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Flower Hill trustees hear public split on $180,000 overnight security patrol; data offered but no vote
Summary
Trustees held an extended public meeting Oct. 7 on whether to continue a single-vehicle overnight security patrol. Residents and a security advisory committee urged continuation for deterrence; a volunteer data review showed a drop in some crimes after patrol began but its author said causation is unclear. Trustees deferred a decision to gather more metrics and consult county police on license-plate-reader coverage.
Mayor (unnamed in the transcript) opened a public meeting Oct. 7 to gather resident views on the village's overnight security patrol, a program budgeted at about $180,000 a year.
AJ Smith, chair of Flower Hill's security advisory committee, told trustees the committee voted unanimously to recommend continuing a single vehicle that patrols overnight (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.). Smith said the patrol was added to this year's budget and initially paid from reserves. He summarized petition activity among committee members supporting continuation and said the committee sought public input rather than pressing the board for an immediate vote.
Trustees pressed for measurable evidence of effectiveness. Trustee Collins asked for a plan to evaluate the program, suggesting monthly crime updates from county police and consideration of alternate or seasonal deployment. Collins highlighted the budget impact, noting trustees had calculated a per-household cost of roughly $119 annually (about $10 per month) based on census and village figures discussed at the meeting.
Resident speakers gave mixed testimony. Steven Fields, who led a small privately funded patrol in his neighborhood earlier this year, described that effort as successful and said deterrence matters even if it is hard to quantify. David Frankel, a resident and volunteer with experience in clinical-trial data, said he reviewed roughly 30 months of Nassau County crime data focusing on burglaries, robberies, auto larceny and criminal mischief. Frankel reported that auto larceny and the other categories he tracked appear lower in 2024 in the months after the patrol started than in equivalent months in prior years, but he warned the data cannot distinguish causation from correlation and offered to provide trustees with detailed charts.
Several residents urged keeping the patrol through the holidays and into winter, saying the presence of the vehicle and signs at village entrances increase residents' sense of security. Others cautioned that a single car covering about six miles of village roadway once a night provides very limited on-site time at any given house and recommended broader measures such as license-plate readers or cameras. Trustees said they would pursue additional metrics, ask county police for crime-trend data and seek information about license-plate reader coverage in the North Shore area.
No formal vote was taken that night. Mayor said the board would not decide the issue at the meeting and would continue gathering information, including data Frankel offered to share and follow-up with Nassau County Police about existing license-plate readers.
