Re: Police Coverage in Sagaponack

Source: sagaponackvillage.org

Village of Sagaponack

P.O. Box  600   Sagaponack, N.Y. 11962
631-537-0017     Fax-537-0612
Email: sagaponack@optonline.net

Mayor	Trustees
Don Louchheim	Lee Foster
Clerk-Treasurer	William Barbour
Rosemarie Cary Winchell	Joy Sieger
Village Attorney	Lisa Duryea
Anthony Tohill

July, 2013

Letter to Sagaponack Property Owners

Re: Police Coverage in Sagaponack 

Dear Sagaponack Property Owner,

               The Sagaponack Village Board of Trustees will be holding an information meeting at Village Hall at 9:00 AM on Saturday August 10 to discuss police coverage in the Village and possible plans to establish a Sagaponack Police Department.

               Since Sagaponack’s incorporation, the Village Board has been acutely aware of the disparity between the annual amount paid by Village taxpayers to Southampton Town for police services and the coverage that is provided. For the past two years, the Village Board has been studying the feasibility of various options to provide, at a lower cost, a more visible police presence in the Village throughout the year, with service better tailored to the needs of our community.

               For example, in 2013 Sagaponack property owners were taxed $2.3 million for Southampton Town Police service, the equivalent of more than 10 percent of the entire Town Police tax levy. Yet for most of the year, Sagaponack is served by one officer who covers a sector that can include Bridgehampton and other portions of eastern Southampton Town. After almost six months of negotiations last year, Sagaponack persuaded the Town to assign, when possible, a dedicated officer to the Village for two of the three daily shifts between May 15 and September 15. But we are still underserved on summer weekends and holidays and for the remainder of the year.

               This is not the fault of the Town Police Department. Its staffing has been substantially reduced in recent years and it understandably has to prioritize its coverage to more populous, more commercial and higher crime areas in the western portion of the town. But unfortunately State and Town law provide no mechanism to relieve Sagaponack’s disproportionate Town Police tax burden or to require the Town to increase the Village’s share of police coverage.

               I, as Mayor, and the other Village Trustees have no desire to implement a change as significant as how police coverage is provided, even if it would deliver more coverage at a significantly reduced cost, without the support of Village residents and taxpayers. So please attend the August 10 meeting, learn about the options we have identified and why, and voice any questions or concerns you may have.

             Sincerely,

             Donald Louchheim, Mayor