Quoted from visitor

The amount fo police officer is paid has never been shown to impact the crime rate.
Good benefits, including health insurance - agreed.  But, with respect to the pension inflation - that was an uniwse perk which will be remdeied with Tier 5
employees.  By the time SPD gets up to full staffing next year, approximately 1/3 will be Tier 5 employees.

Take home cars - the only two catgories of officesr with take home cars are K9 - impractical to transport police dogs in civilian vehicles.  And, evidence technicians - they get called in more than any other officers.  

RE: being too busy.  You have a finite number of officers and a high crime rate.  Schdy has a crime rate approox 2/3- 3/4 of Albany and Albany has 350
officers and they are very busy.  So, the decision was made to have a small percentage of calls which do not require the response of a sworn officer
to allow the civilain to do the report themselves (misdemeanor thefts and vandalism).  And, crimes still get counted in crime analysis.  

Then tell you what, prove it by cutting their pay and showing they'll do the same work just as well, or get someone else to do the job.
Maybe all the officers that constantly get called in should live within a specific distance, I don't know, like within a city block of the police station, or at least in the city, so they could report back to the station to get their vehicles before going on a call.  Imagine how much quicker that would be than reporting from outside the city / county.

Quoted from visitor

Mobile Terminal

The amount fo police officer is paid has never been shown to impact the crime rate.

Good benefits, including health insurance - agreed.  But, with respect to the pension inflation - that was an uniwse perk which will be remdeied with Tier 5
employees.  By the time SPD gets up to full staffing next year, approximately 1/3 will be Tier 5 employees.

Take home cars - the only two catgories of officesr with take home cars are K9 - impractical to transport police dogs in civilian vehicles.  And, evidence technicians - they get called in more than any other officers.  

RE: being too busy.  You have a finite number of officers and a high crime rate.  Schdy has a crime rate approox 2/3- 3/4 of Albany and Albany has 350
officers and they are very busy.  So, the decision was made to have a small percentage of calls which do not require the response of a sworn officer
to allow the civilain to do the report themselves (misdemeanor thefts and vandalism).  And, crimes still get counted in crime analysis.  

I have NO problem with the amount of $ officers get paid.  I wouldn't do their job for 2x their salary.  They deserve every penny, and then some.

What I DO have a problem with is the number of officers getting paid a weekly (or bi-weekly) check and not coming to work.  The problem with SPD, as I see it, is that it's top heavy.  Too many command staff sitting in offices, doing union work or on "administrative assignment" - and not enough indians in the field.  More officers on the streets, patrolling, showing a presence would definitely deter crime.

Stop promoting working officers to desk jobs or command staff - get them back on the street, where they're needed.

MT

Some decent comments - will respond later

This is happening in every NE City? lol Every NE City has a double dipping McMayor and DEM moron ruined City Council that actually increases the unbalanced budget. Then they hire another unneeded State cast off. The revenue projections were only off by $10 MILLION. That's not bad for Paulino and Marco who have moved on to implode Rotterdam. The City's gain is the town's loss.

Quoted from rampage

Then tell you what, prove it by cutting their pay and showing they'll do the same work just as well, or get someone else to do the job.
Maybe all the officers that constantly get called in should live within a specific distance, I don't know, like within a city block of the police station, or at least in the city, so they could report back to the station to get their vehicles before going on a call.  Imagine how much quicker that would be than reporting from outside the city / county.

I have said for many years that cops should live in the neighborhood that they police.

I would bet a thousand dollars that if you offer police jobs for $10 per hour to take calls from Walmart reporting shoplifters and homeowners reporting stolen merchandise, there would be thousands of applicants. They would probably even use their own cars.

Cops hate taking calls.

Cops love being out on the road performing hunting/revenue generation.

WE'RE NUMBER ONE! WE'RE NUMBER ONE! WE'RE NUMBER ONE!

true renaissance, but ask Visitor the combat veteran- this is NO WAR ZONE (as compared to Fulusia)

Quoted from visitor

MT

Some decent comments - will respond later

Waiting patiently

MT

RE: top heavy - the decision to bring in the commissioner was a result of the Jeff Curtis scandal. One reason the Mayors and Council like the
Commissioner position is that there is no civil service protection and serves at the pleasure of teh Mayor = more civilian control.

