Suffolk DA teaming with towns to target quality-of-life problems
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney speaking Friday about a joint program with five towns that will target quality-of-life offenses. Credit: Tom Lambui
The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office is expanding an initiative focused on fighting quality-of-life problems into four more towns after a successful pilot program in Babylon.
The towns of Brookhaven, Huntington, Islip and Smithtown will become part of the program that focuses on prosecuting people who commit repeated town code violations and crimes, Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney and town officials said at Friday news conference.
An assistant district attorney will be assigned to each town to act as a liaison with municipal officials, community leaders and police. Those prosecutors will communicate regularly with local leaders and attend meetings so they can learn about quality-of-life issues that emerge and take action, officials said.
Animal cruelty offenses, catalytic converter theft and illegal drug sales are among the problems they said they plan to target. Tierney noted that communities across the county have similar goals.
“They want safety for their friends, their family, their children and they want their neighborhoods to be vibrant, they want to be treated fairly … They came to Suffolk County to have a great quality of life,” the district attorney added.
Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer said he “couldn’t be happier about the relationship” forged in the last year with Tierney’s office.
He said prosecutors have been instrumental in helping the town with “problem houses” where town code violations and crimes are being committed regularly.
Schaffer said the town has been aggressive in dealing with such properties, using the town’s “crack house law” to board up homes and evict tenants after two public nuisance arrests on site within a year. Crimes including drug possession, prostitution and gang assault are some of the offenses that trigger that law.
The nuisance law was created at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in the mid-1990s when the town took on negligent homeowners and for a five-year period boarded up more than two dozen homes. The law went largely unused by the town for nearly two decades until 2013.
Records show that in the last year, the town has declared four homes as public nuisances, with public hearings on two more scheduled for later this month.
“Now we’ve got our team on the towns side, the police on the Suffolk County side and the district attorney's office on the prosecution side,” Schaffer said. “When you have that force against you and you’re committing crimes and you’re disrupting the quality of life in your neighborhood, that is an awesome force that really can’t be beaten.”
Other town leaders who attended the news conference also praised the partnership. Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine said he gets calls every day on quality-of-life issues.
“’I have a zombie house next to me and it’s now turned into a drug house, I have squatters living next to me, I have people stealing my catalytic converter … how can you help me?’” Romaine said of the calls he gets. “The lifeline that the DA’s office and his team have offered town supervisors is crucial.”
The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office is expanding an initiative focused on fighting quality-of-life problems into four more towns after a successful pilot program in Babylon.
The towns of Brookhaven, Huntington, Islip and Smithtown will become part of the program that focuses on prosecuting people who commit repeated town code violations and crimes, Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney and town officials said at Friday news conference.
An assistant district attorney will be assigned to each town to act as a liaison with municipal officials, community leaders and police. Those prosecutors will communicate regularly with local leaders and attend meetings so they can learn about quality-of-life issues that emerge and take action, officials said.
Animal cruelty offenses, catalytic converter theft and illegal drug sales are among the problems they said they plan to target. Tierney noted that communities across the county have similar goals.
“They want safety for their friends, their family, their children and they want their neighborhoods to be vibrant, they want to be treated fairly … They came to Suffolk County to have a great quality of life,” the district attorney added.
Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer said he “couldn’t be happier about the relationship” forged in the last year with Tierney’s office.
He said prosecutors have been instrumental in helping the town with “problem houses” where town code violations and crimes are being committed regularly.
Schaffer said the town has been aggressive in dealing with such properties, using the town’s “crack house law” to board up homes and evict tenants after two public nuisance arrests on site within a year. Crimes including drug possession, prostitution and gang assault are some of the offenses that trigger that law.
The nuisance law was created at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in the mid-1990s when the town took on negligent homeowners and for a five-year period boarded up more than two dozen homes. The law went largely unused by the town for nearly two decades until 2013.
Records show that in the last year, the town has declared four homes as public nuisances, with public hearings on two more scheduled for later this month.
“Now we’ve got our team on the towns side, the police on the Suffolk County side and the district attorney's office on the prosecution side,” Schaffer said. “When you have that force against you and you’re committing crimes and you’re disrupting the quality of life in your neighborhood, that is an awesome force that really can’t be beaten.”
Other town leaders who attended the news conference also praised the partnership. Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine said he gets calls every day on quality-of-life issues.
“’I have a zombie house next to me and it’s now turned into a drug house, I have squatters living next to me, I have people stealing my catalytic converter … how can you help me?’” Romaine said of the calls he gets. “The lifeline that the DA’s office and his team have offered town supervisors is crucial.”
Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.
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