Plan to transfer Suffolk park police to SCPD approved by state legislature

State lawmakers yesterday approved a bill authorizing the transfer of Suffolk County Park Police to the county police department.

As a result, law enforcement and patrols in county park facilities, such as the Indian Island campground in Riverhead, will become the primary responsibility of the local police departments on the East End and the county police department in the five western Suffolk towns.

Suffolk County plans to use a staff of 40 to 45 seasonal park rangers and security guards to maintain order in county parks, campgrounds and beaches during the peak summer season, according to Suffolk County Parks Commissioner Greg Dawson.

The move, endorsed by the county police union, will save the county an estimated $2 million per year, according to the bill sponsored by State Sen. Ken LaValle to amend the state civil service law to enable the transfer of Suffolk park police officers to the SCPD.

The county currently employs 29 officers, five sergeants and one lieutenant in the parks police force. The county parks department manages more than 46,000 acres of parkland. There are 28 county parks, including 11 county campgrounds. There are four county golf courses and two county marinas.

Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter objected to the measure when it was first announced in March. He called it “another unfunded state mandate” that shifts a significant responsibility from the county to the town. Riverhead town taxpayers will now have to bear the cost of police patrols in the will now have to patrol the 275-acre Indian Island Park and campgrounds.

Southold Supervisor Scott Russell said Southold could not absorb any new obligations for costs of policing “without a commensurate increase in our share of county policing funds.”

But county legislators, including the two legislators representing the twin forks, backed a county home rule message seeking the transfer.

“I’m not a fan of big government,” Legis. Al Krupski said. “This is really about shrinking the size of government.”

Krupski said he has been assured by the administration that coverage in county parks “is actually going to be better.”

Walter said this week that an even bigger concern is law enforcement in the Pine Barrens preserve. That job has always been handled by parks police, he said.

The Pine Barrens Commission on Wednesday voted to ask Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco to take on law enforcement in the Pine Barrens, Walter said. The supervisors of Brookhaven, Riverhead and Southampton are members of the state commission, along with DEC regional director Peter Scully, who represents the governor.