SCHENECTADY City limits time to file police complaints Goal is to speed up Review Board process BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
The clock is now ticking for complaints of police misconduct. Residents will have only 45 days to report any complaints that they want to have reviewed by the Civilian Police Review Board, the City Council decided Monday. The Police Department must then act on the complaint within 30 days. The Civilian Police Review Board will review the complaint in the following 30 days. Councilman Gary McCarthy said the new deadlines would vastly improve the effectiveness of the entire process. In the past, it has taken more than a year to resolve some complaints, and both police and review board members say witnesses are far more difficult to find after such a period of time. Without witnesses, many complaints can not be substantiated, review board members say. Chief Mark Chaires said his officers can meet the new 30-day deadline. But he emphasized that his department will still accept complaints after the 45-day window. Such complaints may not be reviewed by the Civilian Police Review Board, but Chaires said he would still take them seriously. “I don’t want to do anything that looks like the Police Department is trying to suppress citizen complaints,” he said at a committee meeting on the issue last week. However, complaints filed well after the incident are usually untrue or exaggerated, he said. In other action, the council announced that it will reveal the latest design for Erie Boulevard next Tuesday at 7 p.m. The public meeting will be held at College Park Hall, the Union College dormitory on Nott Street. The council also revisited Chaires’ request for nine additional officers, agreeing unanimously to apply for a federal grant. The grant, if awarded, would pay for the officers for three years. In the fourth year, the city would be required to pay the full cost, estimated to be $1 million. Council members told Chaires last week that they couldn’t afford the fourth-year payment, but agreed to apply while analyzing the possibility of saving up for that expense. On Monday, some residents urged the council to not even apply for the grant. “If we get the grant, probably we’re going to say, ‘Geez, we have the money …, ’ ” Vince Riggi said. “These are tough, tough times. With these grants, we have to pick up the tabs. We’re spending money like drunken sailors.” But McCarthy argued that the grant could save residents thousands of dollars. “If you take just burglaries, we’re running 900 burglaries a year, sometimes over 1,000,” he said. “The average burglary cost is over $1,600 by the time you replace the door, the window, any stolen items. That’s a cost homeowners are paying now.” He estimated that total burglary costs per year are $1.5 million citywide. “If we could reduce burglaries by a half or a quarter, it would more than pay for itself,” he said, referring to the $1 million cost of the additional officers. C o u n c i l w o m a n B a r b a r a Blanchard agreed. She said the city’s tax base would grow enough over the next three years to cover the additional cost, and added that ...............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00703
SCHENECTADY Police overtime jumps, costs city millions BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
The city spent so much money on police overtime last year that it could have hired 30 full-time officers with benefits for the same price. Overtime increased dramatically, leaping 20 percent above the previous year’s total even after raises were taken into consideration. The department spent $3 million, which was $1.1 million more than budgeted. City officials are still somewhat at a loss to explain how the overtime increased so much last year, but they released the total number of hours used in an effort to demonstrate where the money was spent. Officers were sent out on 7,170 extra shifts last year — enough to force every officer to work one overtime shift a week all year. The department used 16,000 more overtime hours than in 2007, which had previously held the record. In total last year, police worked 57,300 hours of overtime. Part of that could be attributed to the department’s increased discipline. Six officers spent most of the year on paid suspension, fi ve awaiting the result of a state investigation. Three are still suspended and may be terminated when disciplinary hearings begin. They were joined by another officer in October. To replace all of their patrol shifts, the city had to pay other officers for an additional 11,643 hours. The city’s seven vacancies also needed to be filled with 13,000 hours of overtime. But in the past, the city has had as many as 16 vacancies and used far less overtime. In 2000, the city spent one-third as much on overtime as in 2008 yet had 15 vacancies. In 2006, the city had 16 vacancies and spent $2.4 million. Police Department officials were disappointed with the increase, given that they had taken a number of steps to reduce overtime. Among many inventive measures, they gave the district attorney’s office every officer’s schedule so that fewer court dates would be scheduled on the officers’ time off, which results in overtime. In many cases, they found, officers who worked from 4 p.m. to midnight were asked to come to court at 2 p.m. Those dates were easily pushed back to 4 p.m., Assistant Chief Michael Seber said. The department rescheduled its SWAT raids, detective work and other special patrols, planning them at times when most officers were scheduled to work so that little overtime was needed. But the city also increased overtime for its evidence technicians to combat last year’s spike in burglar- ies, Seber said. Not only are those technicians responding to more scenes, but they’re using new technology to gather far more evidence — which takes more time. “We take more DNA than ever because DNA is way better than fingerprints,” Seber said. Seber is now closely studying last year’s overtime, which he tracked through a system he created. The system breaks overtime down to specific codes, allowing him to see precisely how much of the overtime came from last-minute arrests versus full patrol shifts needed to fill vacancies. “This is something I created because I wanted to watch to see where the money was going,” he said. So far, he hasn’t found a simple answer. “It’s all over the place,” he said. He has not yet completed the 2008 analysis but said the city could not simply spend its entire overtime budget on new offi cers and eliminate the need for future overtime. .................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01100
I heard about this today from a co-worker. He mentioned the helicopters too.
