Halloween week patrols at abandoned Long Island parks aim to thwart vandalism
A building at the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center in 2022. Credit: Barry Sloan
With Halloween around the corner — and a visit to one of Long Island's "scary sites" an attractive idea to some — expect increased police patrols and restrictions at notorious and abandoned locations, officials said.
The office of New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Long Island Regional Director George Gorman said state parks staff and State Park Police will institute travel restrictions — and, will have increased patrols — beginning Friday at several Long Island locations, among them the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center, Nissequogue River State Park and Montauk area spots, including Camp Hero. The increased patrols are designed to thwart vandalism and also help keep the public safe by preventing trespassing, Gorman said.
While Amityville Village police said there are no travel restrictions on Ocean Avenue, the site of the DeFeo murders that gained worldwide notoriety in the wake of the "Amityville Horror" movie, police noted there will be increased patrols and police presence throughout the village — and in the area of the home, whose owners even had the street address changed years ago to deter curiosity seekers.
And Suffolk County police said that while there won't be Halloween-specific additional patrols at locations like the old Dowling College site in Oakdale, they have added patrols there since the campus closure in 2016. Suffolk police will have increased patrols during this Halloween week in order to protect trick-or-treaters, officials said.
The Kings Park Psychiatric Center site has been abandoned since 1996 — and remains a draw during the Halloween season, Gorman said.
"Unfortunately," Gorman said, "Kings Park is considered one of the scariest locations on Long Island, hyped online as a haunted location, and that makes the site a draw around Halloween for anyone who wants to go into the 'scary buildings,' as they say … What a lot of people don't understand is those buildings, being abandoned, are extremely unsafe.
"And we're doing everything we can to keep people safe."
There will be increased patrols by park police and staff, in addition to the daily and overnight patrols already in place at those sites and other state parks locations such as Jones Beach, Bethpage and Robert Moses.
In a statement Friday, state parks said: "Only vehicles and individuals with appropriate reason will be authorized to travel the roadway or walk within the park during this time period."
The agency said the abandoned buildings at the former psychiatric center have unstable walls and roofs at risk of collapse and that substances like asbestos, lead and PCBs are among the hazardous and cancer-causing substances in the air there.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
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