Quoted Text

Bennett said he plans to take a close look at those rates.

  Hey look, Schenectady's finally learning from Rotterdam!  A Study!!!!!

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY Cops working less than state police colleagues

Notice that on purpose, I put both of these on the same line, not broken by location, title.  For one reason.  Anybody remember when things were going so good because the state troopers were "helping out" in Schenectady?  Maybe we just need to disband the Schenectady PD, oh, and Rotterdam, Niskayuna, Scotia.  Put them all under the State police.  There's a word for this.  Let me think..... ummm..... CONSOLIDATION?!?!?!  (I COULD REALLY USE A YELLING OUT LOUD "SMILEY" RIGHT HERE.)

The thing that I find quite amusing is how Stratton knew this and did absolutely NOTHING except, raise taxes and focus on 2 blocks on State Street. He is the 'boss' for God's sake. Perhaps someone should remind him of that. This mayor can't handle any of his job!

That city, along with townships, have given so much power to the cop's union, that it is almost impossible to correct this! The people can only place their hopes on Bennett and that he won't buckle. And of course there was that wonderful, informative article by Vince Riggi, which I read on another thread here. The concervative party, which is owned by the PBA, is putting cops up for the new elections. PATHETIC!

And all this time, Hamilton (pres of PBA) has been crying that he needs more officers. NO, Mr. Hamilton, how about making the cops actually work? Including yourself!

I hear that there were actually times when there was just (1) ONE cop on duty on the evening shift!!! Again..PATHETIC!!

http://www.timesunion.com

Quoted Text

Ex-Schenectady cop admits he took drugs
Curtis pleads guilty to felonies, must cooperate  
  
By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
Monday, June 25, 2007

SCHENECTADY -- Ex-Schenectady narcotics officer Jeffrey Curtis admitted this morning that he took crack cocaine from an evidence locker in the vice squad unit where he once worked, helping state investigators to explain the mystery of who lifted the contraband.
  
But while Curtis admitted taking at least some of the narcotics, he said he could not remember if he took all of the cocaine that State Police investigators say is missing. An audit has revealed that cocaine disappeared from 15 drug investigations and marijuana was missing from another.

``He crossed many lines and became exactly what he was sworn to protect the community from,'' District Attorney Robert M. Carney said.

Curtis -- who came under scrutiny after a positive drug test earlier this year -- pleaded guilty to charges of drug possession and evidence tampering as part of a plea bargain that will cap his prison sentence at four years and require him to tell all to a grand jury investigating the 150-member force.

Carney said Curtis was such a faithful customer that his own drug dealer gave him a discounted rate in exchange for his help distributing drugs to others.

``He has disgraced the badge. He has disgraced the police department. He has offended every single police officer that works in this agency and they owe him nothing,'' Schenectady Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said at a news conference.

Bennett said Curtis' conduct should not be seen as a reflection of the entire department. ``They shouldn't have to take ownership for what he did to them,'' he said.

Curtis' attorney, Stephen Coffey described the case against his client as overwhelming. Curtis, he said, accepted the sentence in hopes of putting the ordeal behind him. But he added his client could not remember for sure whether he took all of the drugs that ultimately disappeared.

``Whether he took every baggie there, he's not prepared to say that,'' Coffey said. ``He took a substantial amount. He certainly jeopardized prosecutions in this county.''

With his guilty plea in Schenectady County Court, Curtis became the seventh cop on the force convicted of a crime this decade. An eighth officer resigned amid allegations he roughed up a part-time prostitute.

Curtis, 46, is the only Schenectady cop to be arrested in connection with the missing evidence investigation. However, disciplinary charges are expected to be filed against his boss, Sgt. Daniel Diamond who duty it was to oversee storage of vice squad evidence.

The State Police were asked to investigate in January after prosecutors and Schenectady police discovered that narcotics were missing.

Curtis initially came under the scrutiny of the State Police after the failed drug test administered in connection with the investigation.

Police put him under around-the-clock surveillance and arrested him on March 16, shortly after investigators said they spotted him coming out of a suspected drug dealing den in Schenectady.

