Mayor: Hempstead Village cops to wear body cameras

Hempstead Village police will outfit their force with body cameras, Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr. said Monday night during his State of the Village address.

In the speech Monday night at Hofstra University, Hobbs said the department’s sworn officers have agreed to wear body cameras while on duty and interacting with the public. The village was not required to pay officers any additional stipend to wear the body cameras, he said.

"The body cameras are not a way of punishing our officers. It’s a way of protecting the safety for our officers and residents,” Hobbs told the audience in a packed campus theater. “Thank  God for the men and women who love to protect the Village of Hempstead. Unlike other departments, I didn’t have to pay our officers an extra dime to wear these cameras.”

Hempstead Village police, with about 120 sworn officers, is the third-largest police department on Long Island, behind Nassau and Suffolk counties.

The department now joins Nassau County and Village of Freeport police as Nassau law enforcement agencies with officers wearing body cameras. The Nassau police union last year agreed to have members wear body cameras in exchange for a $3,000 annual stipend.

Suffolk County's police union came to a similar agreement for its members in 2021, with officers wearing body cameras in exchange for a $1,000 annual stipend for the first three years, and $3,000 annually after that.

Hempstead also plans to hire 15 more officers to bolster its force, the mayor said, with help from federal funding through the Biden administration's efforts to aid police departments nationwide.

"Hempstead is the largest village in New York," Hobbs said. "We are a transit hub and I believe on any day we have more than 44,000 people commuting back and forth and this will help address the safety concerns of our residents and visitors alike."

The village has also created a quality of life task force, including 10 officers on mountain bikes assigned to patrol the village’s main downtown, apartment complexes, and bus and train stations.

The bike unit made more than 150 arrests last year, including drug and gun charges, and wrote nearly 500 tickets.

Hobbs said crime overall in the village had dropped 15% in his first year as mayor and police have also seized 70 illegal weapons off the streets.

Hobbs also called on state legislators to make changes to the state’s bail and discovery laws to keep dangerous offenders behind bars.

“I know that crime cannot be addressed in a vacuum; locking everyone up is not the answer either,” the mayor said. “I have met with our Nassau County executive, Department of Social Services and various other county, state and federal stakeholders to ensure that mental health and homeless services are available to the Hempstead community who are in need.”

Hobbs said the village would also attempt to revitalize the village downtown. Hempstead received $5 million in federal funding for sewer improvements. The village also received $16.5 million under the American Rescue Plan to help homeowners facing back taxes.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.