Last week the Nassau County Police Department, Third Precinct under the direction of Commanding Officer Vincent J. Muscarnera, held an informational forum for all civic organizations and community members who were interested in the workings of the department.

Nassau County Police Commissioner James Lawrence was on hand to introduce Officer Muscarnera, who explained that community meetings will be held on a regular basis by the Third Precinct. He said the mission of the precinct is, "to serve the people of Nassau County and to provide safety and an improved quality of life in our communities through excellence in policing."

The meeting was held at the Nassau County Social Services Building, which is at the back end of the Nassau County Supreme Court and the auditorium was crowded.

Commanding Officer Vince Muscarnera took over the meeting and explained that the precinct is one of the largest in Nassau County serving the communities of: Albertson, Bellerose Terrace, Bellerose Village, Carle Place, East Garden City, East Meadow, East Williston, Garden City Park, Herricks, Mineola, New Cassel, New Hyde Park, North New Hyde Park, Roslyn Heights, Salisbury, Searingtown, Stewart Manor, Westbury and Williston Park.

He explained that the Third Precinct is comprised of 196 police officers and 24 supervisory officers. The precinct serves more than 145,000 residents and encompasses 19 communities, seven of which are incorporated villages. There are 25 patrol sectors and 95 percent of the police personnel is assigned to patrol functions.

He went on to explain that there are various departmental resources in the precinct including: Aviation Bureau, Canine Unit, Detective Division, Emergency Services Unit, Highway Patrol Bureau, Mounted Unit and Narcotics Division.

Further, there are tactical enforcement teams to ensure precinct wide enforcement, including: Gang Enforcement, Street-Level Drug Enforcement, Graffiti, Stolen Cars, Criminal Mischief and. Basic Quality of Life Issues.

Officer Muscarnera explained about a program they call "Nass-Stat" that is the collection and analysis of crime statistics coupled with monthly meetings to disseminate crime data to top-level management and unit commanders. The meetings are the central element of a comprehensive management strategy that emphasizes accountability, proper allocation of resources and evaluation of crime reduction data. Year-to-date analysis indicates that the Third Precinct has an overall decrease of 9.59 percent in the major crime categories which includes murder, sexual assault, robbery, assault, burglary, stolen autos and grand larceny.

Commanding Officer Muscarnera told the group that the most important function of citizens is to be alert for acts of vandalism or burglary; support community partnerships with the police; be civic-minded and be sure to report suspicious activity of any kind directly to 911 immediately.

He said that the biggest issues, as far as safety, is the continuing decay in driving etiquette, the flagrant disregard for the rules of the road, increase in auto accidents and increase in personal injury auto accidents.

To try to resolve some of these problems Officer Muscarnera said that the Third Precinct is targeting locations, enacting selecting enforcement, directed patrols, and highway patrol enforcement. All this is being accomplished with the cooperation of and coordination with the Town of North Hempstead and the Town of Hempstead.

POP Officers (Problem Oriented Police) for each area were introduced. They are:

William Handworth for Albertson, Williston Park, East Williston, Herricks, Searingtown and Roslyn Heights.

John Larson for Mineola.

Nicolas Mosesso for New Hyde Park, North New Hyde Park, Garden City Park, Stewart Manor, Bellerose Village and Bellerose Terrace.

Kevin Nugent for Westbury Village (North of Old Country Road), Carle Place and New Cassel.

Kevin Sirorski for Westbury (South of Old Country Road, East Meadow, East Garden City and Salisbury.)

Anyone wishing to contact any of these officers are asked to call 573-6370 and to leave a message.

Other numbers for the precinct are: Deputy Commanding Officer-Deputy Inspector, Steven G. Williams at 573-6342; Deputy Commanding Officer, Captain Rick Capece at 573-6343 and Administrative Officer Lieutenant Louis Algieri at 573-6348 and the Crime Stoppers at 573-7236 and Third Squad Detectives at 573-6354.

Commanding Officer Muscarnera then opened up the meeting to the community for comments.

Residents of Garden City Park complained about the traffic and the parking violations as did a resident of New Cassel and Commanding Officer Muscarnera said to both residents to just call 911 and to get as much information as possible to report the infraction to the police and then they will take it from there.

Another resident of New Cassel complained about the size of the trucks that go through the area and that they park in residential areas. Once again Officer Muscarnera said to get the license of the truck and call it in to the police.

A resident wanted to know if certain officers are assigned to problem spots where traffic is the worst and Captain Muscarnera said the precinct targets the worst spots, but to call if anyone has a spot that needs to be watched.

He was asked about Roosevelt Field and it was explained that he has assigned police officers to the entire area and they handle about 95 percent of all the calls for service as well as traffic.

Deputy Commanding Officer Rick Capece explained that they have a program set up for teachers, PTA and the students to discuss the problem of gangs. The program informs everyone how to recognize gang members by clothing, tattoos, jewelry, etc. It was also mentioned that most of the kids in a gang are over 18-years of age.

A resident of Garden City Park explained that he has been living there for 23 years and nothing has changed. He said the cars from the high school still tear through the street. He was told to contact the POP officer in the area and to leave a message and he will get back to the resident.

Some of the residents expressed the fact that they feel bad calling 911 for some of their problems, but Officer Muscarnera said that calling 911 was the only way the police know when there is a problem.

The meeting ended and Commanding Officer Muscarnera said that they are going to try to have monthly or bi-monthly meetings so that they keep in touch with residents.