New Nassau Initiative Brings Together Police, Community

NASSAU COUNTY, NY — County Executive Laura Curran announced she was creating and leading a new policing initiative that would bring together community activists and the police department to find ways to improve relations between the departments and the communities they serve.

The new initiative is called Police And Community Trust (PACT). It will be chaired by Curran, and will include activists from many communities, Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder, officers from the NCPD's Community Affairs office and Garden City Police Commissioner Kenneth Jackson, who is the president of the Municipal Chief's Association, which represents all of the village and city police departments in the county.

"It's important for leaders in government to listen — we love to talk — but it's very important for us to listen, which is what we're going to do," said Curran.

Curran said the goal of PACT is to find more ways to improve relations between the police and communities. Following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protesters nationwide have been calling for reforms to policing and the way officers interact with the people they serve.

There have been dozens of protests in Nassau County following Floyd's death, and they have all been peaceful. To date, there have been 14 arrests made.

But the Nassau County police have not escaped criticism about their tactics. A video taken at a protests in East Meadow on June 12 appeared to show a NCPD officer walk in front of a marching protester and then stop, causing the protester to bump into him. Other officers then swarmed the protester and arrested him. The video of the incident went viral and was viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

PACT will meet bi-monthly, in both online conferences and in socially-distanced round-tables. Though the goal is to improve relations between communities and the police, it will not lead to defunding of the police department, which Curran said she is "absolutely opposed" to.

"I believe that our resources that we have put in community policing are paying off in dividends," she said. "We have tripled the amount of police officers who are in our Community Affairs offices. We have tripled the number of POP officers — problem oriented police — who work in a very granular way. I reopened two precincts that were closed by the previous administration so that we can strengthen community bonds. The fact that we've had peaceful protests in Nassau County is in large part because of the emphasis we place on community policing. And we always strive to do better."

Over the weekend, Curran announced a plan to equip all sworn officers in Nassau County with body cameras, and the county is currently looking for vendors to help make that happen.

"I believe we will emerge stronger and more unified if we can listen — really listen — engage in good faith and respect each other," said Curran.