SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Rob Trotta Police Bill (Part II)

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP 

By Karl Grossman

The bill by Suffolk Legislator Rob Trotta—a retired Suffolk Police uniformed officer and detective—to prohibit members of the Suffolk County Police Department from “engaging in political activity” has been described by Newsday as the “Suffolk version of the federal Hatch Act.” It’s the U.S. law that restricts civil service employees in the executive branch of the federal government from engaging in political activity.

Trotta, with the Suffolk County Police Department up to his election to the legislature has been—despite his county police background—highly critical of political activities of Suffolk police unions led by the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association.

This is not just his issue. Newsday has published investigative pieces and editorials on the matter. The New York Times spotlighted the issue in Suffolk with a spread last year that featured a column by Farah Stockman, an editorial board member of The Times, headlined: “The County Where Cops Call the Shots.” It began: “Rob Trotta, a cranky Republican county legislator on Long Island who worked as a cop for 25 years, might be the unlikeliest voice for police reform in America. He’s full of praise for the rank and file….Yet Mr. Trotta has railed for years about the political influence of police unions in Suffolk County, Long Island, a place where the cops are known to wield exceptional clout. He’s a potent messenger, since he can’t be smeared as anti-cop. He wore a badge and walked a beat.”

I know the Suffolk County Police Department well having been hired in 1964 by the daily Long Island Press to cover the department and courts in Suffolk. Every weekday morning I sat with the department’s commissioner, John L. Barry (for whom its headquarters in Yaphank is now named), before walking down the halls of the then headquarters in Hauppauge, dropping in at its various bureaus to gather news.

The Suffolk County Police Department was born in the wake of scandal, known as the “Suffolk Scandals,” which involved a series of special state prosecutors sent here in the 1950s and uncovering corruption in governmental and law enforcement areas.

A top priority of Jack Barry, who had been a detective investigator in the Suffolk district attorney’s office, was keeping the new department scandal-free. It was formed in 1960 after a countywide referendum. That was the commitment of other top commanders in the department with whom I would also connect.

What Legislator Trotta has been challenging is a phenomenon of relatively recent years: police unions in Suffolk with enormous clout endorsing and giving campaign contributions to politicians and, Trotta charges, in return getting lavish contracts.

The issue of the clout of police unions is not unique to Suffolk. Last year in Salon magazine, former U.S Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote a piece headed: “The unchecked power of police unions.” He declared at the start: “Look, I was Secretary of Labor. I’m in favor of unions.” Still, he railed about an “investigation that found police unions spent about $87 million in influencing state and local legislation over the past two decades, and at least $47.4 million on campaign contributions and lobbying at the federal level.” 

I, too, am very much in favor of unions. At the Long Island Press, I was a member of the Newspaper Guild, and as a SUNY Old Westbury professor of journalism for the past 44 years, a member of United University Professions. 

However, as Trotta, of Fort Salonga, began an essay earlier this year in Newsday: “Why have Suffolk County law enforcement unions unethically and in my view illegally spent over two million dollars on the campaigns of former District Attorney Tim Sini and County Executive Steve Bellone? Because they could. The pair, like the overwhelming majority of local politicians from both parties, have eagerly benefited from the expenditures with little regard for their questionable origins. And, as a result, the power and influence of the unions has continued to grow exponentially, evident by contractual raises received…” 

“Law enforcement unions blatantly disregarding the law to garner political favor at taxpayers’ expense is disgraceful, and cannot be allowed to continue,” he said. “My repeated calls for action and pleas to bring an end to these corrupt practices have been continually ignored by virtually every elected official and agency from several police commissioners, Bellone and Sini to the state attorney general, state Board of Elections and many more. While disheartening, their unresponsiveness has come as no surprise, as these individuals and agencies are benefiting from donations and other support directly or indirectly.”

“These actions also violate the Suffolk County Police Department’s own rules and procedures, which cite state election law. While the union’s actions should not reflect negatively on our hardworking rank-and-file police officers, unfortunately, it is hard to escape the stain of such impropriety,” Trotta continued. “Trust in government is paramount in our society. When those entrusted with preserving law and order knowingly break the law to manipulate public policy and enrich themselves, they must be held accountable or that trust will be forever broken.”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.