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Curtis case moves
to County Court
   SCHENECTADY — Former city police Det. Jeffrey Curtis appeared in City Court Monday, agreeing to have his case sent up to County Court, officials said. The move allows the city case to be considered at the felony level.
   Curtis faces one count of thirddegree criminal sale of a controlled substance in Schenectady. He also faces a possession charge in Princetown. He is still scheduled for a Wednesday appearance in Princetown Court.
   Curtis was arrested in March as part of an ongoing state police probe into drugs missing from the city police vice squad safe. Curtis was a member of the vice squad. He is not charged with taking the drugs.
   He has since retired from the department.

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Body found in the Mohawk River
Updated: 6/19/2007 5:31 PM
By: Web Staff
  
An investigation is underway after a body was found in the Mohawk River in Schenectady Tuesday afternoon.

A couple walking in Riverside Park saw the body floating about 20 feet from shore and called police.

A Schenectady Fire Department boat responded and recovered the body. Officials said there were no obvious signs of trauma.  

Witness Chauntell Brown said, "It was just a person with a do-rag on, and you could see the black shirt and the shoulders just kept lifting up. And the head kept coming up, going down, coming up. And I said, oh my God baby, it's definitely a body."
  
Schenectady Police Captain Pete Frisoni said, "We might not ever be able to determine his point of entry. But we will be checking the shoreline to see if there's anything that helps us in our investigation. We will try to identify the man and check his background and see if we can find out what happened leading up to his death."

He is described as a black man in his 40's, about 5'10" with a thin build and a goatee. He was wearing a black t-shirt, brown pants and a red bandana on his head. He was not carrying identification.

A criminal investigation is underway, and an autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday at Ellis Hospital.

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SCHENECTADY
Body found in river; probe is under way
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   Authorities pulled the body of a man from the Mohawk River Tuesday afternoon after passersby saw it in the water about 20 feet off shore from Riverside Park.
   Investigators from the Schenectady Police Department are still unsure of the man’s identity or cause of death. City firefighters used their rescue boat to pluck the body from the river just west of the park pavilion.
   Capt. Peter Frisoni said the body had no discernible injuries and was found clothed but with no shoes, and had been in the water for more than a day. He said the body appears to be that of a black man about 6 feet tall and in his late 30s or 40s.
   “At this point, that’s all we’ve got,” he said at the scene. “It was obvious that he had been dead for a period of time.”
   The body was taken to Ellis Hospital where a coroner is expected to conduct an autopsy this morning.
   Police remained on the scene for more than an hour. Frisoni said the area would be considered a crime scene until investigators can determine the cause of death.
   “At this time, we don’t know what caused his death or how long he was in the water,” he said.
   Witnesses on the shore reported the man was wearing a black or grey shirt and a red do-rag.
   Chauntell Brown was walking through the park with her friend, Alvin Jones, when she spotted something in the water shortly before 2 p.m. She first thought the body was a piece of debris until catching sight of a watch on the man’s hand that was shimmering in the sun.
   “I just kept seeing his head bobbing,” said Brown, who was shaken by the discovery.
   Kaitlin Snow was reading a book by the river when she was approached by Brown and Jones. She said they considered pulling the man from the water until they realized he had been dead for some time.
   “He had been in there for a while,” said the young woman, who was also disturbed by the sight. “It’s so sad.”
   Police last pulled a body from the Schenectady stretch of the Mohawk in May 2004, nine days after a city man was seen jumping into the river from the Western Gateway Bridge. Investigators later determined the man had committed suicide.

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Body found in Mohawk River identified
Updated: 6/21/2007
By: Web Staff
  
Schenectady police say they've identified the body found floating in the Mohawk River on Tuesday, but they're not releasing the victim's name just yet.

Investigators said the man is 44 years old and apparently homeless. They're trying to contact family members.

The official cause of death is drowning, and police said they have no reason to think the man was murdered.

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Fatal shooting in Schenectady
Updated: 6/22/2007
By: Web Staff

  
Police are looking for three suspects in connection with a fatal shooting in Schenectady.

The shooting happened around 2 p.m. Friday at 101 DeGraff Street in the Vale neighborhood.

Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said police responded to the two-family home after reports of shots fired.

The male victim in his twenties was found in the stairwell with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at Ellis Hospital.

Witnesses reported seeing three males in their late teens or early twenties fleeing the scene on bikes.

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Officers pulled from classrooms, put back on the streets
6/22/2007
By: Web Staff
  
The City of Schenectady is dealing with a shortage of officers on the streets. Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said he's looking to pull some out of the classroom and back on the streets.

Bennett said the police department will be eliminating two of three School Resource Officer positions currently assigned to Schenectady middle schools as well as the current DARE officer position.

Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett announced the Schenectady Police Department will be eliminating two of three School Resource Officer positions as well as the current DARE officer position due to operational need.

