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Politics and the police discipline bill

    Anyone who might have doubted the political nature of the infamous police discipline bill that’s been passed by the state Legislature for the past four years (but, thankfully, vetoed by the governor) need only consider the remarks of Sen. Hugh Farley at a Schenectady City Council meeting Monday night.
    Farley acknowledged that the Senate only passed the bill, which would force all municipalities to negotiate disciplinary proceedings with police or face overrule by the state Public Employment Relations Board, because it knew the governor would veto it — in the process embarrassing him. Sure enough, the pro-union bill always managed to pass both chambers by veto-proof majorities, but neither chamber ever even attempted an override. In other words, they didn’t really want the law, they just wanted to make the police unions think they did.
    Farley thinks the Senate won’t even bother passing the law this year, because the Democrats are now in control and won’t want to set Democratic Gov. David Paterson up for another embarrassment. That may be true, but Democrats in both the Senate and Assembly haven’t seemed too concerned about humiliating Paterson over his demands to cut the state budget.
    The police discipline bill would be bad news for Schenectady, and it’s about time that Farley and other lawmakers public spoke out, loudly and.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00703

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Troubled Schenectady cop charged with stealing car

By DAVID FILKINS, Staff writer
Last updated: 1:16 p.m., Saturday, March 28, 2009

SCHENECTADY — A veteran city patrolman already under investigation for several offenses was taken into custody Friday for allegedly stealing his girlfriend's car.

     
Chief Mark Chaires said the incident began as a domestic dispute when patrolman Kyle Hunter took the car without permission. His girlfriend, a corrections officer, called Hunter on his cell phone, then called police at 5:45 p.m. when he refused to return the car.

Chaires said officers were told to be on the lookout for Hunter, who eventually returned to the residence and was taken into custody around 11:30 p.m.

The incident comes just days after Mayor Brian Stratton proposed the city police department be replaced by a county law enforcement agency, an idea that was widely criticized by county officials and others. More than a dozen police officials have been arrested and served jail time for various charges in recent years, including giving drugs to an informant, driving while intoxicated and sleeping on the job.

"It's all the more reason why we have to look at what we're looking at," Stratton said. "We need to bring the hammer down. This is not up to our standards in terms of representing the police department."

Hunter has been under internal investigation for abusing an extended sick leave and other alleged violations.

"He once lost his service weapon," Stratton said. "It was found in a Dumpster or something like that."

Hunter was charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle and was arraigned this morning. He has been suspended for 30 days without pay, though his unpaid leave could become permanent.

"He is in line to be terminated," Chaires said. "No question about that. He will not be here."

Quoted from 147

This just doesn't stop with these guys

Quoted from bumblethru

Well, I guess it just shows the signs of the times. Cop or not....there is a increase of men/women with no morals, values, self control,personal responsibility and the ability to know what is right or wrong. No fear of consequences.

I guess we do become a product of our environment....even cops.

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Sch’dy PD’s ‘crime prevention tips’ laughable

The article in the March 23 Gazette about tips on crime prevention was unbelievable. You cannot get an officer to respond to serious infractions of the law. How do you get them to respond to a call about someone looking in your car window?
Thank you for the good laugh — I needed it.

