The safest county in the country has a serious problem with police accountability
At the end of September, Nassau County was named the “safest county in America” for the second year in a row. Coincidentally, the police department of this very same county was sued by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) days after for withholding misconduct records dating back to 2000. How can Nassau County tout being “the safest in the nation” when its police refuse to be held accountable?
“You make a claim that the county is the safest because you are looking at crime statistics, apparently, and don’t include criminal acts by police officers in the realm of police brutality,” said Susan Gottehrer, director of the Nassau County chapter of the NYCLU. “If you’re not going to include police officer behavior when you make the claim of the safest county [in America] ... Then that claim might make sense to you.”
The so-called safest county in America spent an estimated $55 million on payouts for police misconduct victims between 2015 and 2020. Buying silence is not a replacement for community safety. People of marginalized identities are far more likely to experience police violence, and Nassau County legislators and Nassau County Police Department (NCPD) fail to acknowledge how over policing and lack of true accountability do nothing to protect these groups. Nassau County is only safe for those who will never have to deal with violence at the hands of the police.
The corruption within NCPD runs deep and goes beyond this lawsuit. With no external entity to evaluate the behavior of police, they are left to examine their handlings (or rather mishandlings) themselves. This further cements NCPD’s ability to evade accountability. Why protect your community when you can keep your fellow boys in blue comfortable?
The passage of the Police Statistics and Transparency (STAT) Act – an act that requires New York State to collect and report demographic data of people arrested and charged with a misdemeanor or violation – in 2020 made some improvements for police accountability. However, this act is not as all-encompassing as Nassau County police reform advocates had hoped. Prior to this act being put into place, the NYCLU found that NCPD failed to report any data on demographics of arrests or present disparities. Gottehrer stated officers were not even collecting this information, nor were they required by the state to collect or report this data publicly. The passage of the STAT Act is a hopeful step forward in transparency and accountability within policing, but there is still more to be done.
Nassau County’s own plan for police reform, passed in March 2021, feels like little beyond optics. NCPD plans to issue biannual reports on use of force and bias incidents and hate crimes among other face-saving initiatives, but there is still no outside force –or anyone with power at least –working to hold police accountable. True transparency and accountability starts with fulfilling FOIL requests like that from NYCLU. That’s how you actually ensure all members of a community are safe. Not with payouts or by sweeping misconduct under the rug.