The changes will be put in place over the next few weeks following the end of the current school session.

Currently, the department is short-staffed 16 officers. Mayor Brian Stratton said the majority of those positions should be filled by early next year.

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SCHENECTADY
Schools lose 3 resource police officers
District officials looking at new security arrangements
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

   The city school district will have a new security arrangement in place by September to offset the loss this year of three city police officers assigned to the middle and elementary schools, Superintendent Eric Ely said Friday.
   Citing a need for more officers on the streets, Public Safety Commissioner Wayne E. Bennett announced Friday the Police Department will transfer two school resource officers and the Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer to other police duties when the school year ends June 30.
   The police department will maintain one school resource officer for the four middle schools and two school resources officers for the high school.
   Ely plans to present the school board with options at its mid-July meeting on ways to fill the security gap left by the loss of the officers. “We will be announcing a plan. I’m targeting the July 20 board meeting as a deadline to have everything in place,” he said.
   The district is considering several options: hiring retired police officers, seeing if the state police or the county sheriff’s department can provide officers, or hiring a private security fi rm.
   Ely has not fully calculated the cost of each option, but said, for example, hiring two retired police officers could cost approximately $60,000.
   City police notified the district several months ago to expect the staffing change, but school officials did not officially receive notification until Friday, Ely said.
   Ely said the district is disappointed by the city’s decision. “I believe that this will hurt the security and safety plans we have in place currently. We will have to alter those plans and come up with alternatives to keep our schools safe and secure,” he said.
   Bennett said the three current school officers are needed to answer emergency calls in the city. “That is our number one priority,” he said. “It’s a hard choice to make, but we are making the right decision.”
   City police will continue to patrol around the schools, ensuring a quick response in case of need, Bennett said.
   The 160-member police department is currently understaffed by 16 positions, Bennett said. “It’s one-tenth of the entire department. That is a significant effect on our response,” he said.
   Mayor Brian Stratton, who is seeking re-election this year to a second four-year term, has given the go-ahead to hire 12 officers. The officers will enter the Zone 5 Law Enforcement Academy on July 11. Academy training takes approximately six months, and the rookie officers then undergo several weeks of in-house training with a veteran police officer before being allowed to patrol on their own.
   “We’re looking at 2008 when they will be available,” Bennett said.
   The department is also reviewing several lateral transfers from other police departments. “If they meet our standards, we would hire them,” Bennett said.
   The police department pays the salaries and benefits of the school resource officers. The DARE Advisory Committee had been paying the DARE officer’s salary, but this funding source has dried up, Bennett said.
   The funding loss did not play a role in the decision to remove the DARE officer from the school, Bennett said. “Although the DARE program has now lost funding, and even if funding did exist in the future, the decision would not change the options available to the police department. Additional program changes are also being examined to further enhance patrol coverage,” he said.
   The transfer of the three offi cers to regular duties will set off union bumping rights, which will take several weeks to resolve, he said.
   Ely said school resource offi cers play two key roles. “The kids know they can go to an officer to get help and they are a visible security aspect; people feel more safe having that visible presence,” he said. “Most of their time is talking to kids and being visible.”
   District-employed hall monitors “do the bulk of patrolling in hallways. The police don’t do that; they don’t get involved in the day-to-day running of buildings,” Ely said.

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SCHENECTADY
Time off cuts police manpower
Data show shortages when officers use comp days
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