JEN IPPOLITO
Schenectady     

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SCHENECTADY
Police cars to get voltage monitors
Adjustment will help cops avoid battery drain
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    A hundred-dollar adjustment to city police cars may allow them to nearly double their gas mileage.
    The Crown Victorias, which now average 8 mpg because police idle them between patrols, could get up to 15 mpg in the city if police turn them off during lengthy stops.
    For two years, police have been trying to adjust their engines so they could turn off their cars. Now, they appear to have finally solved the problem.
    Timers now turn off almost all of the equipment in the car before it drains the battery during stops. Only the video camera is left running.
    “That’s one thing we never put on a timer. We don’t want the camera turned off,” said Lt. James Sanders, who has overseen the work. The cameras are intended to record arrests and interaction with the public, to both bolster criminal cases and to provide neutral evidence in accusations of police misconduct.
But even with the timers, the cars that were turned off often stalled this winter.
“It’s just the colder weather that causes a problem,” Sanders said. Car batteries are less powerful in the winter, and the timers just weren’t inhibiting the electronics enough to keep from using up the little available power. So the department bought three voltage monitors that gently cut power to the battery when electronics were about to drain it.
    The Priority Start voltage monitors cost $100 apiece, so Sanders wanted to try them out before buying 25 of them to outfit all of the patrol cars.
    “It definitely does the trick,” he said after experimenting with three cars for two months. “It definitely seemed to resolve those issues. I’m pretty sure we can cover [22 more monitors] with confiscated money.”
    He’s not sure whether the city will see a significant increase in gas mileage, but the Energy Advisory Board reported last summer that the Crown Vics could get 15 mpg if police could turn off their cars.
    At the time, board members were assured that it was impossible. There are just too many electronics drawing on the battery, Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said.
    Police car batteries die so often that supervisors keep battery-jump packs in their vehicles and at the station. Often, cars parked at headquarters have to be jumped before officers can leave.
    But Sanders said the new devices make it safe to turn off the car any time. It’s the culmination of three years of work.
    “We’ve been thinking about this for years,” he said. “It seems the last two to three years we’ve really gotten a lot of technology in the cars. We even thought about putting dual batteries in the car.”
    They even tried solar panels.
    The SWAT van, which is used only every few weeks, was so often found with a dead battery that police put a solar panel on the dashboard.
    “It plugs into the cigarette lighter,” Sanders said. “Now it can be the coldest day in the world and it will trickle-charge so the battery can start.”
    But it was hardly realistic to put solar panels on cars that are used nearly 24 hours a day. On those cars, police switched to a lowriding light bar, which cuts wind resistance somewhat and uses far less battery power. The old-style lights used so much power that the car would die if the engine was turned off for just 20 minutes, Sanders said.
    “Now you can let that run probably for over eight hours, and the car starts right up,” he said.
    But all the other electronics on board kept draining the battery anyway.
    The battery supports a laptop, scanner, printer, radio, sirens, lights, a video camera, the charger for each officer’s microphone, electronic locks for the car’s shotgun, speed radars, the laser charger, a GPS unit .................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01101

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SCHENECTADY
4 of 11 police recruits from ’01 class in trouble
BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter

Eleven new police recruits were introduced with the mayor and police chief looking on. There was an air of optimism at a department about to enter the darkest days of scandal. It was Jan. 24, 2001.
“It’s certainly very exciting times,” then-mayor Albert P. Jurczynski said as he welcomed the new officers, with then-police chief Greg Kaczmarek looking on. “This is great news for the police department.” But it is this recruiting class that may come to typify some of the problems the department is now facing. Of these 11 officers who joined the force that day, four are now facing termination, each for his own unique alleged misdeeds.
    They also make up a majority of the seven officers current Mayor Brian U. Stratton has targeted to be fi red.
    The latest and fourth member of the January 2001 class facing trouble was arrested Friday night. Offi cer Kyle Hunter now faces a misdemeanor count relating to an argu- ment with his girlfriend. Police say he took her car while off duty and refused to give it back.
    “I’m going to [expletive] you, like you [expletive] me,” Hunter is quoted in court papers as telling the woman.
    Also members of the class of 2001 were Darren Lawrence, Dwayne Johnson and Andrew Karaskiewicz. All are facing termination, Lawrence on allegations of off-duty drunk driving; Johnson on allegations of on-duty time stealing and Karaskiewicz on allegations of using excessive force in an arrest.
    This class has also had its successes. Brian Bienduga won accolades last year from a local group for his courteousness and responsiveness.
    Bienduga was also just recently promoted to the rank of sergeant.
    Bienduga also figures into the Hunter story. He is listed as Hunter’s arresting offi cer.
    One of the 2001 recruits has since moved on to another department. The others have simply had a relatively quiet eight years on the force.
    The number of recruits from 2001 facing termination underlines the recruitment and background check issues that police offi - cials have cited as problems in the past.
    Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett in February told the City Council that past background check systems were “terrible.” He specified the tenure of the now imprisoned Kaczmarek, who was chief from 1996 to 2002.
    Many of the officers hired during Kaczmarek’s term, Bennett argued, were not qualified to do the job.
    Kaczmarek is serving two years in state prison after admitting to 2008 drug crimes. During his administration, there was also a federal investigation that sent four other officers to state prison. By January 2001, one of those had already gone off to prison, leaving one of the openings that was filled that year.
    The three others facing termination now came either before or after Kaczmarek. Officer John Lewis was hired in 1994 and officers Gregory Hafensteiner and Michael Brown, in 2003 and 2004 respectively.
    Lewis faces termination related to a series of alcohol-related arrests in the past year. Hafensteiner faces excessive force accusations from the same incident as Karaskiewicz.
    Brown, son of city police Detective Michael Brown, was hired in Stratton’s administration and is facing termination on allegations of drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident.
    Stratton said he takes responsibility for Officer Brown’s hiring on his watch. But with every failure comes a chance to learn, Stratton said.
    Hunter, Stratton said, has had problems before the new accusations of taking his girlfriend’s car. Hunter once lost his service weapon. It was later found in a Dumpster.
    “We’re obviously learning by every misstep, what we have to do and what we have to look for,” Stratton said. “But you wouldn’t think you’d have to ask people who want to be a police officer if they think it’s OK to steal someone’s car.
    “These are the things you have to double check. You measure two or three times and cut once.”
    Bennett did not return a call for comment Monday. But Police Chief Mark Chaires confirmed recruitment and background checks have improved.
    New recruits are now subjected to polygraph tests, hair-sample drug tests and more extensive checks into their background, Chaires said.
    The polygraph tests began around 2003, under then-commissioner Daniel Boyle, Chaires recalled. He declined to detail the procedure or what topics are covered. But he said it may scare away potential applicants with questionable backgrounds.
    Chaires pinpointed the hair-sample drug tests to the 2007 case of Detective Jeffrey Curtis. Curtis, now serving prison time for stealing drug evidence, was caught after a hair test showed he was a heavy drug user. He had passed previous urine tests.
    Current department members are still urine-tested. Chaires again indicated officials are looking to expand that to hair testing, but can only do it through the contract with the police union.
    Chaires declined to say whether any hair tests have resulted in recruits being turned away.
    As for the simple background check, investigators look into a recruit’s past, checking with neighbors and even former neighbors, Chaires said.
    Investigators have gone as far as Boston and Long Island checking on recruits, talking to landlords, neighbors, employers and co-workers.
    One candidate, who was later hired and has worked out well, was even checked on at an apartment complex where he previously lived, Chaires said.
    Chaires was quick to point out that even the best background checks can’t detect officers who go bad later.
    And he couldn’t say whether any of the officers facing termination now would have specifically been turned away under harsher scrutiny.  The big issue, he said, is..............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00104

