ROTTERDAM — Town officials are being tight-lipped over the unpaid suspensions handed out to a pair of patrolmen last month and an ongoing internal investigation at the police department.
Chief James Hamilton refused to identify the suspended officers and declined to discuss what prompted their discipline following an incident in late August. He said one officer was suspended in early September and the other several weeks later, but he wouldn’t discuss the circumstances surrounding the suspensions.
“We demand our officers are held to the highest standard, and when they don’t act accordingly, we take action,” he said Tuesday.
Hamilton did acknowledge an ongoing internal investigation into the matter, but he declined to discuss any particulars of the probe. Town Supervisor Harry Buffardi acknowledged the internal investigation but referred all questions to Hamilton or Town Attorney Kate McGuirl.
In an email, McGuirl said state civil rights law precludes her from discussing the suspensions or the department’s ongoing internal investigation.
“The town is barred from discussing or releasing the personnel records of a police officer, including a notice of discipline,” she said.
A call to Mark Frodyma, the president of the Rotterdam Police Benevolent Association, was not returned Tuesday afternoon.
The suspensions came around the same time as when seven members of the department’s Emergency Response Team —more than half of the squad — abruptly resigned from the detail. Hamilton said the seven officers remain on the force but tendered their resignation from the team on Sept. 11.
Hamilton said the resignations are unrelated to the suspensions. He said several officers no longer wanted to continue the training commitment needed to remain part of the team, which is used for drug raids, hostage situations and other tactical responses.
“My understanding in speaking to some of them is that there was an unwillingness to commit to the level of training,” he said. “With the majority of those members, none of them indicated there was any link to the suspensions.”
The resignations do leave the future of the 12-member team established in 2004 in question. With only four officers and a paramedic supervisor now on the team, Hamilton said the department will now need to chose whether to enlist more members, keep a much smaller squad or disband it altogether.
Hamilton said team members are required to conduct eight hours of training each month. He said the team also requires a commitment from the town, which has to invest taxpayer dollars into funding equipment and training.
“There is a big commitment on the part of the town and the police department,” he said. “We’ve invested quite a bit in these officers.”
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
How come no one watches over the CHIEF? Isn't he the one responsible? This is all the fault of everyone else and yet he gets a huge raise?
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
How come no one watches over the CHIEF? Isn't he the one responsible? This is all the fault of everyone else and yet he gets a huge raise?
I thought the TB was ultimately responsible for the PD? Sounds like the Chief needs a shorter leash. What is the culture inside the RPD? Two suspensions and a mass resignation? Shouldn't the TB be launching the investigation? How does Buffardi get away with abdicating his responsibility to the PD? It's the RPD that is apparently fu(ked up, why is he getting away with deflecting to the attorney and RPD?
I thought the TB was ultimately responsible for the PD? Sounds like the Chief needs a shorter leash. What is the culture inside the RPD? Two suspensions and a mass resignation? Shouldn't the TB be launching the investigation? How does Buffardi get away with abdicating his responsibility to the PD? It's the RPD that is apparently fu(ked up, why is he getting away with deflecting to the attorney and RPD?
it is....that's why they didn't want the 'commissioner' and the black tee-shirts were the fashion rage in the day
...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
it is....that's why they didn't want the 'commissioner' and the black tee-shirts were the fashion rage in the day
Yes, it sounds like the RPD is a government unto itself. They do not have to answer to the Rotterdam resident(despite the millions they receive in salaries from the residents) or elected representative. Everything done in the dark, no transparency, all in secret.
Illegal Police Department Activity Threaten to Bankrupt Counties Nationwide
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 8:09 0
(Before It's News)
The Truth Behind The News
susanne_posel_news_ police-state-002Susanne Posel Occupy Corporatism February 7, 2013
Local police departments (LPDs) across the nation are incorporated as specialized non-profits. Most LPDs are known to the Secretary of State in their respective state as an association which gives the impression to the average citizen that this is a union. However this is not the case.
The LPDs are contracted by the City Council to preform police services and securitize the city they are hired in. This is the exchange of a local government hiring a private security firm to stabilize the local population and generate revenue for the city through tickets, arrests and recording infractions. However, this does not include upholding local laws, as the County Sheriff’s Office is elected to take charge of.
The problem with this system is that the LPDs, being corporations, are subject to corporate law. And corporations fall into dissolution (i.e. the termination of the corporation) for various reasons quite often. When it is the LPD that dissolves; this becomes a question of legal authority over the citizens by the hired private security firm known as the LPD.
Corporations that dissolve are not allowed by law to conduct business. These same rules apply to the LPD that is actually a corporation hired by the local government or city council to preform police services.
For example, in the State of Oregon, over 12 LPDs are in dissolution. On the Secretary of State website, when a LPD is dissolved it is classified as “INA” or inactive. This includes LPDs in the following cities:
• Beaverton • Canby • Charleston • Eugene • Gresham • King County • Lake Oswego • Lebanon • Portland • Sherwood • Weston
According to corporate law, if a corporation dissolves, it must withdraw as a business entity. This means that once the LPD is dissolved, they cannot continue to perform police services for the city in which they were hired.
And in fact, should this be brought to the public, it might be common place (as it is in the State of Oregon) that LPDs are in dissolution and not legally allowed to conduct police services because they lack legal authority as a dissolved corporation.
It also stands that the local governments that are privy to this information would be involved in not only egregious corruption but are knowingly misleading the citizens of their towns and cities. Once the LPD is dissolved, from the date of dissolution, any arrest, ticket, or police service preformed is now an illegal act. It is tantamount to a citizen impersonating a police officer which as serious legal ramifications.