The plea bargain negotiations, reported exclusively by the Times Union last week, culminated weeks of intense talks between Carney and Coffey.
A result of the State Police investigation has been Mayor Brian U. Stratton's hiring of Bennett, the former State Police superintendent, Bennett to make reforms in the troubled department. It's the third time in less than two decades that an outsider has been brought in to deal with trouble the the department.
Earlier this decade four patrol officers served time in federal prison after an FBI-led investigation into a clique of rogue cops who used crack cocaine to reward informants for tips. One officer was convicted of telling one of his informants that she was under investigation by other cops and the other three were convicted of narcotics distribution.

A fifth Schenectady officer was sent to prison in connection with allegations he gave a stolen gun to a drug dealer. Another officer earlier this year admitted he tipped of a friend about a State Police gambling investigation, but he was allowed to keep his job.

Gee, there's a shocker.

Noooooooo....there's the scapegoat....

I disagree with you on this one Senders. It was clear that Curtis was a user and perhaps did in fact take the 'nose candy' from the evidence room, But I doubt very much that he was going to  pile on the sins of other cops who perhaps did the same. He's facing prison time now anyways. I believe he would have thrown the guilty ones in the bag at this point. He has nothing to lose and everything to gain. He owes nothing to the brotherhood now. It's every man out for himself.

Quoted from 16

  Hey look, Schenectady's finally learning from Rotterdam!  A Study!!!!!



Notice that on purpose, I put both of these on the same line, not broken by location, title.  For one reason.  Anybody remember when things were going so good because the state troopers were "helping out" in Schenectady?  Maybe we just need to disband the Schenectady PD, oh, and Rotterdam, Niskayuna, Scotia.  Put them all under the State police.  There's a word for this.  Let me think..... ummm..... CONSOLIDATION?!?!?!  (I COULD REALLY USE A YELLING OUT LOUD "SMILEY" RIGHT HERE.)

I agree with ya here BK. I just doesn't get better with the SPD. It only gets worse. But IF and I do mean IF the State Troopers were to take over the police depts, it wouldn't solve the problem until 1st, you get the bad cops outta there, and 2nd, re-negotiate the union contract!

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

‘He disgraced the badge’Police officer admits stealing crack cocaine
BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter