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City could solve police problems by using its disciplinary authority

    I am responding to the March 27 editorial [”A ‘friendly’ slap in the face”] regarding Mayor Stratton’s proposal for a countywide police force. Consolidation does not provide any magic solution for the city police force.
    One argument made for a countywide police force is that the city does not have adequate authority to impose discipline. That argument is incorrect. Under section 137 of the Second Class Cities Law, the police commissioner is the sole trier of fact and the sole determiner of punishment to be meted out subject only to limited court review. Based upon recent court decisions, that provision supplants the union contract provision. Although the police union has challenged that position, section 137 is in place and most observers expect that it will be upheld.
    Section 137 replaces a contract arbitration provision under which in 40 years no city determination of guilt or innocence has ever been reversed by an arbitrator, and only two penalties have been reduced by an arbitrator. Nevertheless, this contract provision no longer applies; section 137 applies. Section 137 grants the city even greater authority to impose discipline — more than under any contract or any other provision of law.
    A second argument made for a countywide police force is that the city could somehow eliminate its collective bargaining agreement or its employees. That is also incorrect. Under Civil Service Law section 209-a.1(d), it is an improper practice for a public employer to unilaterally transfer bargaining unit work to non-bargaining unit employees. Such transfer of unit work would require union agreement, and one would expect that the police union would require transfer of all officers and most, if not all, of the contract provisions to be carried over as a basis for any agreement. Further, consolidation would remove discipline from the extremely strong management, section 137 of the Second Class Cities Law, and in all probability revert fully to the contractual provision, which 137 has supplanted.
    The city of Schenectady needs realistic solutions. These solutions rest upon a realistic evaluation of the legal framework, and they are within the grasp of the city, if properly utilized.

CHRISTOPHER H. GARDNER
Schenectady The writer is the Schenectady County attorney.     

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Going after bad cops worth the expense

    I agree with the choice of [Schenectady city] government to go after police charged with public intoxication, DWI and other offenses. What I don't understand is why it took so long.
    Yes, taxpayers are going to have to fund the investigation. Yes, it will cost approximately $185 per hour to prosecute these criminals. However, would the citizens of Schenectady rather spend our tax money on the salaries of the officers who obviously see themselves above the law?
    Pay overtime to the honest and prosecute the others. The last thing we need in our city is another dirty cop.

