22 September 2009

Suozzi, Rice, Mulvey & Kaiman Announce

Successful Drug Disposal and Gun Buy Back Program Results

Mineola, NY - Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, District Attorney Kathleen Rice, Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey, Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman, joined by Legislator Dave Mejias (D-Farmingdale), today announced the results of the Drug Disposal Program (held 9/12/2009) and Gun Buy Back Programs (held 9/12/2009 & 9/19/2009).

"The Gun Buy Back program has proven to be very effective in decreasing violent crime in Nassau County. It allows people to safely get rid of a gun before it falls into the wrong hands. While Nassau County remains one of the safest of its size in the nation, this successful initiative results in having fewer illegal guns on our streets and in our neighborhoods, and we are pleased to continue the program,” said County Executive Suozzi. “The Drug Disposal program was also very successful. As many of you already know, on July 28th I held Nassau County’s second summit on the resurgence of Heroin. One of the primary findings from the panel of experts assembled was that many of our youth begin their unfortunate journey to heroin addiction by first sharing pharmaceuticals stolen from the medicine cabinets of their home or the home of another. We are pleased that these drugs have been taken out of the reach of those who should not be taking them.”

Drug Disposal Results: The Drug Disposal Program was hosted Saturday, September 12, 2009 by County Executive Suozzi, Police Commissioner Mulvey and in North Hempstead by Supervisor Kaiman. Residents were urged to drop off anonymously their unwanted, unused, expired and/or illicit drugs. The program proved very successful with tens of thousands of pharmaceuticals being collected. Removing these items from the medicine cabinets of Nassau residents will help in the fight against the recent heroin resurgence, will help prevent young child accidental ingestion and will help protect our environment.

Gun Buy Back Results: On Saturday, September 12, 2009, the Gun Buy Back Program was held at the Iglesia Pentecostal De Hempstead Church in Hempstead and at the First Baptist Cathedral of Westbury Church in Westbury. Residents were urged to anonymously bring in their unlicensed handguns and receive $200 cash in exchange. The event once again proved very successful with 243 operable illegal guns being purchased and taken off our streets. This past Saturday (September 19th) the Gun Buy Back Program was held at the Christian Light Missionary Baptist Church in Long Beach and 119 operable handguns were purchased. Asset Forfeiture funds from the District Attorney’s Office and the Nassau County Police Department were utilized to fund the Gun Buy Back programs. In addition, the PBA, DAI and SOA law enforcement unions contributed to making this event a success. The previous two Gun Buy Back Programs were also extremely successful. The first program, which took place in December of 2008, resulted in the recovery of 424 illegal guns. The second program, which took place in May of 2009, resulted in the recovery of 315 guns.