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
When they’re not committing actual crimes — like beating up their wives, driving drunk or stealing or selling drugs — Schenectady police are ripping off taxpayers by stealing time: calling in sick excessively, taking time off for union work, and generally gaming the system to get as much time off as they can. This provides overtime opportunities for their “brother” officers, which not only costs the city a bundle in the year the OT is taken, but when the cops retire, through padded pensions. The numbers speak for themselves: Police OT cost the city $3 million last year, $1.1 million more than budgeted. And this number wasn’t just higher than the average tab of roughly $2.4 million in each of the previous four years, it was a lot higher. Another telling statistic: 52 of the city’s 63 workers with earnings that topped $100,000 last year were cops. Yet only Police Chief Mark Chaires and Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett (along with Fire Chief Robert Farstad) had regular salaries exceeding that level. There’s no other way to put it: Department administrators have failed abysmally in their continuing effort to rein in this problem. While it may not have been for lack of trying — contractual restrictions such as unlimited sick pay for much of the rank and file, and the right to bank overtime from one year to the next, make it difficult to tame the beast — it has been a failure nonetheless. And it certainly gives Mayor Brian Stratton one more reason to pursue the department’s dissolution and/or merger with the county: If the cops won’t agree to changing the terms of a contract that is bankrupting the city, then the city should attempt to get rid of the contract. Admittedly, some of last year’s huge overtime bill came as a result of cops being suspended for bad behavior. But as Kathleen Moore’s story in yesterday’s Gazette pointed out, the department spent far less on OT in prior years when it had more vacancies (including the suspensions) than last year. It’s also worth noting that the suspended cops — though they were paid for most of the year — couldn’t earn any OT during their suspensions. But their brethren, it appears, more than made up for them. While department administrators shouldn’t give up trying to fix this mess, it’s pretty clearly beyond their control — which is why we say, again, the department must go.
Mayor Son of Sam and Commiss Bennett have failed miserably in turning around the SPD. What's the news? Same old same old-blame the union because Son of Sam can't do anything. Didn't he vote for this Police Contract? lol!
Newsflash to the Gazetto: Your "county force" is as stale as 2 month old Perreca's bread.
SCHENECTADY Former chief’s wife getting out of jail Lisa Kaczmarek set for release after serving four months BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
The Kaczmarek family is expected to have one fewer member behind bars this morning with the scheduled release of Lisa Kaczmarek. Lisa, wife of former Schenectady police chief and admitted drug user Greg Kaczmarek, was to be released from the Schenectady County Jail this morning at 12:01 a.m., having served four months of a six-month sentence with standard time off for good behavior. She has been housed for much of that time in Warren County, where she was expected to be less well known. No problems were reported. She was to be transferred back to Schenectady County Tuesday evening for her release. “She’s looking forward to it,” her attorney, Kevin Luibrand, said Tuesday afternoon. “She’s ready. “Being incarcerated is difficult for anyone, but I imagine it has a special impact on somebody who has never been incarcerated, like her.” Luibrand said he has been in regular contact with her. He said he believes she has dealt with it well. She even worked to help younger inmates, providing assistance with education and career goals and becoming friendly with many, Luibrand said. Lisa Kaczmarek’s release leaves her husband, Greg, and her son, Miles Smith, still in prison. The Kaczmareks and Smith were indicted in May along with two dozen others, accused of taking part in a drug organization headed by Kerry Kirkem and Oscar Mora. The former chief admitted that he possessed cocaine with intent to sell on Feb. 2, 2008. His wife admitted to attempting to possess the drug that same day. The Kaczmareks’ sentences were a matter of contention for some, with an attorney for another defendant calling them unfair and asking that his client’s sentence be reduced. The request was denied. .........>>>>>......http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00903
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
Re May 6 article, “Former chief’s wife getting out of jail”: What is wrong with our judicial system? [The] former police chief’s wife has no business being out of jail and shame on the system and all involved for allowing this to happen. She and Greg Kaczmarek should rot in jail. No one has ever made mention of the destruction they have caused to local families and the individuals they got addicted to cocaine and heroin. They were suppliers, for God’s sake! That addiction becomes a life-long battle. I am not sure how she can put her head on a pillow at night and sleep. The article by Steven Cook makes mention how difficult it was for her to be incarcerated because this was her fi rst time. What a ridiculous statement made by her attorney. There are people who have gone through the system and received a much stronger punishment, and it was their first time, too. But because of the Kaczmareks’ connections, they were able to squeeze a very low sentence. The authorities should have made an example out of both of them, with the harshest punishment possible, because of his law enforcement career, shady as it was. Ask a mother about burying her child because of an overdose, or the person that is in rehab trying to deal with the addiction, what their lives have become. Thank you Greg and Lisa Kaczmarek for your involvement in that; what stand-up people you are; your earnings from drug transporting paid your way to freedom. A second time for you to laugh at the system and what it stands for.
Logged
Son of Sam and his appointment "Commiss" Bennett have done a great job returning this around-NOT!
Mayor Son of Sam and Commiss Bennett have failed miserably in turning around the SPD. What's the news? Same old same old-blame the union because Son of Sam can't do anything. Didn't he vote for this Police Contract? lol! 
