Helping to keep the peace on Patchogue streets

Linda Leuzzi
Posted 1/23/25

Those public safety officers in the sharp white and blue patrol cars monitor activity on Patchogue Village streets round the clock. Officers can check noise decibels, issue violations and parking …

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Helping to keep the peace on Patchogue streets

Posted

Those public safety officers in the sharp white and blue patrol cars monitor activity on Patchogue Village streets round the clock. Officers can check noise decibels, issue violations and parking tickets, clear out an overcrowded event, block a road when necessary, and when a fight takes place, call in Suffolk police.

Mayor Paul Pontieri said Public Safety was initiated in the late 1980s; the Business Improvement District paid for it at first when it was just focused on Main Street. “Now, it’s 2.2 square miles from Atlantic to Bay avenues and south of Lakewood Street,” Pontieri said. “It’s 24 hours a day, seven days, depending on the shift.”

There are about 25 to 30 public safety officers, all part timers. The patrols ramp up on Friday and Saturday nights. So, when there is a noise disturbance or a fight, please call 631-475-1225.

Don’t use Facebook thinking it’s a direct link to a dispatcher. It’s not.

“Our concern is that if residents are having an issue, they need to call us, especially if it’s a noise incident,” Pontieri said. “This is what’s been frustrating. People think if they put it on Facebook, it’s an immediate heads-up to our officers. It isn’t.”

Pontieri was referring to a noise occurrence from a river establishment on the Patchogue River by the ferry that took place at the end of December.  “The complaints came through two days later. If they called Public Safety, we could do a decibel reading or clear out the place if it’s overcrowded.”

Public Safety director Jim Berberich, who signed on in 2008, has seen it all. “The thing that confuses us is how many people can be so upset when we only got one call at 5 p.m. that night,” he said. “Calls should be made on the day and time it’s happening. That Saturday event was noisy. I think the restaurant’s permit was from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. My officer went in, asked the manager to lower the noise, and the establishment turned the music down. Someone posted the noise complaint on social media the day after; it blew up and went on for days.”

Changes, though, are afoot. “We had a meeting recently with the Building Department and the village clerk to see how we can move forward. Our whole procedure is being evaluated. What was suggested is that when someone applies for a permit, to send a Building Department and Public Safety representative to the restaurant or bar and make sure they are conforming to village code.”

The village is usually quiet during the week, Berberich said, “but the weekend crowd is completely different. The dinner crowd starts to go home at 10 p.m. With the younger ones that come after, there are some fights in establishments, and sometimes they happen in front of us. Our officers can’t do anything to get involved. People are standing around looking at them to take action and don’t want to hear they called the police, but it’s not their job.

“We call the 5th Precinct; they have a unit on weekend nights helping us.”

His officers get hassled, but so do Suffolk police. Sadly, the respect factor over the last few years has mostly disappeared.

Berberich said they can issue tickets for public urination and open containers.

“It depends on the time of the year,” Berberich said of the uptick in activity. “It’s pretty quiet during the week. You have music from the establishments on the river during the summer, most of the time. Then on Main Street at night, there are the drinking fights at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m.

“We patrol 24/7,” Berberich emphasized. “It’s safe in Patchogue Village. And there really has not been a huge incident in recent years, in large part due to Suffolk County police. They have a special detail to go after drunk drivers.”

Berberich said his staff are mostly young officers trying to establish themselves in a law enforcement career, with some retired police officers, like himself (a former New York City police lieutenant), in the mix.

“I’m always looking for good officers,” he said. “Applications are on the village website.”