   Saturday evenings are often the worst time of the week for Schenectady police, as crime spikes with shootings, assaults and robberies.
   But even though it’s usually the shift on which officers are needed the most, it’s the one they work the least.
   Nearly half of the officers assigned to the 4 p.m. to midnight shift find a reason to avoid coming in on Saturdays, according to the results of The Sunday Gazette’s review of 2006 police attendance records.
   On average, fewer than 10 of the 17 scheduled officers work the Saturday evening shift each week. Any weekday evening has better coverage — typically 14 officers are on duty on those lessbusy shifts.
   But even on weekdays, nearly onethird of the scheduled evening officers don’t come in. It’s a situation that endangers public safety, Commissioner Wayne Bennett said.
   “You obviously can’t fulfill the mission when you have that many people not reporting in,” he said after the Gazette shared the attendance results with him.
   A day-by-day review of every offi - cer’s 2006 attendance record found that absence rates vary dramatically by platoon. The lowest absence rates were posted by the midnight to 8 a.m. platoon, which has the newest officers. On Saturdays, an average of 25 percent of the scheduled overnight officers did not come in last year. On weekdays, the rate was 16 percent.
   The 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. platoon, which has the most experienced officers, posted an absence rate of 27 percent on Saturdays and 26 percent on weekdays.
   The 4 p.m. to midnight platoon had the worst absence rate. On Saturday evenings, an average of 42 percent of the assigned officers called in last year. On weekday evenings, 29 percent of the scheduled officers called in.
   Bennett said he plans to take a close look at those rates.
   “Anytime you get that percentage of people not reporting for work for any reason, you need to ascertain is something wrong,” he said. “There are legitimate excuses, but you have to look into whether there’s abuse.”
OVERTIME BENEFIT
   Often, when people allege that the police department is abusing its call-in privileges, they mean that officers are calling in sick when they’re perfectly healthy. But evening platoon members are calling in to use a legally earned comp day just as often as they call in sick.
   Compensatory time is a paid day off to make up for 5.3 hours of unpaid overtime. Officers can choose whether to get paid time-and-a-half or to set aside some of their hours toward a day off when they work overtime.
   Days off were by far the more popular option for the evening shift, which used 333 comp days last year. That was 21 percent more than the night shift and 26 percent more than the day shift.
   Some officers used comp days to take off nearly every single weekend they were assigned to work during summer months. Others got creative and doled out their hours over the course of a week, taking seven comp hours every day so that they only had to patrol for an hour.
   Contractually, the only limit is that they cannot divide their comp time into increments of less than 4 hours per day.
   While the evening shift was tops in comp days, the other platoons weren’t far behind. The entire patrol division took 843 comp days last year. That’s more days than four officers would work in a year.
   That drives up overtime costs. It also wreaks havoc with police schedules.
COVERAGE CONCERNS
   Bennett said officers decide to use their comp days with little or no notice, making it impossible to schedule a full complement without resorting to overtime. According to the police contract, officers can claim their comp time if they inform their superiors 24 hours in advance.
   “Therein lies the problem. When people do that, you obviously still have to field a team,” Bennett said. “It leaves the operations of the police departments without much choice. It is totally unproductive. It is not cost-effective. If only you could control when comp time is utilized.”
   There are some limits in the contract. On the evening platoon, five officers can take comp time simulatenously, although five more offi - cers can claim their time if no one is on vacation. That cuts the platoon from an average of 20 scheduled officers to just 10, assuming no one else calls in sick or wants to use a personal day. Last year, there were some days when just five of the scheduled officers showed up for work.
   Bennett said the comp time privilege must be revoked.
   “What I would like is no comp time. They should get paid for the hours they work,” he said.
   City officials want to get rid of the comp time system, too.
   “It does not do us any favors to have comp time versus overtime,” Director of Administration John Paolino said. “Pay ’em. Do away with comp time altogether.”
   Police union President Robert Hamilton and Vice President Mark LaViolette did not return repeated requests for comment. But in a February interview about staffi ng problems at the police department, Hamilton said the real issue was not police benefits but a lack of officers.
   “Our wheels are spinning. We need help,” he said. “The bare minimum our department should be is 180 members.”
   The department is now budgeted for 166 officers.
SAVINGS PUZZLE
   In a January interview, he said hiring more officers was also the best way to cut back on overtime — which would reduce the number of comp days.
   “I’ll cut the overtime. Allow me to do the hiring,” he said. “If they hired more officers, the overtime would be significantly lower.”
   But Paolino said the city could reduce its overtime budget just by eliminating comp days and paying officers for their time instead.
   Comp time can actually cost the city more than regular overtime, he said.
   The officer who wants comp time earns one full day off for every 5.3 hours of unpaid overtime. The rest of the officer’s overtime shift — a normal shift is eight hours — is paid at the officer’s overtime rate.
   Initially, the city saves money by paying for only 2.7 hours of an eight-hour overtime shift. But when the officer claims the comp day from the rest of that shift, the police department must often pay someone else to work overtime to fill the vacancy.
   In those cases, the city ends up paying a total of 10.7 hours of overtime between the two officers. It would have only paid for 8 hours of overtime if the original officer took pay instead of a comp day.
   “If you get a comp day, you’re still getting paid and it’s going to drive my overtime up,” Paolino said.
   Two or three hours of extra overtime pay for every comp day might not sound like much, but it adds up. The patrol division used 843 comp days last year.
   Paolino said he believes comp time was encouraged when the city was struggling to have enough cash flow to make payroll each month.
   “The financial system at the time was such that it was ‘defer payment as much as possible,’ ” he said.
   But the city can afford it now, he added.
   “It would be a bit of a burden on our cash flow, but our cash flow is such that we can pay it,” he said.

