The Mineola Police Issue Part II

The debate over whether Mineola should form its own police force has gotten interesting. As I see it, the main complaint seems to be that taxes will go up and we don't know what we will be betting in return. As to the former issue, I have already spoken, but with regards to whether we are opening up a Pandora's box, I just don't see the complaint.

First, as this article demonstrates, about 25 villages nationwide have adopted community police departments and they seem to be satisfied with them. Further, Long Island already has a number of Village Police Departments--Garden City and Floral Park for example---and they seem satisfied with them. To put it another way, there has been no movement towards joining the county but there has been movement towards establishing separate community police departments. That is telling, in my opinion.

How does this relate to what we are learning in class? It goes back to the issue of costs and benefits. Taxes are going up county wide for the Police Department at the same time Police service is being cut. By separating the community policing aspect from the County, Mineola has a chance at increasing coverage at the same (or possibly less) cost.

Another way this relates to our class has to do with specialization. While we talked about specialization in terms of increasing size (and specializing in specific features such as produing the head of pin instead of the entire pin), the theory is related to the Village Police Department. By specializing in Mineola Police issues, the Officers will have specialized knowledge of the Village, its needs and its hot spots.