Schenectady officials picked wrong incident to serve for an example
Making an example out of a few bad apples is perfectly fine. However, to make an example out of some good apples, well that’s just plain rotten. Let’s face it, the recent brouhaha with the Schenectady Police Department and some drunken repeat exconvict yelling obscenities and threatening the officers during the early morning hours was just that — a poor example! If you are going to set a precedent, do it the right way and with the right people, who deserve to be made an example of. Let’s not base the recent incident on past department mistakes. As a business owner in Schenectady, I am concerned with the city’s future and safety, especially if we go about it the wrong way. This is the wrong way. Getting arrested and going to jail is not supposed to be a pleasant experience. Do we think this person should have been escorted to the station in the back of a limousine, with strawberries, French champagne and a fi ne Cuban cigar? Police around the country risk their lives every day when they go to work. An ordinary traffic stop could be the last stop they make, never to return home. Give these officers some discretion on how to handle a difficult situation, especially when the person in question is obviously demonstrating aggression toward the officer’s well-being. OK, so the people of Schenectady want change and are looking for improvement. That’s great, and I am for it; but first I have some questions that should be addressed: Why are Schenectady officers among the lowest paid in the state? Why does the Department of Environmental Conservation get lead-free ammunition, receive yearly ongoing training and get to fire over 150,000 rounds for practice each year? What do our guys get? What’s wrong here? W.J. BROWN Schenectady
SCHENECTADY Volunteers’ police radios wearing out Neighborhood watch seeks donations BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
Neighborhood watch police radios — some more than 25 years old — are breaking down, hampering the group’s patrols and its efforts to locate young children, officials said this week. Neighborhood watch members use radios to keep in contact with police while walking city streets. They’re also used, group members say, in important efforts to find young missing children who might have wandered away from home. “The quicker we can find them, the less likely they will be to fall prey to someone with evil intent,” Schenectady Neighborhood Watch President Fred Lee said. “We have many trained, but we can’t send them out unless they have proper communications equipment.” The groups are using the problem with their radios as the focal point in an effort to raise $40,000 for efforts to keep watch over the city’s neighborhoods. The effort has already gotten donations from Rotary clubs, and some private individuals, officials said. The county has also put in for a grant. Excess funds would go to buy hats, vests and pay for more training, officials said. But the focus is on the radios. Just two years ago, the watch program had between 20 and 22 working radios, Lt. Brian Barnes of the Schenectady Police Department said. They now have seven and those are between 25 and 30 years old, acquired when organized watch groups began in the city. Barnes heads the police department’s Community Services Division and the watch programs. The radios are so old, he said, that when they break down there are no parts to fix them. Six neighborhood watch groups count 175 residents as members. Many simply watch out for crime. Others can do patrols, walking around in the evening getting exercise and seeing what’s happening. Many of those also participate in the Child Find program. The program has been called out about 90 times a year in recent years, mostly for when a child wanders off. The program’s highest profi le success came in 1999, when a child was left on the bus and was found by a program member. Among the residents who participate in Child Find is Hamilton Hill watch head Robert Slater. “We get them late at night and early in the morning,” he said of the Child Find calls. “It’s a 24-hour service.” But such searches require coordination. That’s where the radios come in. For more information on neighborhood watch and Child Find, contact Barnes at 377-4137.
Four men indicted in attack case First published: Wednesday, January 16, 2008
SCHENECTADY -- Four men who allegedly beat a fellow inmate in the county jail were indicted Tuesday on second-degree assault charge.
The attack occurred on Aug. 15, when city residents Jullian Vanness and Nicholas Coons, both 18, and 19-year-olds Corinth Snipes of Schenectady and Nicholas Price of Colonie allegedly approached and beat Zechariah Fay, 17, of Niskayuna, as he talked to his girlfriend on the phone. Correction officer David Teller, 38, resigned at the end of an investigation into the beating. -- David Filkins
Neighborhood watch members use radios to keep in contact with police while walking city streets. They’re also used, group members say, in important efforts to find young missing children who might have wandered away from home.