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Disorganized records lead to pay problems
Time cards make overtime hard to track
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

   The police department’s payroll is so disorganized that there is no way of tracking how much money the city has spent in overtime, and officers have occasionally been paid more overtime than they earned, payroll officials said.
   The city can’t tell how much overtime money is left to spend this year — it can’t even say how much was spent on overtime last week.
   “We can’t track it. That’s always been a concern to us,” said Personnel and Benefits Administrator Kathy Finch.
   The problem is that police overtime is not computerized, forcing the city payroll department to keep track of thousands of tiny time cards filled out by officers for each day’s overtime. Officers often turn in those cards weeks after they actually worked the overtime and can choose to delay payment for years.
   Until Finch gets the cards, files them and enters them into her system, she doesn’t know how much overtime has been used. And since officers don’t turn in the cards right away, she’s always behind.
   “It’s just the organization of it all,” she said. “It’s difficult with all those little pieces of paper. They’re an administrative nightmare.”
   Not only is it time-consuming to file all the cards, but police can choose to “bank” their overtime pay for years. When they finally decide to take their money, payroll workers occasionally make a mistake and key in the officer’s current overtime rate instead of the officer’s original pay rate.
   “It has happened,” Finch said. “We’re all human.”
   Sometimes she catches the mistakes. But she knows there are times when she didn’t.
   “Being that we have a weekly payroll, you’re working in very tight time constraints, and police is the biggest department,” she said. “It’s very difficult to make sure you’re doing it all right. It’s really the overtime. The overtime is the biggest problem.”
TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTION
   The city already has the means to eliminate the problem by adding police to the city’s electronic payroll system. The system would automatically calculate all payroll if police punched a time clock, which city officials want them to do.
   It would be an unusual practice for this area. None of the suburban police departments in Schenectady County use time clocks. Albany and Troy also don’t use them.
   It’s not clear how Schenectady police would react to the proposal. Police Benevolent Association President Robert Hamilton did not return repeated requests for comment for this story but has often insisted that city officials negotiate any item that is not already approved in the police contract.
   The electronic payroll system would allow Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett to track overtime continuously. Every other department head can already do that because their workers use the system, city Finance Commissioner Ismat Alam said.
   “You can see at any given time where your overtime is,” she said.
   But the police administrators are in the dark. To help them stay within budget, Alam laboriously calculates an overtime estimate for the police department each month. She combines the payroll department’s best data with the internal police overtime schedule to figure out how much the department has spent.
   The department still ends up over budget every year on overtime, although it has managed to stay within its overall budget for the past two years.
   In overtime, the department was supposed to spend no more than $1.7 million last year. Officers actually received a total of $2.4 million.
   Alam thinks it would help if the police department could check its overtime data more often.
   “I would like to see it computerized for accountability reasons — everything is transparent,” she said.
   Alam also wants everything computerized in case of a disaster.
   “Suppose everything goes up in flames — you will not lose your hard documents because they’re on the server,” she said. “And we do backups in case the server goes up in flames.”
   But the police records, carefully stacked on a desk in the payroll office, would be lost forever.
MOUNTAIN OF PAPERWORK
   No one at that office would mourn if the police time cards were eliminated. They spend a lot of time sorting through the mountain of cards, Finch said. She estimated that the work is enough to keep one person busy all year, although it’s actually shared by several employees.
   There is one hitch in computerizing the police payroll. The city’s payroll system would have to be changed to track banked overtime.
   But Alam, Finch and Director of Administration John Paolino have a simpler solution in mind: eliminate banking. They’re trying to add that to the police contract, which is in negotiations now.
   “We should pay it when it’s earned, not when they decide they want it,” Finch said, noting that no other city department has the option of banking pay.
   Banking overtime pay can be desirable as a way of avoiding higher payroll taxes that could come with a spike in pay. And some officers prefer to put overtime aside until they’re out on disability with a short-term injury, such as a broken arm. During that time, they receive less than their full pay, but they can withdraw their banked overtime to keep their salary stable.
   Paolino said he understood the reasons behind banking overtime but argued that it’s not worth the risk of paying the officer at the wrong overtime rate.
   “There exists the possibility for human error. I would get out from underneath this administrative nightmare,” he said.

Quoted from BIGK75

I'm sure you'd get a second on that from PatZ, bumble.

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SCHENECTADY
Cops working less than state police colleagues
BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Steven Cook at 395-3122 or scook@dailygazette.com.