   Jeffrey Curtis, a one-time recipient of the Schenectady Police Department’s highest honor and a 21-year officer, admitted Monday in court he stole crack cocaine from the department’s vice squad safe.
   Curtis, 47, of Guilderland, a former vice squad member, pleaded guilty in Schenectady County Court to felony counts of drug possession and tampering with physical evidence.
   In exchange for his plea, Curtis is to be sentenced Sept. 14 to four years in state prison. He is also to cooperate with state police investigators.
   Curtis admitted in court to taking 85 units of crack cocaine from the locker, an act that forced the dismissal of drug charges against a man who faced years in prison had he been convicted.
   That dismissal set off a firestorm that eventually led to Curtis’ arrest, but placed a cloud of suspicion over the entire department and tainted any drug case from the vice squad.
   “He crossed many lines,” Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said at a Monday morning news conference. “He became exactly what he had sworn to protect the community from — a drug dealer.” Carney said Curtis also helped supply others with drugs, protected a Mont Pleasant drug dealer and did nothing to get them off the streets.
   The plea left the only other officer named in connection with the probe, Sgt. Daniel Diamond, still out on paid leave.
   Diamond, the day vice squad supervisor, has been on leave since February. That was shortly after he allegedly found drug evidence from at least one case in the trunk of his own personal car. He came forward with the evidence himself, Carney had said.
   Carney said he is still undecided on whether Diamond would be charged, but a preliminary state police report found no grounds for a prosecution. Diamond has passed all drug tests, according to authorities.
   However, administrative charges are being finalized against Diamond, Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said. He declined to characterize those charges.
   Carney said further charges are unlikely against anyone else. However, he noted that he would have a better idea following Curtis’ interview with state police investigators.
   After court Monday, defense attorney Stephen Coffey called it an open question whether Curtis took all the drugs, though he said he wasn’t claiming others did.
   “He’s simply not aware that he took all of them,” Coffey said. “He took a substantial amount, but whether he took every baggie there, I don’t know.
   “He’s not lying; he simply doesn’t know.”
MYSTERY REMAINS
   Coffey declined to answer a major question in the case: How did a 20-year police veteran and vice squad member get involved in drugs in the first place, and involved to the extent that he would steal from his own department?
   Coffey placed the problem as only “during the last year or so.”
   Carney also did not have the answer, noting that in every missing drug case but one, crack cocaine was missing, and each case was since June 2006.
   “There may have been a time before that he used powder cocaine, but at some point he started using crack and he was gone,” Carney said.
   State police investigators conducted a thorough review of the department’s drug cases as part of their independent inquiry. They found a total of 16 cases with 17 defendants where drugs were missing.
   Anthony Best faced years in prison as he took his drug possession case to trial in January. Instead, all charges were dropped and he walked out a free man.
   It was Best’s case that Curtis admitted to tampering with. Curtis did not know Best, officials said.
   In addition to the cases where drugs were missing, several defendants whose cases involved Curtis have been given favorable sentences. No other case, though, ended like Best’s.
   It was after the January revelation that the state police were brought in to investigate.
   Each member of the department’s vice squad was given drug tests. A hair sample supplied by Curtis came back with enough of a reading to brand him a heavy drug user, authorities said.
   It was then that investigators focused on Curtis, putting him under surveillance and placing a tracker on his personal truck. He was arrested March 16 after investigators witnessed him purchase drugs from his dealer on Hodgson Street, give a portion to a friend on Congress Street and drive off.
   Curtis’ alleged dealers, Heather Martin, 36, and George W. Finney, 58, were arrested later in March, after a state police raid, authorities said. Both were charged with drug felonies.
   On Monday, Carney also identified the man to whom authorities believe Curtis gave the drugs.
   Wayne L. Smith, 47, of 2078 Oaklawn Ave., was charged the same night as Curtis, with fourthdegree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a felony. The charge remains pending in Princetown Court.
   Smith, an alleged drug user, received the drugs from Curtis, took a portion and left the rest outside Curtis’ home garage in Guilderland, Carney said. Authorities recovered the drugs in a search of Curtis’ home following the arrest.
   Smith’s attorney, Michael Chenel, described his client’s involvement in the case as “pretty limited.” He said, however, that Smith has cooperated with police in the investigation.
DISGRACEFUL ACTIONS
   Carney said that not only did Curtis not do anything to stop the alleged dealers, he benefited from his relationship with them. He steered his friends to the dealers. In return, Carney said, Curtis received a discount on his own drugs.
   Police and city officials on Monday expressed outrage at Curtis’ behavior. Frustration was evident in Mayor Brian U. Stratton’s comments at the morning news conference. He called the day a terrible one, and Curtis’ acts unthinkable and an outrage. He noted that he and police officials routinely talk with residents about the problems of drugs and violence.
   “To think that one of our own police officers was doing the very same thing we were trying to fight,” Stratton said. “It’s disgusting.”
   Stratton vowed to do everything he could to prevent something similar from happening again.
   He already brought in Bennett, the former head of the entire state police, to straighten out the department after a number of scandals.
   Bennett has compiled a laundry list of changes to better secure drugs and evidence. Cameras will be installed, and the list of those able to access evidence has been slashed. Old drug evidence is being destroyed. Cash is also being deposited in accounts, not left in the safe, and audit procedures have been put in place.
   The cash move apparently was not done after a similar, unsolved disappearance of $10,000 in cash from the safe in 1988.
   Regarding Curtis himself, Bennett questioned how many people were left on the streets who could have posed a danger to the very officers he was working with.
   “That is as bad as it could possibly get,” Bennett said. “He has disgraced the badge. He has disgraced the police department. He has offended every single police officer that has worked in this agency. They owe him absolutely nothing.”
   In court Monday morning, Curtis answered Schenectady County Court Judge Karen Drago’s questions, giving his name, his date of birth and Social Security number. Drago asked him if anyone forced him to plead guilty. No one did. She also asked if he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, a standard question during pleas. He said he was not.
   Then she read the charges against him.
   “Guilty, your honor,” he responded.

