OUR VIEWS What are Nassau police hiding?

Exactly what are the Nassau County police hiding?

That seems to be a fair question following a national study by the Vera Institute, which found Nassau County tied for the second-lowest score for police transparency in the United States. The county scored 12 out of 100 in the survey.

The lowest-ranked police department among the 94 cities and counties? Birmingham, Ala. Most people would agree that having your criminal justice system ranked at the bottom of the list with a city in Alabama is not a good thing.

Nassau County, according to the report from the Vera Institute, a notfor-profit that advocates for criminal justice reforms, scored a 0 in every category except for an 81 in police contact information and a 100 in policies.

The departments were judged on their data being “accessible,” “usable,” and “meaningful,” according to the report

The study prompted longtime critics of the Nassau County Police Department to renew calls for a civilian review board to evaluate complaints of police misconduct.

These complaints in Nassau County are currently handled by an Internal Affairs unit manned by police. This is known as the fox guarding the chicken house.

“My concern and, I think everyone’s concern, is that without any oversight, and in Nassau there is zero oversight, there is only Internal Affairs,” Susan Gottehrer, the director of the Nassau County chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a phone interview with Blank Slate Media.

The numbers support Gottehrer’s point.

From 2016 to 2021, Nassau County reported zero “founded” cases of false arrest and excessive force.

But during that time 30 people