Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy Announces Favorable PERB Decision on Highway Patrol Issue

Labor Board Upholds 2008 Cost-Savings Move to Put Deputy Sheriffs on State Highways, and Redeploy Police Officers to Local Sectors

Hauppauge, NY – Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy this afternoon in what he called ‘a huge victory for the taxpayers’ announced a New York State Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) decision to dismiss entirely charges filed by the Suffolk PBA and Superior Officers Association over the county executive’s 2008 move to assign patrol of the Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway to Deputy Sheriffs.

The decision, which is not subject to appeal under an agreement the county negotiated last year with the PBA, upholds Levy’s redeployment of approximately 55 officers off the state-owned roads into local precinct sectors.

“Shifting the sheriffs to patrol our state roads helped me submit a tax freeze budget in 2009 and 2010, and this decision upholding that move will help me freeze taxes next year,” Levy said.

The August 12 decision by Administrative Law Judge Philip L. Maier dismissed all charges filed by the PBA and SOA.

Levy began talks with New York State in early 2008 to have state troopers take responsibility for patrolling state roads, as is the case in nearly every other county in the state. After months of fruitless talks with high-level state representatives in which Suffolk sought either financial or manpower assistance for patrolling the LIE and Sunrise Highway, Levy gave the order to move the Suffolk Police Department’s Highway Patrol Unit off those two roads at 10 a.m. on September 15, 2008, with patrol functions taken over by Sheriff Vincent Demarco

According to the county executive, the annual police cost of patrolling two state roads was approximately $12 million. Deputy Sheriffs, who receive the same academy training and are assigned the same equipment to patrol, are paid an average of $42,000 less than police officers. Through the 2008 shift, Levy attained a cost avoidance of approximately $20 million, since 55 officers became available to local precincts, negating the need for a recruit class in 2009.