There is a  Chief and 4 ACs.  You need a Command level officer to run patrol and investigations.  There Command Staff has said that they can civilianize
the HR and SSB positions through attrition.  In fact, they tried to hire a civilian HR position they were not allowed.  They wanted to create a $70kposition for HR and now allowed, so they had to fill it with an AC.  There are no sworn support positions re: bargaining unit members except the Training Sgt.

All supervisory positions in the bargaining unit are operational.  For example, a Lieutenant to run day operations and one for evenings.  And, when
necessary they can assist with line operational takss (e.g., interview witnesses).   When the academy class graduates and they fill the vacancies they will
have mroe hands on deck.

visitor, can you explain this one?

So was this Lapse due to being overworked?  

How often do these lapses occur?

Was the "boss" who failed to do his job punished?

Why isnt a third party called in to handle these situations?  Even Niskayuna or the NYS Troopers?

The guy blows a .08 hours later but the "boss" says he "did not appear to have any impaired motor coordination and that his speech was not impaired,".   Wow what keen senses the officer had......  

Great Prosecution team we have also......just as inept to do the job.  

Match made in heaven.



'Lapse' cited in cop's case

SCHENECTADY — A judge has dismissed a drunken driving charge against a city cop who was in an off-duty crash last year because his boss didn't follow the protocol when he questioned and administered field sobriety tests on the officer.

The attorney for Officer Jonathan C. Haigh said Friday that the recent decision by City Court Judge Guido Loyola following a two-day probable cause hearing effectively ends the criminal case against his client.

"This case can't move forward now because they have no evidence, said Kevin O'Brien Jr. of Anelli Xavier of Albany. "Once you win a hearing like this, the case is over."

Prosecutor Michael Tiffany said Friday that the District Attorney's Office will review the decision before deciding whether to appeal it.

"There may be difficulties with going forward with the case but procedurally the case is still pending," Tiffany said.

In January 2011, Haigh, then 24, was charged with driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a property damage accident for allegedly crashing his father's car into a tree near the corner of Rugby Road and Wendell Avenue while allegedly driving drunk in a snowstorm.

A snowplow driver stopped to help him and took down Haigh's license plate number when he suspected Haigh was drunk. The snowplow driver called police when Haigh drove away.

The license plate was traced to Haigh's father's car. Police went to the Haigh home in Princetown and Haigh was awakened and given a field sobriety test.

When he was given a Breathlyzer test at police headquarters on Liberty Street, his blood alcohol reading was above the 0.08 legal limit, authorities said.

Haigh, who was hired in January 2008 along with his brother, was initially suspended with pay for 30 days, returned to duty in May 2011, his attorney said.

The police department did not return a call Friday seeking comment on possible disciplinary action related to the criminal case.

Court records state that the police lieutenant who took the stand during the probable cause hearing "candidly admitted that he did not follow the protocol in administering the various field questions and tests prior to the arrest." The records state Haigh was never asked whether he had been driving the car allegedly involved in the accident, which was one of the vehicles parked in the driveway at the Haigh residence.

The lieutenant also told the court that Haigh, who was wearing a bathrobe while being interviewed, "did not appear to have any impaired motor coordination and that his speech was not impaired," according to the legal document.

"It is well-established and beyond argument that regardless of one's professional status, albeit a law enforcement individual, even a lawyer, every defendant is entitled to due process and entitled to the application of standard protocols as any other individual," the ruling states. "Here, there appears to be a lapse in the application of the uniform standard protocol to establish probable cause."

O'Brien said he doesn't fault either police or prosecutors and is just glad Haigh's name will be cleared.

