Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice-Transcript

Forestano: Nassau News, it’s a community project through Hofstra University. (00:02)

Rice: Ok. (00:02)

Forestano: Hempstead has been given the reputation as being a high crime area. What is the one area that you believe is the biggest contributor to this so called reputation? (00:12)

Rice: (00:12)-Well there’s one area we’ve been actually working on very hard this year. We unveiled an initiative earlier this year involving one specific area of the village of Hempstead where a lot of the crime in the county comes out of and this area is home to the most or was home to the most notorious open-air drug market. And by that I mean drugs can be purchased or sold any time of the day right out there on the street on Terrace and Bedell.

Rice: (00:45) So we have worked with the community to get rid of the open-air drug market, to work with, help some of the individuals turn their life around. We’re working on economic development in that area, community development. Working with social service agencies from the county, working with the mayor, the village police department in a community effort to turn this one area around in hopes that we will be able to achieve sustained crime reduction in that area. (01:15)

Forestano: (1:16)-That’s the Terrace-Avenue Anti Drug Initiative correct? (01:18)

Rice: (01:18)-Right.

Forestano: Can you explain the origins of this program? (01:21)

Rice: (01:22) Well we were uh, we were focusing on that area because we realized that traditional law enforcement efforts were not really successful in addressing the drug problem there that has been very entrenched and has been for decades and decades. (01:37)

Rice: (01:38)-We reached out to the community and asked them if they would partner with us on this initiative that has been done a couple places around the country. And actually since we have done it, it has since been adopted by the Department of Justice as a crime reduction plan across the country. And it involves just that, getting the community involved, identifying who the drug dealers are, removing them, saturating the area with law enforcement and taking a zero tolerance policy to crime in that area so that you eventually achieve crime reduction through those efforts. (02:12).

Forestano: (02:14)-Did you feel this program would be a good for this type of neighborhood because of the drug related activity or just crime in general? (02:18)

Rice (02:19)-Well I think that there were problems, chronic problems specific to this very area. There was very active drug dealing going on and the result in violent crime that happens where you have a lot of drug dealers in one area selling their drugs (02:37). So, it was specific to this area, this initiative and the way that it is modeled. The reason we implemented it in this area is because it was specific to this area and the problems, the crime problems we’re finding in the Terrace and Bedell area. (02:53)

Forestano (02:57) Do you have other programs that target drugs in other communities on Long Island? (03:01)

Rice: (03:01)- Well this is the first time we’ve done this initiative but we have proactively tried to go out and deal with the drug issues. This is not the only place where there are drug issues, there are throughout the County. We have other programs, we do early intervention where we try to have activities for kids to keep them away from drugs, to keep them away from crime. We have soccer programs, we have mentoring programs, and we are always trying to think of creative ways to deal with the drug problem. That is not just specific to Nassau County but as a problem in many communities across this country. (03:36)

Forestano: (03:37) What would your message be to the youth of this community that have been harmed by drugs? (03:41)

Rice: (03:42)-Well my message is one of hope. If we all as a community ban together to try to address chronic crime problems in the specific areas throughout this county, all of us are going to be better off. Children will get a better education, there will be more job opportunities for people, families will be better off, people will be able to educate their children and keep them safe, and that will make more for a safe, economically robust community. And that’s what we’re optimistic will happen across this county. (04:14)

Forestano: (04:14) Do you have any recent results of this initiative? I once read that they use video surveillance to catch drug dealers in the act. I interviewed Chief Joe Wing, he was telling me about that. (04:25).

Rice: Yes that is one of the investigative tools that we have used in this initiative and in others. I’m sorry, but do you want me to talk about that? (04:35)

Forestano: (04:36) Oh yes please, if you could elaborate. What recent success have you had with this initiative? (04:42)

Rice: (04:42)-Well it’s too early to say that this is a success. This is a long-term initiative with very long-term goals. But in the short term, we have seen positive changes in this area. We are part of developing business groups that we believe are going to be able to help turn the village around from an economic perspective, helping also with getting certain individuals hooked up with social services, help them get a high school education, jobs, job training for jobs and all those kind of things. So were very optimistic about all those efforts in that area and hopefully beyond. (05:25)

Forestano: (05:27)-Some of your critics have questioned why you chose a predominately African-American neighborhood against say like a white neighborhood. What is your response to that? (05:34)

Rice: (05:35)-Well this community chose itself. Any allegation involving motivation having to do with race are really just distractions from the main goal here. We have a community who wants to be able to raise their children in a safe environment and they were willing to partner with us because they recognize all the attempts made from a law enforcement perspective in the past just had not worked for them. And they were still faced with drug dealers out on the street at all times of the day when their kids are coming home from school, when they were walking them to school. So this was really the community dictated this initiative and we believe that, we have a lot of hope and they have a lot of hope and we believe that this initiative is going to be successful because of their involvement. (06:26)