Nassau County creates police response team to quell potential problems at schools, other events

Backed by a display of law enforcement muscle that included a helicopter, an armored vehicle, drones and dozens of officers, Nassau County officials on Wednesday announced the creation of a new Police Strategic Response Team that will be deployed across the county to quell problems at schools and large public gatherings.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said the team will focus on schools in the days before most students return to Nassau classrooms next week, but in the future, it will be deployed wherever intelligence indicates it will be needed.

"It will be used initially for the school openings, and to make sure everything goes smooth, and they will be available every day that schools are open," Blakeman said during a news conference at the Nassau Police Center for Training and Intelligence in Garden City. "But we will have the flexibility to use them in various situations."

Nassau has enjoyed historically low crime rates in recent years and Blakeman and Ryder called it the safest county in the nation at Wednesday’s news conference.

They said creating the team provides an extra layer of security for the county. Ryder and Blakeman did not provide school crime statistics or information about incidents in schools that warranted police involvement. 

The formation of the Police Strategic Response Team was not spurred by any specific threats, a Nassau police spokeswoman said, or motivated by the school shooting in Minneapolis Wednesday that left two children dead and 17 people injured. The rollout of the Police Strategic Response Team had been in the works for weeks, she said.

The unit will receive regular intelligence briefings to identify possible hot spots where tensions might arise, such as concerts, illegal car rallies and political protests.

"It will be equipped with people who are experienced, privy to intelligence and information on a real-time basis, to make sure that our communities are safe,” Blakeman said. Officials said the team could also be deployed in neighborhoods where crime is rising.

"Let’s say we find out that there is a crime spree somewhere in the county where we are seeing break-ins in cars. Then we would put some of those members over these," Blakeman said.

The team will be complemented by a network of 100 new license plate cameras that will be placed strategically across the county. The cameras use artificial intelligence to capture license plate data as well as a vehicle’s make, model, color and year. Police can apply filters to narrow searches.

If police are looking for a white car with a golden retriever sticking his head out the window, Blakeman said, the system will provide data on every white vehicle with a retriever in the county. The new camera system, which will cost $1.4 million and be paid for with asset forfeiture funds, allows police to track every vehicle that enters Nassau.

"What we have done here today was invest again in security to keep your kids safe," Ryder said.

Many Nassau schools and houses of worship have also been provided with the Rave app, which is basically a panic button that sends users directly to first responders. "It bypasses 911 and the cavalry comes in immediately,” Blakeman said. "There is no questioning, there’s nobody asking what’s going on. We send our police officers to that situation, assuming that there is an emergency.”

Ryder said officers with the Police Strategic Response Team will visit Nassau schools to learn about their buildings and campuses.

"They will understand the environment they police,” Ryder said. "If you understand the environment you police it better.”

With AP