political representatives are more comfortable acknowledging DWI, but are wont to admit there is gang activity in their communities. “Not to panic.”  Finally, those most directly affected by gangs are from communities with demographics more historically marginalized because of income, education and collateral social problems.  I suspect the answer to what priority is more important would be different in Freeport, Roosevelt or Hempstead than that in Long Beach, as suggested at a June 1 community meeting in Uniondale when the Nostrand Gardens Civic Association hotly contested these changes before Police Commissioner Kumpter. 

I believe County Executive Ed Mangano was ill-advised and ill-inclined.  I believe District Attorney Kathleen Rice was merely playing to a more receptive voter constituency part and parcel of her Congressional race. NEWSDAY itself, in its May 23 editorial “No Way to Run a Police Department” lamented “Nassau’s many problems subject public protection to whims of politics.” 

The only uniformly-accepted role of government is to protect the public by authorized agents of law enforcement.  In diminishing the gang unit, I believe County leadership diminished public safety. 

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

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