   City police officers last year worked an average of just more than 197 regularly scheduled days, not including overtime, a Sunday Gazette review of department attendance records shows.
   That number is fewer than the 220 regularly scheduled days state troopers work, according to city Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett, former state police superintendent.
   Contributing to the difference for city police appears to be sick time and time given in exchange for overtime, or comp time, the Sunday Gazette review showed. The department averaged about 12.25 sick days per employee last year and an average of 9.2 comp days given in exchange for overtime worked.
   Troopers are only paid overtime, not given time in exchange for overtime like city officers, Bennett said. They also have strict limits on sick time.
   The time off given in exchange for overtime, Bennett said, creates a spiral, with officers having to be called in on overtime to cover for officers out on compensatory time.
   The average officer worked overtime, for various reasons, the equivalent of about 50 eight-hour shifts last year.
   “You can see the potential for a very, very costly and giant headache from an operational standpoint,” Bennett said.
   Bennett said it’s hard to determine whether sick time is being used inappropriately. What should be looked at, he said, is whether there are any patterns in time taken off, such as on weekends or the days before or after regularly scheduled time off.
   Many of the officers with the most sick days taken, records show, were out for extended periods of a week or more.
   “Any time you’re not getting the full benefit of employees’ attendance, you need to look at it,” Bennett said.
TWO SYSTEMS
   Under the city police union’s contract, police work under two different sick time systems. Offi - cers hired before 1995 — about 70 — have unlimited sick time, while those hired since earn 15 sick days each year.
   The statistics show those offi cers with unlimited sick time do average more sick time than their counterparts, about 14.4 sick days to about 10.3 for the post-1995 officers.
   In calculating the sick time averages, officers who were out more than half the year for workers’ compensation or other causes were excluded. One detective and two officers were out on workers’ compensation the entire year, with another officer nearly so. Also excluded was sick time used by Det. Michael Kelly. Kelly, who began work with the department in 1981, used 243 sick days in 2006, out almost the entire year, amounting to more than 11 percent of the total sick days used by the department.
   If everyone were included, amounting to 157 employees, department members would have averaged just 188 regularly scheduled days worked last year, with an average of 13.3 sick days and nearly 8.9 comp days.
   Sick time numbers, however, are likely slightly lower than records show, with data and interviews suggesting some sick days later changed to workers’ compensation or Family Medical Leave Act time was recorded as sick in papers but elsewhere correctly.
   The Sunday Gazette examined the records after two highly publicized stories called into question how much time officers actually work. One story found that the union president, Lt. Robert Hamilton, worked his police job just 10 days in 2006, doing union business on many of the rest.
   The new data shows four other union officials took at least 30 days off for union work in 2006, something that is allowed under the contract.
   Hamilton defended his union time then, saying he spent at least 60 hours a week meeting with offi cers and conducting union business.
   Hamilton did not return repeated requests for comment on this story.
   Questions about sick time also arose in March, when former Vice Squad Detective Jeffrey Curtis was shown to have taken 50 sick days. Curtis’ health was called into question after his arrest that month on drug charges as part of a larger scandal. He is to appear Monday in Schenectady County Court to face those charges.
   In terms of the number of sick days taken, Curtis was third highest in 2006. Kelly led the list. He was out on sick time nearly the entire year, 243 days. Second on the list was Officer John W. Lewis, with 66 credited sick days. Lewis began work in 1994.
   Letters left for Lewis and Kelly seeking comment were not returned. Both have unlimited sick days.
   Regarding Family Medical Leave Act time, there were at least three instances found in papers provided where sick time was ultimately found to be covered by that federal law, suggesting there may have been more.
   The city changed its policy toward Family Medical Leave Act time about two years ago, expressly forbidding the older officers from using their unlimited sick time to get paid for that time, Mayor Brian U. Stratton said.
   The federal law allows for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for an immediate family member. The city’s practice of allowing unlimited sick time to cover that time was allowed by a previous administration, Stratton said. Once it was discovered, it was stopped, he said.
SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
   Police brass suggested several explanations for why officers might use sick time more than people in other professions.
   Assistant Chief Mark Chaires, head of the administrative services bureau, offered working conditions. Officers are often out working in inclement weather, coming in contact with different people and working at odd hours.
   “You always want to keep it to a minimum,” he said, “But they’re human beings and they get sick.”
   He noted that provisions in the contract make officers confi rm any lengthy illnesses.
   Officers hired before 1995 are allowed four sick days without certification. Any sick days beyond that or for more than three consecutive days may require certification by the police surgeon, according to the contract.
   Those who joined after Jan. 1, 1995, are allowed eight sick days without certification but only accrue 15 per year. All days in excess of the eight may require certifi cation. Post-1995 officers also have a catastrophe bank to draw from. One officer took advantage of that option in 2006, using 42 such days.
   Chaires said the department does routinely follow up on excess sick days. “For most part, people don’t abuse the system,” he said.
   To better promote fitness, a wellness program is being devised, Chaires said. But it was unclear when such a program could be implemented.
   Assistant Chief Michael Seber noted that someone with a sprained finger in the private sector can usually go back to work. “In our line of work, you have to grab hold of somebody to secure them,” he said.
   Seber heads up the department’s investigative bureau, made up of older members, each one with unlimited sick time.
   The 40 members listed in the investigative bureau averaged 193 scheduled work days last year with 17.2 sick days. But remove Kelly and the detective out on workers’ compensation and the remaining 38 detectives average 11.7 sick days and 203 regularly scheduled days worked.
   Seber also pointed to investigators who used little or no sick time. At least 22 were credited with 10 or fewer sick days, 29 with 15 or fewer.
   Among them is Sgt. Arthur Zampella, a 29-year veteran of the department. Zampella works arson and child sexual abuse cases. He has consistently been at the top of the city’s pay list, leading the past two years. He made $141,653 in 2006.
   Zampella was credited with just under 219 regularly scheduled days worked, a total of 28 days vacation, zero sick days and six Family Medical Leave Act days. He also had an estimated 200 e q u i v a l e n t e i g h t - h o u r o v e r t i m e days.
He also had just two days in exchange for overtime and much more overtime paid. He noted he took one personal day, essentially giving two back.
   “I just come in and do the job,” Zampella said. “Someone has to do it.
   “It’s not fair for a kid who’s sexually abused not to get the proper police attention. Why should a girl or boy who’s abused wait a day or two for a detective to come in?”
   The quicker they get the information, Zampella said, the quicker the case can be solved.