"Everybody did their job but it was a case where the evidence wasn't good," said O'Brien, who is also representing Schenectady Sgt. William Fennell in an unrelated drunken driving matter. Fennell, 39, has pleaded not guilty to charges of drunken driving, leaving the scene of a property-damage accident, imprudent speed and refusal to submit to a Breathlyzer.

Bethlehem police alleged Fennell rear-ended a car and fled the scene before crashing into a tree in November.



Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Lapse-cited-in-cop-s-case-3498919.php#ixzz1x1wUJf5p

Quoted Text

High crime rate in city; touching words of support
By Judy Atchinson
Monday, June 11, 2012


These are very sad figures but read them and try to change them. You, only you, and all the other yous can make a difference.
2011 -- Schenectady County had the highest rate of index crimes (murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies, and stolen cars) in the whole state of New York.
Schenectady’s rate per 100,000 residents was 3,509.2, Albany, which came in second, was 3,458.1, Rensselaer, No. 8, 2,923.
Higher crime rates than Manhattan, 3,192.6; the Bronx, 2,524.9; Brooklyn, 2,345.6; Queens, 1,779; and Staten Island, 1,444.4.
Outside of New York City, Schenectady County was the second-highest for violent crimes, 4,382.9 per 100,000, and third in crimes involving firearms, 80.4 per 100,000.
Let no one tell you how safe this city is. It simply is not true. This small city is simply seething with unrest and poverty and guns, and dispossessed youth. Yet we still persist in walking around and patting ourselves on the back. “Economic Development” being the consistent buzzword for God knows how many years. What about crime and homelessness and street gangs and HIV/AIDS and now arson. Youth based arson -- horrendous. And, of course, domestic violence.
Last Thursday, I received a phone call from a friend who was trying to find help for a young woman and her children who were in jeopardy from a male who was the father of at least one of her children. I called Ed Guider who runs an organization called “Stand Up Guys,” a group of men who stand up for and help abused women. I am going to use Ed’s quote to me to put this case into perspective for you:
“I was approached concerning a domestic violence situation in Schenectady in which the husband threatened to kill a wife and daughter with a shotgun. Although the police responded they felt unable to arrest the husband as he had fled the scene before they arrived. The police felt the law constrained them from an arrest under these circumstances unless they had an arrest warrant. The police have processed a warrant. It had been sitting on a judge’s desk waiting to be signed for several days.
These in-between times can often be the most dangerous for victims. Sources indicate to me that this is a frequent problem in Schenectady that judges handle these warrants in domestic violence cases as routine paper work, insensitive to the mortal danger presented by all too many offenders.
Schenectady could go a long way to decrease repeat domestic violence and provide accountability to offenders while enhancing the victims' safety by having all of our judges agree to process warrant requests expeditiously as the police department has done.”
-- Ed Guider, Schenectady “Stand Up Guys”...............................>>>>..........................>>>>.....................................http://www.dailygazette.com/we.....ching-words-support/

"Let no one tell you how safe this city is. It simply is not true. This small city is simply seething with unrest and poverty and guns, and dispossessed youth. Yet we still persist in walking around and patting ourselves on the back. “Economic Development” being the consistent buzzword for God knows how many years. What about crime and homelessness and street gangs and HIV/AIDS and now arson."  -Judy Atchinson

$100 million spent on Proctors and some other rinky-dink businesses Downtown ...yet people are still leaving in droves.

The longer McCarthy and the la-la-land followers continue to deny reality, the worse the City becomes.

You're going to hear from the cheerleaders how well the first responders are doing and how the crime rate is down, there's also a bridge for sale some where too.

Quoted Text

an organization called “Stand Up Guys,” a group of men who stand up for and help abused women.

I am surprised the libs dont call them vigilantes

seething is an understatement.....cities KILL human spirit.....then we make restitution via government programs.....cities are the ramparts of yesteryear..... as for those trying to 'catch a wave'
of affluence by living in such a nanny controlled environment---it's all been a LIE.....subsistence in a city is an oxymoron.....

when folks have to rely on others to provide the food/water/shelter one loses the SELF reliance and it becomes a ME ME .......

GUNS DONT KILL ==== LIES KILL