Ask Mr. Kosiur to donate his salary......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Schenectady Mayor Brian Stratton took some heat in a letter to the editor Tuesday from Bob Hamilton, president of the city’s Police Benevolent Association. Why? Because the mayor had audacity to use the Jan. 2 ceremony welcoming nine new members to the police force to discuss the department’s recent problems — and to warn the new officers in no uncertain terms that if they want to become longtime members of the force, they’re going to have to behave themselves. While we could understand where Hamilton was coming from, we think the situation warranted the exact treatment the mayor gave it. Ditto Tuesday of week, when Stratton broached the subject again a swearing-in ceremony for 10 additional recruits If Hamilton is sensitive about the issue of the rank-and-file’s behavior, well, he ought to be. It has not only tarnished the department’s reputation, but the entire city’s. And as long as the department continues to have problems with rogue cops doing things like stealing drugs roughing up prisoners, not showing up for work etc., the mayor needs — at the very least — to talk about it. Doing so on such an occasion was a welcome signal that the mayor is taking the situation seri ously and intends to do something about it. ( isn’t it about time?) Despite what Hamilton might think, these are not small problems; nor do they seem to have so isolated. With regard to attendance, for example, Hamilton’s own record has been an embarrassment: In 2006, he took 218 days off for union business — making $83,700 for just 10 days of — despite a severely understaffed department. A group of new recruits or Police Academy graduates ready to hit the streets seems like an ideal audience for the kind of lecture Stratton delivered. He might have made it some other time, but its impact likely would not have been the same than as at such a solemn occasion, in the presence of the employees’ families, etc. It was a message none of them is likely to forget — and shouldn’t.
SCHENECTADY Prior conviction in officer’s case turns out to be incorrect Attorney: Judge relied on bad information BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Steven Cook at 395-3122 or scook@dailygazette.net
Schenectady Police Officer Darren Lawrence has no criminal record, his attorney and Albany County District Attorney’s offi - cials said Thursday. That is something the judge in Lawrence’s current misdemeanor case had incorrect information about when deciding on a motion last year, Lawrence’s attorney George LaMarche said Thursday. LaMarche said his client has no record and that the judge relied on false information in an Albany County District Attorney’s Offi ce filing in rendering her decision against a motion to dismiss the current case. “The judge’s reliance upon false information or misinterpreted information in a decision rendered regarding my client is wrong,” LaMarche said. “Moving forward, that is going to be addressed with the court.” In court papers, which were reported by The Daily Gazette in Thursday’s editions, the assistant district attorney on the case appeared to allege that Lawrence had a violation conviction from 1996. Colonie Town Court Justice Susan Tatro adopted those allegations into her order, stating: “The defendant’s prior criminal record includes … ” Lawrence currently faces one misdemeanor count of leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, related to an Oct. 14, 2006, rollover on the Northway. He also faces a violation harassment charge, accused of attacking his acquaintance, Mark Viscusi, in the accident’s aftermath. Lawrence maintains his innocence in that case, LaMarche said. District attorney spokeswoman Heather Orth said Thursday a “his” reference in the assistant district attorney filing was to the other man, Viscusi, and not to Lawrence. The Daily Gazette could not independently verify the alleged Viscusi conviction Thursday. Viscusi faces no charges in the current case. And that reading is not how Tatro apparently read it. Tatro, in her order, gave the conviction to Lawrence, “the defendant.” Tatro gave other reasons for denying the motion, and the alleged criminal record was among them. A Daily Gazette search of Viscusi’s record was incomplete Thursday. A Wednesday search of Lawrence’s record by The Daily Gazette turned up no record of the incident alleged in the filings. Neither LaMarche nor Orth disputed the alleged Lawrence conviction when asked about it Wednesday by a reporter.