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

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SCHENECTADY Cops working less than state police colleagues

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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.

Quoted from BIGK75

  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.)

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‘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

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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.  

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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.

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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.

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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."

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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.

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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.  

Quoted from BIGK75

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

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SCHENECTADY
Police cleared in excessive force suit Video of incident plays key role in trial
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

   A jury has cleared three city police officers who were accused in a civil suit of using excessive force when they arrested a pregnant woman in 2005.
   Carol D. Perry, 42, of Schenectady, sued the officers in federal court, alleging that her civil rights had been violated during her arrest on a parole violation in March 2005. She said police brutalized her by smashing her foot in a police car door and restraining her so violently that they could have injured her unborn baby. Perry was seven months pregnant at the time.
   But when the case went to the U.S. District Court in Syracuse this week, police were able to show the jury three videos of the incident, taped from cameras installed in the police cars. Jurors began deliberating Wednesday afternoon and took just half an hour to decide that the city was not at fault.
   “The video and the audio both demonstrated the officers were acting in a professional manner and Ms. Perry was continually lying about her identity,” city attorney Michael Murphy said.
   Unfortunately, the cameras could not catch a crucial piece of the action, Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden said. When officers discovered that there was a warrant out for Perry’s arrest, Officer Marisela Mosher told her to get into the police car. As Perry walked toward the door, out of the camera’s view, she suddenly shoved Mosher and tried to get away, according to police.
   She also announced that she was pregnant.
   At that point, one officer can be heard telling the others to move Perry toward the cameras while they tried to restrain her, Murphy said.
   “They made a conscious effort to move her in front of the camera,” Murphy said. “There was one shot of pepper spray. She continued to resist. Officer Mosher tried to restrain her and needed two other officers to get the cuffs on her.”
   The other officers were not named in the lawsuit, but referred to as John Does.
   Medical records after Perry’s arrest show that she complained of pain, but she did not have fractures or other injuries. Her baby was also uninjured, Murphy said.
   She sued for $500,000 but agreed to settle for $75,000. Van Norden decided to take it to trial instead.
   “Clearly what the officers did was what they were required to do,” he said. “This shows we do defend cases once in awhile — we don’t settle everything. We defended one last year, too.”
   The police tapes of the incident were a major factor, he added.
   “This was a case where video was very helpful to us,” he said.
   Perry had been on parole after being in prison for forgery and burglary. She was returned to prison after her parole violation but was released on parole on June 1, 2006.  

Quoted from senders

Did you say RETURN TAX MONEY TO RESIDENTS....I'm sure I read this wrong.....it never never never gets returned....

it will probably go to house all the city's CONVICTED sex offenders somewhere in Duanesburg/Glenville or Princtown in a state of the art facility complete with the best rehab any beaurocratic healthcare system could provide...... ;D

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Police cleared in civil lawsuit
Woman sued Schenectady officers she claimed roughed her up in 2005 arrest  
  
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer
First published: Saturday, June 30, 2007

A jury in a civil trial has cleared three Schenectady police officers accused of roughing up a pregnant woman during an arrest more than two years ago.
  
The decision, which came this week in a federal courtroom in Syracuse, arose from an incident that started between plaintiff Carol D. Perry and Officer Marisela Mosher at the intersection of Bridge and Crane streets.

Police were monitoring a Mont Pleasant home that Perry had just left on March 3, 2005, because it was a known drug hangout, Schenectady Corporation Counsel John Van Norden said Friday.

Perry, seven months pregnant, gave a false name, but a check revealed her identity and that she was wanted on an outstanding warrant, Van Norden said.

Mosher and two other backup officers, whose names were not mentioned in the complaint document, managed to get the 5-foot-7, 208 pound Perry handcuffed and into the back of the cruiser. Parts of the altercation were recorded by a camera in the squad cars.

"The video was very strong evidence and even when you see it, you could hear what was going on," said Van Norden. "It was obvious there was quite a struggle to get her under control and arrested."

He noted that Perry's child was born healthy

Louis-Jack Pozner, representing Perry, said she suffered at least one permanent injury, a fractured bone in her foot. Court papers say police slammed the car door on Perry's foot and pepper-sprayed her two or three times on the way to the Schenectady police station.

Pozner said the physical force used was "inappropriate and excessive for the situation." He said jurors gave the policeman the benefit of the doubt.

