Nassau PBA accuses police department of improper staffing levels during special events, court papers show

The Nassau County Police Benevolent Association is accusing the police department of improperly staffing several events in recent months, including President-elect Donald Trump’s Sept. 18 rally at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, held just days after an assassination attempt was thwarted.

The union's allegations are included in court papers opposing a PBA demand for arbitration over staffing issues filed on Dec. 4 by a lawyer for the county in Nassau Supreme Court. 

"The department had advance notice of the potential crowd size and safety concerns for each of these events; and despite requests for adequate police presence, they were not properly staffed," PBA Second Vice President David J. Re wrote in the Oct. 25 letter.

Trump, who spoke for 90 minutes before a packed house at the 16,000-seat Coliseum, was the target of two assassination attempts earlier this year, including one on Sept. 15 in Florida. The court papers do not say how many officers were assigned to the rally and other events. 

A letter accusing the Nassau County Police Department of understaffing the Trump rally and other events was attached to a petition to stay arbitration filed on Dec. 4 by attorney William C. De Witt of the Bee Ready Law Group, which is representing the county in the matter.

Lawyers for Nassau and the police union have agreed to adjourn the petition for judicial review of the arbitration request until Feb. 7. A schedule for judicial review stipulated by the parties gives the county until Jan. 31 to file papers in opposition for arbitration. The PBA will then have until Feb. 6 to respond.

Concerts by Don Felder and Steve Aoki at Eisenhower Park were also improperly staffed, the union said in an Oct. 25 letter to Commissioner Patrick Ryder, as well as two protests held in Nassau County this fall. The letter called the department’s staffing practices a violation of the PBA’s contract with the county.

Nassau police declined to comment on the request for arbitration. Chris Boyle, a spokesman for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, did not respond to requests for comment. The PBA also did not return requests for comment.

A 20-year-old man fired shots into a Trump rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, about two months before the president-elect’s rally at the Nassau Coliseum. Trump was injured during the incident and a rally attendee was killed.

Authorities arrested a 58-year-old man who was spotted with a rifle at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, just three days before the Nassau rally. The suspect, officials said, intended to shoot Trump.

In his letter to Ryder, Re said precinct patrol units had to be diverted from their usual duties as a result of the inadequate staffing at the Trump rally and other events. Those actions, Re said, violated minimum staffing requirements for precincts outlined in the collective bargaining agreement. 

"Unfortunately, this is typical of the department’s staffing of events which puts the safety of police officers and the public at risk," Re’s letter added.

The papers filed by De Witt ask the court to permanently block the Nassau police union’s demand for arbitration, arguing that staffing decisions are reserved by statute to the "authority and discretion of the Nassau County Commissioner of Police and therefore not a subject that can be collectively bargained with the county."

In a Nov. 8 letter to Re — also included in the county’s petition — Ryder said precinct staffing requirements were not violated and that patrol units were not used for the concerts or the Trump rally.

A commander at a Sept. 15 demonstration at the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst synagogue requested assistance after protesters became agitated, raising the specter of mass arrests, Ryder said. Thanks to additional patrol resources, Ryder said, only one person was arrested.