MARC SCHULTZ/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Former Schenectady police Investigator Jeffrey Curtis leaves Schenectady County Court with his wife on Monday

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Why Sch’dy is paying more for less policing

   Asked for his reaction to the package of stories about the Police Department in Sunday’s newspaper, Schenectady Mayor Brian Stratton called it “sobering.” Wayne Bennett, the new police commissioner, said “it exposes the system for what it is — in three letters, bad.”
   The stories, written by Gazette reporters Kathleen Moore and Steven Cook and based on a lengthy review of police attendance sheets, quantified what most of us already knew. The average police officer takes a lot of time off and also works a lot of overtime.
   The common perception was that the time off was sick leave; and that’s certainly part of it. The records show that the average offi - cer took generous sick leave — nearly three weeks’ worth. The suspicion is that at least some of this was abuse, and the city needs to make more of an effort to make sure those days off are legit.
   But the stories revealed that at least as big a factor as sick time is compensatory time. When an officer works overtime, he or she has the choice of getting paid for it at time-anda-half, or getting time off for it at basically the same rate. And there are no real limits on how much comp time is taken or when. The contract requires only 24-hour notice. The result is that officers routinely call in and take off just when they are needed most, during the summer and especially Saturday evenings, typically the most dangerous time of the week.
   When someone calls in at the last minute, there are only two options, neither of them good. The department can go short-staffed for that shift or call someone else in on overtime. If they then take their OT in the form of comp time, as they usually do, the whole nasty spiral continues.
   The situation isn’t helped by the fact that overtime records are neither computerized nor timely (officers are allowed to bank overtime and sometimes don’t put in for it until years later). The city is in the process of converting to an electronic system, but as long as police are allowed to bank OT, it will never have a truly accurate picture.
   An end to banked OT is one of the things the city should insist on in current negotiations with the PBA. Others are an end to, or at least strict controls on, time off for union business, and an end to comp time. In the final analysis, it would be cheaper to pay officers overtime in a timely manner.
   As Bennett points out, excessive time off not only drives overtime and hurts public safety, it jeopardizes the safety of other officers when there aren’t a full complement of them on a shift. He says he will do whatever is necessary outside the contract, such as take people out of indoor jobs, to get more officers on the streets.
   Years ago city negotiators may have given away control over things like comp time in an attempt to save money on raises or overtime, but never thought through the implications. Now those decisions have come back with a vengeance, costing the city more in every way. At this point, the most important thing is to make systematic changes that will allow Bennett or whoever is police commissioner to manage the department.  

  
  
  

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE
Sch’dy cop
pleads guilty, others quiet

