Q&A: New 6th Precinct Inspector Palmieri, Deputy Inspector Fasanelli

Inspector Thomas Palmieri took over for former Inspector Robert Oswald last month, stepping into the new role following a position as the commanding officer of the highway patrols in the department and deputy inspector of the First Precinct, among other roles in the SCPD. For five years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he worked in the Sixth Precinct.

As inspector of the Sixth Precinct, he'll oversee close to 175 uniformed officers, plus detectives, in an area that includes close to 200,000 people. Palmieri – as well as Deputy Inspector George Fasanelli, who has been in his current position for two years – sat down with Patch recently as he steps into his new role.

Is there anything you’ve found that makes the Sixth Precinct unique?

Inspector Palmieri: It’s very busy precinct.

Deputy Inspector Fasanelli: There are a lot of traffic issues. The call volume is pretty significant up here. We have a lot of high-speed roadways: 83, 25. So there is a significant number of motor vehicle crashes. The communities vary, as you are well aware. We have some of wealthiest people on island to some of not-so-wealthy.

What do you see as the biggest issue in the precinct?

Palmieri: Prior to my coming here, burglary was a real issue. But a lot of good work was done, we locked up a couple of groups of people doing those burglaries. So that’s always a concern that we have. Drug activity is all over Suffolk County. Nobody’s immune to that, so that’s a concern.

As George mentioned, we have a lot of open roadways, and some high speed roadways, and some serious crashes out here. Traffic enforcement, traffic safety plans are our priority.

As you come in and get acclimated again, is there anything you want to change as far as devoting resources go?

Palmieri: You know, it’s fluid. And any conditions that come up, we’ll address those. Now, we have some conditions in Port Jeff Station – maybe some homeless people congregating in the Upper Port train station area. So we’ll dedicate some resources to that. It seems like it’s an ongoing situation up there. But it’s pretty much fluid.

I was going to ask about that area. How do you go about cleaning that area up?

Palmieri: I met with Legislator Hahn the other day to talk about that – we’re coming up with some strategies to increase police patrols there. We’re going to have officers park their vehicles and walk through the stores in Upper Port shopping centers just to familiarize themselves with some of shop owners there, some of residents conducting business and going shopping in area. Just more face-to-face exchanges with people there.

And again, police patrol are going to increase their presence. COPE is going to pay some visits there and part of stat will be pro-arrest policy. If somebody doing something illegal, they’re going to get locked up. And in all honesty, if someone does something illegal now they will get locked up, but we will reinforce it.

Fasanelli: It’s a very interesting, unique environment because you really juxtapose two different communities there. You have the train station, which brings its own issues. You have Pax Christi, Hope House. It’s an electric community up there. The village of course has a lot of restaurants and other establishments that serve alcohol on the weekends. It’s a magnet for a lot of young people and does present challenges on both sides of the equation.

That’s another issue on its own - lower Port.

Fasanelli: This past year we changed deployment up there. We assigned two officers to what we called the “whisky chart” – Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights they come in at 4 in the afternoon, and work until 4 in the morning. It has helped us a lot. And when necessary, we deployed other parts of the police department – highway patrol – if we felt things were spinning too much in the wrong direction in terms of drinking and other behaviors down there.

The real focus has been those two locations: upper and lower port.

You had spoken earlier about drugs – prescription drug use for past few years has been a growing trend, like you said no place is immune. Is there anything you can do to get ahead of the problem?

Fasanelli: There’s been a big change department-wide. We’ve tried different strategies over the years, and one of the strategies that has been deployed for quite some time has been that drug enforcement has really been the purview of specialized units. The new chief of the department, James Burke, has changed that philosophy. He wants everyone to be engaged in the fight against drugs and drug abuse and the impacts that it has. 

In your new role as Commanding Officer of the precinct, what challenges have you found so far?

Palmieri: I’ve worked in highway patrol, I was the CO there. Just more accountability there I guess. More responsibility.

Fasanelli: One of the big things at this level is that the precinct operates 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. In that sense, it's unlike many other jobs - the inspector’s responsibility is that time period. It's not like you go home and lock your office.

Palmieri: It’s been a tremendous amount of information to absorb. Even personnel – just get a handle on who officers are, the conditions in the community. Initially, I think it’s a little overwhelming. But then you acclimate to it, get an understanding of what the conditions are.