Should citizens become aware of this fact in their city – that their LPD is a corporation that has dissolved and is continuing to operate as if they have legal right to do so – there would be justified legal recourse for every citizen who had been arrested, jailed, forced to pay a ticket of any kind and forced to appear in municipal court under those circumstances (including court costs, attorney’s fees and fees attributed by the court).
In 2012, Louis F. Quijas, Assistant Secretary of the Office for State and Local Law Enforcement (OSLLE), for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained the purpose of the OSLLE as a front “office that provided coordination and partnership with state, local, and tribal law enforcement.”
The OSLLE was recommended by the 9/11 Commission. It was created to “lead the coordination of DHS-wide policies relating to state, local, and tribal law enforcement’s role in preventing acts of terrorism and to serve as the primary liaison between non-Federal law enforcement agencies across the country and the Department.”
Intelligence is disseminated through OSLLE to LPDs or “non-Federal law enforcement partners” to keep information flowing through initiatives such as the “If You See Something, Say Something™”, the Blue Campaign, the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI), and the Department’s efforts in Countering Violent Extremism.
OSLLE consistently works with LPDs on education, actionable information, operations and intelligence for the purpose of their part in the operations of the DHS with regard to keeping “our homeland safe”.
OSLLE also works as a liaison between LPDs to maintain DHS leadership and considerations of “issues, concerns, and requirements of state, local, and tribal law enforcement during budget, grant, and policy development processes.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) upholds relationships with LPDs for the purposes of and participation with National Preparedness Grant Program that began this year.
To ensure that local police departments continue to meet the requirements of training from DHS, officers regularly attend the DHS Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia.
LPDs are focused through OSLLE and DHS to “remain vigilant and to protect our communities from all threats, whether terrorism or other criminal activities” as DHS expands its control over local law enforcement and the communities they oversee.
As stated in the DHS directive from the Office for State and Local Law Enforcement (SLLE), the assistant Secretary for SLLE has “the primary official responsible for leading the coordination of Department-wide policies related to the role of state, tribal, and local law enforcement in preventing, preparing for, protecting against, and responding to natural disasters, acts of terrorism and other man- made disasters within the US.”
This directive also sets guidelines of advocacy for DHS by the LPDs. Authorization of DHS to take over LPDs is given in Title 6 of the United States Code, Section 607, “Terrorism prevention”.
In 2008, the Bureau of Justice Statistics stated that LPD “make up more than two-thirds of the 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies in the US” which translates to an estimated 12,501 law enforcement agencies. Of those LPDs, there are more than 461,000 sworn officers.
Last year President Obama signed an executive order (EO) that created the White House Homeland Security Partnership Council and Steering Committee which tied DHS to local partnerships, federal and private institutions “to address homeland security challenges.”
Members of the Steering Committee include:
• Department of State • Department of US Treasury • Department of Defense • Department of Justice • Department of Transportation • Department of Veterans Affairs • The Federal Bureau of Investigations
In 2011, Congress encouraged private sector “police companies” to replace law enforcement on the State and local level by coercing a new police protection insurance that would tack on a fee to citizens for the use of “police protection”.
This move was justified by having citizens pay for the police to be called to scenes as a “communal service” that is contractual just as any other service or good is paid for. As a customer, the citizen would tell 911 dispatch their insurance information for payment purposes to be billed after the police were deployed to the scene, or services were rendered.
Turning LPDs into private security firms that provide services to the public was the scheme behind privatizing law enforcement.
Under state government contract, private security firms preform law enforcement services. With legislative bodies on both the state and Congressional level supporting this change, private corporations enter into contractual agreements with city councils to provide armed security patrol. Just as a rent-a-cop is hired to secure private property, local police departments are masked rent-a-cops that were hired by local government to secure their city.
This fact has been hidden from public scrutiny and has added to the blending of social perception of what the police are and what they do so that police services are able to function without question. At the same time, citizens are expected to pay fees for these “services” that were once inherent to life in a structured town or city.
In early 2012, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report entitled “Homeland Security and Intelligence: Next Steps in Evolving the Mission” which outlined in part on how to redirect efforts of the federal government from international terrorism toward home-grown terrorists and build a DHS-controlled police force agency that would control all cities and towns through the use of local police departments.
DHS maintains that “the threat grows more localized” which necessitates the militarization of local police in major cities in the US and the training of staff from local agencies to make sure that oversight is restricted to the federal government.
Private corporations have been parading as public servants policing cities and towns across America without the knowledge of the average citizen for quite some time. Although they wear the same badges as LPDs of the past, these private security firms are not there to uphold peace or enforce any laws and city ordinances. Just like any other corporation, they seek out opportunities to collect revenue for the benefit of the city that hired them.
...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
I love the way all involved act like they have no idea what any of the laws, policy, or procedures are on any of this. It is the exact same way in the city. Poor Gary McCarthy faces dilemmas daily, where he has to pull the solutions out of his own CENSORED. We don't have like 300 years of legislation, or a charter, or State law, or anything, it's all up to the whims of one man. Welcome to my world, Rotterdamians.
I love the way all involved act like they have no idea what any of the laws, policy, or procedures are on any of this. It is the exact same way in the city. Poor Gary McCarthy faces dilemmas daily, where he has to pull the solutions out of his own CENSORED. We don't have like 300 years of legislation, or a charter, or State law, or anything, it's all up to the whims of one man. Welcome to my world, Rotterdamians.
yup...2 choices here
1. either they are stupid
or
2. crooked for the status quo
just because something is legal doesn't make it right just because something is illegal doesn't make it wrong
just because the law is 'on your side' doesn't make it righteous
...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
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