But Van Norden said there was no evidence of an injury, and said the city felt it had a strong case based on the footage and testimony from the responding officers.

The civil action filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York, had sought $500,000 in damages plus court costs.

Paul Nelson can be reached at 454-5347 or by e-mail at pnelson@timesunion.com.

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SCHENECTADY
Anti-crime street cameras to be added
Surveillance program to quadruple in size
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

   Schenectady’s street camera surveillance program is to expand fourfold this year to cover Union College, downtown, State Street and other areas of the city.
   District Attorney Robert Carney said he will use $404,000 in state grants, private donations and public funds to add 30 cameras to the 10 already in place.
   The Schenectady County Legislature discussed the project at its committee meeting Monday night. The Legislature will consider accepting the funds during its full meeting July 10.
   Carney will use $226,000 from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services to add cameras and expand a wireless network to carry camera signals into Mont Pleasant, all of central State Street to the crosstown, the Eastern Avenue corridor and the north side of the city up Foster and Van Vranken avenues.
   He will use a $20,000 donation from Union College to install three cameras along streets surrounding Union.
   “The college wants to have these cameras operational by the start of the academic year in September. This is ambitious but doable, particularly since the DCJS funds to support the infrastructure come from 2004 monies that must be expended by September,” Carney said.
   Union College President Stephen C. Ainlay told Carney in a letter he is “very appreciative of your efforts to work with Union to ensure the safety of our students, employees, alumni and alumnae and campus visitors as well as the surrounding neighborhoods. We welcome this opportunity to collaborate.”
   The Metroplex Development Authority is providing Carney’s office with $73,000 to pay for the installation of eight cameras downtown, Carney said. “It is obviously important to ev- eryone concerned with downtown to provide enhancements to security as the downtown amenities and attractions are opening,” he said.
   The cameras will be installed on light poles in parking lots owned by Metroplex and should be operational soon, Carney said.
   Two community groups, the Mont Pleasant Action Coalition and Southgate Apartments, are contributing $70,000 to have cameras installed in their areas, Carney said. The money comes from state grants and private sources.
   Carney launched the camera surveillance program in 2004, using grants from Operation IMPACT, a state initiative to control crime in the 17 counties that account for 80 percent of all crime in the state outside of New York City.
   This latest funding brings to $704,146 the total invested in the project since then, Carney said.
   “We have continued to grow this project without investment of local dollars except for assignment of personnel and some National Grid power bills paid by the city. I will be asking the county to enter into maintenance agreements with our camera vendor and wireless provider this year as the project expands,” he said.
   The cameras are trained on highcrime areas and are used for intelligence-gathering efforts and sometimes as evidence in criminal cases.
   The state views Schenectady’s effort as a pilot program in the use of cameras for police work. New York City is the only other city in the state that uses cameras for this purpose. Buffalo will follow, Carney said.
   Carney said cameras have helped make areas safer.  

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SCHENECTADY
Stratton targets police discipline
Mayor focuses on ending arbitration
BY KATHLEEN MOORE
Gazette Reporter