    SARAH KIRKHAM
    Schenectady     

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Don’t let a few bad apples ruin the Sch’dy Police Department

    I bought a bag of apples the other day, and as I was putting them in my fruit bowl I noticed there were a few rotten ones. I wondered, should I have called the attorney general for assistance on ways to have the orchard shut down from where these “bad” apples came from? Nope, I got rid of the apples and moved on with my day.
    Mayor Stratton, that is my suggestion to you. Do not let a few “bad apples” of the police department take down an entire force. There are several officers that stand by the Schenectady Police Department’s mission — “Dedicated to Justice, Protection and Enforcement of the Law” — and also wear their shield proudly.
    Everyone is so ready to criticize an officer of wrongdoing; how about the good things our officers are doing for our community? Let’s hear it for the officer who helped coach my son’s baseball team, or how about the officer that stopped my child and said “thanks for wearing your bike helmet, here’s a certificate for a free ice cream cone”?
    Yes, Schenectady, we do have a great police department and a few good men. So here’s an idea: Let’s allow our wonderful new police chief and public safety commissioner to do their jobs. Get rid of these police officers who are shaming our police force and let’s move forward. Just keep your fingers crossed, Mayor Stratton, that you don’t screw up somewhere along the way, and someone calls for your job to be abolished.
    To all of our remaining Schenectady police officers, keep up the good work. This is one Schenectady resident on your side!

    CHRYSTAL L. SCHMID
    Schenectady

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SCHENECTADY
Chief looks to hire more police officers
Projected future cost makes City Council hesistant
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    Chief Mark Chaires stirred up a hornet’s nest Monday by asking the Schenectady City Council to hire nine additional police offi - cers.
    Although all he wanted was permission to apply for a grant that would pay for the officers’ fi rst three years, the council nearly refused his request. Eventually, they reluctantly agreed to apply for the grant but warned Chaires that they might reject the grant if he wins it.
    Most council members focused on the bottom line: It would cost $1 million to keep those officers employed in their fourth year, and the city would be prohibited from keeping other positions vacant to pay the bill. If the City Council used taxes to pay for those offi - cers, it would require a tax hike of more than 3 percent.
    “I’m all for having as many police officers as we absolutely need and to improve our response time, but I want to make sure we’re not locking ourselves into a hole,” Mayor Brian U. Stratton said.
    Councilman Mark Blanchfield said he wanted more work out of the current officers rather than more officers.
    “Get more efficiences,” he told Chaires. “Focus on man hours.”
    Blanchfield also tried to debunk a popular myth that suggests that hiring new officers would allow the city to save more money than it now spends on overtime.
    “Theoretically, if you have staff around, the hours that are now working at an overtime rate can be worked by a new hire,” he said. But the cost of benefi ts for that new hire — including health insurance and pension payments — is more than the cost of paying another officer time-and-a-half to work overtime, he said.
    Councilwoman Denise Brucker, once a stalwart supporter of the police, also objected to the proposal on financial grounds.
    “That’s a 3 percent tax increase. That’s a huge expense to the taxpayer,” she said.
    Only Councilman Gary McCarthy, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, took Chaires’ side.
    “People will pay a premium if they feel safe,” he said. “In some neighborhoods right now, they do not feel safe.”
    Chaires told the council that crime in the city is so high that he must have more officers.
    “We have the workload of the Albany Police Department and 100 less officers,” he said.
    Last Friday, the evening shift had 135 calls, he said.
    By comparison, Albany had 215 calls during that same shift, about a third more than Schenectady, according to Albany spokesman Det. James Miller. Albany also has about a third more residents than Schenectady and about twice as many police officers.
    Chaires said he has maximized Schenectady’s number of patrol officers by eliminating two administrative positions and removing another school resource offi cer.
    “It comes down to making decisions. Right now, the need is on the street,” he said.
    He is also now requiring offi - cers to submit an explanation in writing whenever they use overtime that was not required to meet minimum staffing levels.
    Most police are paid overtime to fill in gaps on shifts hard hit by sick leave, vacations or comp time. But some overtime is used for investigations, interviews and other tasks that might be scheduled during the officer’s regular shift.
    “If it’s not on the normal shift, we want to make sure it’s absolutely necessary and can’t be done any other way,” Chaires said. “It’s not that there’s any fraud. It’s just a reminder to always be efficient.”
    But it’s not enough, Stratton said.
    “We’ve said all along we need fundamental changes in our labor contract to get the most out of the 166 officers we already have,” he said.
    He said officers take too many days off instead of accepting pay for overtime work. He is expected to push for comp time limits in the new contract under negotiation now.
    In the meantime, he said discipline may correct some of the problems.
    Administrators are analyzing whether senior officers abuse the unlimited sick time policy, which allows any officer hired before 1995 to call in sick as often as needed.
    “The abuses or potential abuses to workers’ comp, that’s something we’re looking at, too,” Stratton said.
    Discipline could also eliminate the................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00700