   I was in Schenectady County Court yesterday when retired Schenectady police officer Jeffrey D. Curtis pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the Police Department’s evidence locker, and I don’t mind telling you I was surprised.
   I had expected him to plead guilty to possession — he had, after all, been caught red-handed with cocaine in his car — but I didn’t see how the district attorney or state police investigators would be able to jolly him into admitting something they couldn’t prove.
   And the other thing I was surprised at was his sentence — four years in state prison, which is what he agreed to as part of a plea bargain. (It will be imposed in September, if he keeps up his end of the deal and cooperates with a continuing state police investigation.) I had expected he would be treated more gently.
   The police often say, and a couple of them said again yesterday, that they are held to a higher standard than ordinary civilians, but in my experience it’s the opposite. They get breaks that other people would not get. I for one am happy when they are held to the same standard as everyone else, and I believe that’s what happened with Curtis. He bought cocaine, passed some of it along to a friend, in exchange for which he got a reduced price from his dealer, which could easily be interpreted as dealing, and he stole drugs that were supposed to be used to prosecute 16 other criminal cases. He pleaded guilty to two felonies, and he’s going away for four years. Fair enough, I say.
   Especially considering, as District Attorney Bob Carney explained yesterday, that drug charges arising from the theft wouldn’t have been easy to prove in court since the drugs that were stolen hadn’t yet been tested in a laboratory. That’s why the toughest charge he could devise was tampering with evidence, with a one-to-three-year sentence, to run concurrently with the four-year sentence for what seems to me like the lesser matter of possession.
   Schenectady’s new public safety commissioner, Wayne Bennett, was on hand yesterday, during a postcourt press conference, to say if he were one of the officers who had worked with Curtis he would be “forever angry” at the betrayal, and what struck me was that we have heard no expressions of such anger from the rank and file, or from their union, just as we heard no such expressions in previous criminal cases against Schenectady police officers.
   They either stand together in solidarity, or when things get really bad they keep quiet. Yesterday in the courthouse I recognized just one retired cop in the spectator section.
   Curtis was a vice squad investigator, meaning he was supposed to be chasing drug dealers, and one question I have is how his fellow investigators were able to work side by side with him without suspecting something was amiss. If he was a heavy crack user, as indicated by tests, wasn’t his behavior in any way aberrant? And as a customer of a drug dealer, didn’t he make any missteps? In other words, were his colleagues possibly covering for him?
   I asked Commissioner Bennett about that, and he said Curtis’ lengthy absences from work could have been attributable to a back problem and so might not have aroused suspicion, but he agreed, “I don’t think you have to be a drug chemist” to notice drug-induced changes in behavior. If his fellow officers didn’t notice anything, or did notice and didn’t report anything, “It creates a bigger issue,” he said cautiously.
   Of course Bennett came on board well after this scandal broke, so he doesn’t know what was going on at the time. He did say that administrative charges are pending against the supervising officer of the vice squad, Dan Diamond.

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

A fall from grace
Ex-cop admits stealing, smoking crack  
  
By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer
First published: Tuesday, June 26, 2007

SCHENECTADY -- A former city narcotics cop admitted Monday to stealing crack cocaine from the vice squad locker to fuel his own addiction, sparking a scandal that erupted when prosecutors had to drop charges against a suspected drug dealer because the evidence was gone.
Investigator Jeffrey D. Curtis, who retired shortly after his March arrest, was such a faithful customer that his own drug dealer gave him a discounted rate in exchange for his help distributing drugs to others, prosecutors said.

  
Curtis, 46, of Guilderland, will likely spend four years in state prison and must cooperate with a State Police and grand jury probe into the disappearance of seized drugs, according to the plea deal he accepted Monday before County Judge Karen A. Drago.

Monday was the first time Curtis has been publicly linked to the drug theft that has roiled the Police Department and sparked a State Police probe that has consumed some 11,000 man-hours.

Curtis admitted felony drug possession and evidence tampering.

Troopers were called to investigate the missing evidence in January after drug charges against Anthony Best were dismissed because the district attorney's office couldn't produce the evidence against him. Curtis pleaded guilty to taking evidence only in that case.

Curtis could have faced up to nine years had he been convicted on a more serious charge of criminal sale of a controlled substance. That charge stemmed from the fact that he would buy drugs and give them to other people, sometimes acting as a go-between and in the process securing himself a better price, District Attorney Robert M. Carney said.

"He crossed many lines and became exactly what he was sworn to protect the community from," Carney said.

Neither Curtis's lawyer nor prosecutors could say yet whether Curtis stole all the drugs eventually found missing from 16 cases.

"Whether he took every baggie there, he's not prepared to say that," said his attorney, Stephen Coffey. "He's not lying. He simply doesn't know."

Coffey described his client as a man struggling with addiction who spent most of his career as a top-notch cop and was now eager to put the ordeal behind him. Curtis spoke to the judge mostly in one- and two-word phrases, rocking back and forth on his toes while about a dozen friends and relatives looked on.

He remains the only person charged with the thefts. He was arrested after police planted a listening device in his truck and later watched him around the clock, including at least once when he bought drugs from his dealer in Mont Pleasant.

Authorities say he split the drugs with a friend before he was pulled over in Princetown on March 16.

