Nassau County was created in 1899. It occupies a 287-square-mile portion of Long Island, located in the southeast portion of New York State. The county is bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Long Island Sound, on the east by Suffolk County, and on the west by New York City. Nassau County is divided into two cities, three towns, and more than eighty villages.
When Nassau County was created, it was a rural area with a population of approximately thirty thousand. The county was composed of large farms and some prominent estates on its north shore, known as the “Gold Coast.” In the 1920s, residents began commuting to Nassau County via the Long Island Railroad, and many of the local farms were sold, subdivided, and developed into various communities. The population of the county increased to almost two hundred thousand. This significant growth prompted government officials to consider the creation of a countywide police agency.
The Nassau County Police Department (hereinafter NCPD) was created April 16, 1925. Fifty-five men who were special deputy sheriffs became the first sworn officers. The new commissioner of police, Abraham Skidmore, designated one of the officers as a captain, two as sergeants, one as a fingerprint expert, eleven as motorcycle patrol officers, and thirty-nine as foot patrol officers. The first precinct was created in the unincorporated areas of the southern half of the county.
At its inception, a unique organizational and taxing structure was established to fund the Nassau County Police Department. The department was divided into two components: headquarters and the police district. The headquarters unit would provide support services such as a countywide crime laboratory, a police academy, and homicide squad detectives to serve all areas of Nassau County whether the area was patrolled by the county police or by a local police department. Thus, all residents of the county would pay for the cost of the police services provided by the components of the headquarters unit. The police district unit provided routine patrol and other police services to those towns and villages that requested basic patrol services. The district taxing structure would derive revenue only from those areas that were actually patrolled by county police officers.
From 1925 to 1945, hundreds of sworn officers were hired, and several police precincts were created to subdivide police services in the county. Several incorporated villages and unincorporated areas abolished their local police departments and opted for patrol service to be provided by the Nassau County Police Department. In 1930, a police headquarters building was erected in Mineola, and it remains at this location today.
By 1946, the population of Nassau County increased to almost four hundred thousand, and the police department grew to 587 sworn members. Various police subdivisions were created, and a marine bureau was established to provide police patrol on the waterways adjacent to the north and south shores of the county.
The end of WWII created an unprecedented demand for housing for returning veterans and others seeking to own a home. Many remaining farms in Nassau County were converted into huge communities such as Levittown. Nassau County experienced explosive growth. The number of sworn officers in the department more than doubled by the early 1960s. In 1968, the population of the county grew to more than one million, and the county police department had almost thirty-two hundred sworn officers. The NCPD became the second largest police department in New York State and the eighth largest municipal police agency in the nation.
In 1966, a new police commissioner, Francis B. Looney, began to emphasize the importance of college education for police officers seeking higher ranks. Commissioner Looney established a liaison with local colleges and universities and officers were encouraged to seek college degrees. With the cooperation of the civil service commission, Commissioner Loo-ney instituted a college education incentive system that favored college educated officers in the promotion process.
Also in 1966, the first sworn female officer, Kathleen Reilly, joined the ranks of the department. Tragically, less than two years later she was killed in an accident while assisting a disabled motorist. Today, there are 296 female officers in the department, and male and female officers work side by side in every aspect of policing. Several female officers have been promoted to precinct commanders or have achieved administrative positions, and at least one of the top-ranking administrative officers in the department is a female.
In 1967, the New York legislature fully recognized municipal labor unions. Since the enactment of this legislation, NCPD police unions have become a very powerful labor and political force in Nassau County, and these unions have dramatically changed the wages, hours, and working conditions of the sworn officers in the department.
In June 1974, the police department employed 3,900 sworn officers. In the late 1970s, the population of Nassau County leveled to approximately 1.3 million. The number of officers employed by the police department began a steady decline in the 1980s and 1990s. In June 2000, a state financial control board was established to oversee the county budget process because of the extraordinary deficit spending that occurred between 1990 and 2000. Significant fiscal restraints have resulted in a reduction in the number of sworn officers in the department. In 2005, the NCPD was staffed by 2,722 sworn officers and 1,282 civilians, and the department provided police service to almost 1.1 million residents. The department has more than nine hundred vehicles, and the 2005 NCPD budget was $619,220,662. Many sworn officers in the department have college degrees, and these officers are among the highest paid in the nation. When county officials develop plans to hire new police recruits, it is not uncommon for twenty-five thousand applicants to seek these sworn positions.
The NCPD is divided into a patrol division, support division, and detective division. The NCPD police academy trains police recruits in a nine-month training program, and it provides supervisory, in-service, and administrative training programs. The department has successfully operated its own ambulance service for more than fifty years. It has a marine/aviation unit, an emergency services bureau, a mounted unit, and specialized detective services.
Promotion in the police department is governed by written civil service examinations for police officer, sergeant, lieutenant, and captain. Thereafter, all administrative officers are appointed to higher rank by the commissioner of police. The department has a Commissioner, two deputy commissioners, one four star chief and three division chiefs. NCPD officials frequently profess that their police department is a service-oriented police agency and that community satisfaction is a major organizational goal. The police department’s service orientation has been observed and confirmed by James Q. Wilson in his much quoted work Varieties of Police Behavior.
