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Teenager arrested in jewelry store burglary
Updated: 7/15/2007
By: Web Staff
  
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- Schenectady Police have arrested a teenage boy in connection with an early morning burglary at a jewelry store. It happened at Regency Jewelers at 1702 Chrisler Avenue in Commerce Plaza.

Police say Tyquawn Terry, 16, smashed the front window and glass door around 5:30 a.m. Sunday, stealing seven watches. A cab driver was on his way to work flagged down a police officer to tell him what he saw.

Schenectady Police have made an arrest in a jewelry store burglary that happened on Sunday morning.


"I heard the alarm go off here at the jewelry store, so I followed the guy. I see him running across the road. I followed the guy in pursuit, until the officers come from Schenectady," said cab driver Scott Wiltsie.

Terry faces one count of third-degree burglary and criminal mischief at his arraignment Monday morning.

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The surveillance camera never blinks

   I’ve never read a more invalid letter than that appearing July 16 by Sylvia Jimison, who wrote in opposition to surveillance cameras in the city. She couldn’t possibly live in Schenectady — Oz is her most likely home.
   The use of cameras is not to seek out littering or keeping one’s yard clean. Its purpose is to, along with other methods, address crimes, i.e., on-the-street drug dealing, shootings, etc.
   Ms. Jimison suggests that teaching “life skills” (such as taking care of one’s property, keeping the noise down, etc.) to those who move up here from New York City will solve the issues. That clearly is the joke of the year. I defy her to walk up to a gang drug dealer with a gun in his pocket and ask him to turn down his stereo or sweep his front sidewalk. She would be lucky to outlive the ambulance trip to the nearest hospital.
   A few years ago, coming out of Mc-Donald’s on State Street late one night, a crime scene across the street was roped off. Upon being ignored, a police officer told a child about 10 years old, for a second time, that he could not ride his bike inside the roped-off area. The kid responded to the police officer with a ‘‘expletive deleted] you.”
   There’s not a chance these criminals coming here will attend a workshop, nor can such be legislated.
   Obviously, Ms. Jimison also does not watch or read the news. How may times have photos taken from surveillance cameras been shown of a person robbing a bank, a store, etc, and the criminal was then caught — due solely to the surveillance camera and the ability to identify the person? Cameras surely have deterred some who couldn’t figure out how to avoid the camera.
   MARYANN RUEGE
   Schenectady  

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She would be lucky to outlive the ambulance trip to the nearest hospital.

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Cop allegedly stole $2.4 million of pure cocaine
17-year narcotics officer accused of taking drug from property room

DETROIT - A 17-year veteran narcotics officer has been suspended while police investigate whether he stole $2.4 million worth of pure cocaine from the department's property room.

Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said the unidentified officer had the authority to sign out cocaine from the room. She said he is suspected of replacing six kilograms, about 13.2 pounds, of uncut cocaine with another substance and keeping the drug.

The officer, who has not been charged, was suspended Wednesday with pay pending a criminal and department investigation, authorities said. His pay status will be reviewed before the Board of Police Commissioners.

The FBI and police department's internal affairs unit are investigating.

"I want to emphasize that this individual turned his back on the police department and the public he swore to protect," Bully-Cummings said. "His actions do not reflect the spirit of the other officers who do their duty every day."

She said the criminal case in which the cocaine was evidence had ended before police discovered the theft. Police typically hold evidence until the conclusion of the appeals process.

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Schenectady home invasion reported  
  
By RYAN HUTCHINS, Special to the Times Union
Saturday, July 21, 2007

SCHENECTADY - Two men invaded a Crane Street home Saturday afternoon and pistol-whipped a resident, sending him to the hospital, city police said.
  
The men displayed at least one weapon when they entered 1031 Crane St., police spokesman Lt. Brian Kilcullen said. He was not sure if anything was taken or what the motive might have been.

One of the men struck a resident several times during the incident, which was reported to police around 2:30 p.m. There were children home at the time, Kilcullen said.

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PBA’s grip on power costs police department credibility
BY THOMAS J. RALEIGH For The Sunday Gazette

   It is clear that Mayor Brian Stratton and Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett have defined the problems that plague the Schenectady Police Department and are determined to fix them. It is regrettable that Sen. Farley and Assemblymen Tonko and Tedisco were unwilling to provide them the tools to do the job, as Carl Stock pointed out in his column on July 12.
   Allow me to add some thoughts to the important public debate on this, and offer my perspectives as an infantry offi cer who served for more than two decades in the Army — a profession that, like law enforcement, is demanding and dangerous.
   Soldiers wear a uniform, carry a weapon, and swear to uphold the Constitution. Because of these things, they are held to a higher standard in terms of both on-duty and off-duty conduct. Police officers are held to a similar high standard, because they wear a badge, carry a weapon and swear to uphold the law.
   It is precisely because of these higher standards, and the public’s expectation that they will be observed and enforced, that leaders must swiftly and effectively deal with breaches of discipline. Failure to do so unfairly but inevitably taints good soldiers, good cops and the units in which they serve.
   Among the things I took away from more than two decades of military service is this: One feature of an effective organization, and an important source of its credibility with the public, is the ability and willingness of the organization to police itself — to discipline its own.
GETTING IN THE WAY
   This is a concept that the Schenectady PBA seems unable to grasp.
   By their unwillingness to cede sufficient authority to department leaders to enforce discipline in the ranks, the PBA is hurting the lion’s share of police officers whose professional and personal conduct is beyond reproach. The PBA in so doing, is not acting in the long-term interests of the rank and file.
   The core problem in the Schenectady Police Department has been a lack of clear and unambiguous authority — empowered leadership — to run the department. Though I have not read the existing PBA contract, it obviously is one that gives far too much authority to union officials at the expense of police department leaders.
   The son of a union man, I am by no means “anti-union.” Unions play necessary and important roles in collective bargaining and salary negotiations, ensuring safe working conditions, and protecting members from arbitrary and capricious actions on the part of management. Though there will always be some areas of tension between management and the unions, there are some areas in which the two will share common interests.
   In the case of a police force, standards of conduct and discipline is one of these common areas. It is in everyone’s interest that the force is highly disciplined, well led, and is one that enjoys the trust and confidence of the public.
   Because of a series of intolerable breaches, some recent (tipping off investigations, drug use, missing evidence, excessive overtime, absurd use of department time for “union business”) and others recent history (shaking down prostitutes and corruption convictions), the Schenectady Police Department has little, if any, credibility with the public, and the PBA is greatly to blame.
CHANCE TO CHANGE PERCEPTIONS
   By refusing to grant to their police chief, and now their public safety commissioner, sufficient authority to run and discipline the force, the PBA does little more than perpetuate the public’s perception that this force is inefficient and ineffective at best, and corrupt and untrustworthy at worst. Such a perception does not help you bargain for and obtain higher salaries and decent benefits. Nor does it help you recruit the best and the brightest among young people in the area to join the force.
   Eventually, Schenectady police officers, and those in other municipalities, will realize that it is in their own self-interest to police themselves, and will vote for union leadership that understands this. The officers and their union representatives have an opportunity to do so during the ongoing contract negotiations.

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