Curtis came under scrutiny after a hair sample he provided to investigators tested positive for cocaine, prosecutors said.

Carney said that based on what the authorities know now, they do not expect to charge anyone else in connection with the thefts. But the future of the investigation, he said, depends on what Curtis reveals.

"It was always our intention in this investigation to take it wherever it went," Carney said.

Curtis's former boss, Sgt. Daniel Diamond, remained on paid administrative leave Monday while officials ready internal disciplinary charges against him, Public Safety Commissioner Wayne E. Bennett said. Bennett, who was was hired in April to restore public confidence in the 150-member Police Department, declined to elaborate on the nature of the charges.

Officials familiar with the investigation have said the disappearance of the cocaine exposed a sloppy system of evidence storage. Bennett has reduced the number of people with access to the lockers.
On Monday, the commissioner had no sympathy for Curtis.

"He has disgraced the badge, he has disgraced the Police Department, he has offended every single police officer that works in this agency, and they owe him nothing," Bennett said.

In recent years, four city patrol officers went to federal prison after an FBI investigation into a clique of rogue cops who used crack to reward informants for tips. One officer was convicted of telling an informant that she was under investigation by other cops.

A fifth Schenectady officer was sent to prison in connection with allegations he gave a stolen gun to a drug dealer.

Earlier this year, an officer admitted he tipped off a friend about a State Police gambling investigation, but he was allowed to keep his job.

Still, Mayor Brian U. Stratton said Monday, "It's unthinkable that once again we're up here talking about one of our own police officers who violated the public's trust."

Curtis remains free on $50,000 bail. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 14.

Jordan Carleo-Evangelist can be reached at 454-5445 or by e-mail at jcarleo-evangelist @timesunion.com.

Quoted Text

Still, Mayor Brian U. Stratton said Monday, "It's unthinkable that once again we're up here talking about one of our own police officers who violated the public's trust."

HHHMMM.... a little late here...

Quoted Text

Schenectady’s new public safety commissioner, Wayne Bennett, was on hand yesterday, during a postcourt press conference, to say if he were one of the officers who had worked with Curtis he would be “forever angry” at the betrayal, and what struck me was that we have heard no expressions of such anger from the rank and file, or from their union, just as we heard no such expressions in previous criminal cases against Schenectady police officers.

INTERESTING.....

http://www.dailygaztte.com

Quoted Text

EDITORIALS Sch’dy can’t afford to keep cops in schools

   While Schenectady school officials mourn the loss of three city police officers who’d been assigned to keep an eye on things in middle and elementary schools, they really ought to be relieved that Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett saw fit to keep the three other “school resource officers” where they were. Given the police department’s extreme manpower shortage, taking any cops off street patrol for a less productive (crime-wise) school beat seems like an unaffordable luxury.
   The presence of a friendly, uniformed cop in the halls or schoolyard, interacting with students or doing an occasional anti-drug lecture, does serve a few purposes: Apart from helping maintain order, a resource officer allows police to establish rapport and build trust with an important constituency. This can be especially helpful in getting kids with troubled backgrounds back on a proper course. Also, students as young as elementary age can provide valuable intelligence for solving neighborhood crime.
   But in a city like Schenectady, where patrol officers take a lot of time off from work and staffing problems are often acute, it’s more productive to have these cops work the streets.
   How serious a blow will this be for school security? The high school, where the need is undeniably greatest, will retain its two resource officers, and in the middle schools there will be one where previously there were three. The elementaries will lose their full-time (DARE) Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer, but it was a program of debatable benefit. So the losses shouldn’t be that big a deal.
   The school district is planning to replace the officers in some way. It should try to do so as cheaply as possible. But even if all six had to be replaced, it would probably be cheaper to do so for taxpayers than using active cops. Retired cops hired part-time without benefits would be far less costly, for example — especially considering that diverting the full-time cops helps fuel the overtime/comp-time gravy train described in Sunday’s Gazette story.  

  
  
  

Give those parents that are "out of work" a job.....one for each hallway......

Not a bad idea.  It would also return some of the tax money to the residents.