Great reporting by the Gazette and great lawyering by LaMarche. The lawyer did not know enough to dispute that his client did not have a conviction or even a prior arrest when a reporter questioned him.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
SCHENECTADY City looks for next police chief Salary boost hoped to spark interest statewide BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com
The city’s next police chief will get a significant raise in pay in comparison to the last chief, Michael N. Geraci. He made $106,000 last year and was slated to make $109,000 this year. His replacement will get $115,000, according to the civil service test that was advertised this week. No one has applied for the job yet, said Schenectady County Personnel Administrator Kathleen Heap. But she noted that the county Civil Service Commission only began accepting applications Tuesday. The deadline is Feb. 5. At the Schenectady Police Department, only three people are qualified to apply for the job. All three assistant chiefs are eligible and have expressed interest. But Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett is also looking for candidates throughout the state. He bumped up the salary in hopes of getting outsiders to apply. “We thought that would be a salary that would make it attractive,” he said. He’s sent the civil service posting to the state sheriff’s associations, to state troopers throughout the state, and to the state chiefs of police, including retired chiefs. “We want to research the widest possible talent pool,” he said. He’s hoping to find someone with extensive experience in an urban setting — not a rural or suburban environment like Geraci’s background. “You’re right, there is a density of population in Colonie, but I would call it a suburban area,” Bennett said. “The calls for service are greatly different from that of Albany, Troy, Rochester. I think there’s a significant difference in the issues and problems.” He also wants someone who can handle the police union. “If you have a unionized agency where you have a minimal number of grievances, which is of course contrary to the experience of Schenectady, you’d be at a disadvantage,” Bennett said. The perfect candidate would also have experience negotiating contracts, he said. Now the only question is whether Bennett can get his ideal candidate to apply. He has less than three weeks to spread the word throughout the state. Even if they apply, getting the job is little more difficult if the candidates don’t work at the Schenectady Police Department. According to the civil service posting, the city’s assistant chiefs are automatically qualified to take the test if they’ve held the secondin-command rank for at least two years. Outsiders can only be considered if at least one of the three assistant chiefs does not pass the exam. Last time, only assistant chief Mark Chaires made the short list of three final candidates. Outsiders must provide a work history including a bachelor’s or associate’s degree; appointment as a police officer or a state trooper; at least eight to 10 years of experience, including two years at least at the third-line supervision level; and a current police officer certification. The exam will be March 8. But this won’t be simply a sit-down exam. Besides testing the candidates’ knowledge of administrative techniques, law enforcement procedures, state laws and the writing of proper reports, the test will include two “job simulation” exercises. The exercises will cover areas such as problem-solving and decision-making under pressure, according to the exam posting. Given the time it will take to get the test results, Bennett has said a new chief probably won’t be appointed until at least June.
I want to take a second to recognize the above and beyond work of the majority of police in the capital district. It is really too bad a few crooked ones tarnish the reputations of all. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU MEN AND WOMEN WHO DO AN OUTSTANDING JOB OF PROTECTING US AND OUR COMMUNITY. Like someone once said, could have been jnotar, "Next time your in trouble, call a drug dealer!"
He made $106,000 last year and was slated to make $109,000 this year. His replacement will get $115,000, according to the civil service test that was advertised this week.
So they have posted this job at $9,000 more than what the previous chief was receiving. Bennett states that Geraci was not qualified in an urban environment. Meaning he was not qualified. When was the leaders of the city going to figure that one out? Perhaps he was then overpaid?
Schenectady has not only lost it's ability to govern the people, but have also lost it's ability to handle their finances, paid for by the tax payer. eg: Stratton and crew get raises, the incoming police chief will get a raise, Kosiur gets a non-essential created position, it is one of the highest taxed in the country....but 2 blocks of State Street is looking better...for drunks and movie goers. While the rest of the city is basically falling down around it! Pathetic!
Metroplex was created to bring in/create substantial paying job...not to make State Street look pretty (which it doesn't).
Metroplex clearly needs to have an audit done!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I want to take a second to recognize the above and beyond work of the majority of police in the capital district. It is really too bad a few crooked ones tarnish the reputations of all. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU MEN AND WOMEN WHO DO AN OUTSTANDING JOB OF PROTECTING US AND OUR COMMUNITY. Like someone once said, could have been jnotar, "Next time your in trouble, call a drug dealer!"
No. wasn't me with that quote. Not sure who said that one.
It's funny though. The District Attorney puts out a long report criticizing management of the department and they are going to end up promoting someone from within the department and pay him 115,000. They just dont get it over there. Obviously there's a problem with your upper management. I mean, you can point the finger at Geraci or Boyle or Bennett or whoever was there before that, but really- doesen's all upper management shoulder some blame for the problems. It just floors me that after such a report came out, the mayor would promote one of his cronies to a 115,000 job. I will have to check with the Board of Elections to see who donated the most to his campaign- then you will know who he will promote.
jnotar, sorry for saying you were the one who made that statement. I do like it though. I should think a fresh face and perspective would be a good idea. Someone from "out of town" has not had the chance to develop relationships that could render one beholding.
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