   Corruptible police officers in the Schenectady Police Department were encouraged to break the law when arbitrators repeatedly forced
the city to rehire fired officers, Mayor Brian U. Stratton maintains.
   He’s hoping his viewpoint will persuade Gov. Eliot Spitzer to veto a new bill that would force Schenectady to use arbitration in all police discipline cases. Spitzer, who vetoed a similar bill earlier this year, is expected to make a decision by the end of summer. Stratton is actively lobbying against the bill, saying it would encourage police to abuse their position.
   “They feel they can do basically whatever they want because the arbitrators are going to rule in their favor,” Stratton said, adding that arbitrators are inherently unjust.
   “They hope to walk a fine line and keep everyone happy,” he said. “They make their very survival on that.”
   Police Benevolent Association President Lt. Robert Hamilton did not return repeated calls for comment, but police unions have previously urged Spitzer to sign the bill.
   As the union musters its arguments, Stratton sent a letter to the state describing the city’s police department in unusually frank and harsh terms. He said he needed to be completely frank to highlight the “disastrous” results of arbitration.
   “It’s absolutely unconscionable,” he said. “This [letter] is our example of some of the extreme things that have gone on here.”
   Among his examples, he cites the case of officer Ronald Pedersen, who resigned in 2002 amid allegations that he had picked up a prostitute.
   At the time, city officials refused to elaborate on what had happened. Stratton’s letter is the fi rst official description of what led to Pedersen’s resignation.
   Stratton said Pedersen “was forced to resign rather than face charges that he engaged in unlawful acts with a prostitute and subjected that woman to excessive force.”
   Pedersen also arrested and beat a woman in 1998 for refusing his advances when he approached her at the Union Inn. His victim, Rebecca DiSorbo, won $1.675 million in damages, but the amount was later reduced to $325,000. Jurors in the case said they picked the higher damage award to send the message, “It’s enough already,” urging police leaders to discipline their errant officers.
   Neither of the Pedersen cases involved arbitration.
GRIM HISTORY
   Stratton also mentions in his letter the four police officers who were sent to prison in 2002 after an FBI corruption investigation. But he goes on to say that many other officers have violated residents’ civil rights and are still on the force.
   “Others who have not been criminally charged or removed from office have cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in defense costs, judgments and settlements as a result of civil suits brought by persons whose civil rights were violated,” Stratton wrote.
   He places the blame for misbehavior squarely in the hands of the arbitrators.
   “It is my belief that repeated reversals of disciplinary measures by arbitrators has unintentionally contributed to the perception, in the minds of corrupted and corruptible officers within the department, that command officers lacked the ability to effectively discipline breaches of policy, procedure, decorum and, in some cases, violations of law, thus creating an environment in which corruption and illegal behavior can more readily occur,” Stratton wrote.
   He also wrote that he was trying to resolve the problem by hiring Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett to “root out corruption” in the department.
   But even so, Stratton said the department will not improve unless Bennett can hand out discipline without being overruled by arbitrators.
   “Despite Herculean efforts at the bargaining table, I am convinced that the city’s police department will never be restored to order, discipline and respect” if arbitration is required, he wrote.
BENNETT’S VIEW
   Bennett added two further reasons to avoid arbitration. In an interview Tuesday, he said arbitration also causes problems because it takes too long to come to a decision and those decisions are made by people unfamiliar with policing.
   “The minimum is six months or more likely a year or more,” he said. “Discipline has little effect then.”
   As for the arbitrators, he said few, if any, have experience in police work.
   “I would compare this to, as a kid, being disciplined by your neighbor instead of your parents,” he said. “We are one of the few professions, for some strange reason, that goes before well-intentioned people who have no background in our profession. Other professions are judged by their profession: Doctors go to doctors.”
   For now, arbitration is a thing of the past in Schenectady. Thanks to a Court of Appeals decision, Bennett has taken control of Schenectady Police discipline. Police can appeal to a judge but not to an arbitrator.
   If Spitzer signs a bill that was passed two weeks ago to reverse the Court of Appeals decision, municipalities would be required to negotiate discipline techniques in labor contracts. In many cases, including Schenectady, the negotiated agreement is to use arbitration.
   Spitzer has not yet received the bill, which the Senate must send to his office. The bill is expected to arrive by the middle of August.
   Spitzer’s aides will then have 10 days, excluding Sundays, to review the bill and the various arguments pro and con. After they issue a recommendation, Spitzer will make a decision.
   Spitzer has already rejected a similar measure in his first veto as governor, but he appeared willing to reconsider the matter. In his veto message, he focused primarily on technical issues, which the writers of the new bill say they have addressed.
   He also noted that some believe a police department, as a “quasimilitary” force, should be disciplined by publicly accountable officials. But he said proponents of the bill argue that departments are run effectively and efficiently under arbitration. He did not say which viewpoint he preferred.

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SCHENECTADY
Officer is off payroll
Administrative charges are filed
BY STEVEN COOK
Gazette Reporter

   A Schenectady police sergeant out on paid leave since drugs were discovered missing from an evidence
locker has now been suspended without pay, city Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett confirmed on Thursday.
Sgt. Daniel Diamond was served with administrative charges Tuesday and placed on unpaid suspension effective Wednesday, Bennett said. Bennett declined to specify the charges against Diamond, a 19-year police veteran.
“It relates to the investigation regarding the mishandling of evidence within the agency,” Bennett said.
   He would only clarify that the accusations did not rise to criminal behavior, like those against onetime vice squad member Detective Jeffrey Curtis.
   Curtis admitted in Schenectady County Court last month that he stole cocaine from the vice squad safe. Investigators focused on Curtis after a hair sample indicated that he had used drugs. Curtis faces four years in state prison at his September sentencing.
   Diamond, however, has passed all drug tests, authorities have said. He has been out on paid leave since Feb. 14.
   Diamond supervised the vice squad’s day shift, overseeing four detectives, according to officials. Also among his duties were handling evidence and taking part in undercover operations.
   Police union president Lt. Robert Hamilton did not return a call for comment Thursday. Diamond’s attorney also could not be reached.
   At the time Diamond was placed on leave, officials downplayed the significance. The leave was administrative, not punitive.
   There have been allegations since, however, that Diamond found drug evidence from at least one case in the trunk of his own personal car. He came forward with the evidence himself, Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said earlier.
   Carney said last month that he was still undecided on whether Diamond would be charged, but a preliminary state police report found no grounds for prosecution.
AWAITING REPLY
   The police department now awaits Diamond’s response to the charges. He has eight days to respond, Bennett said. Meanwhile, he is to remain on unpaid suspension for a month. If the charges are not resolved by then, he would resume being paid, but he would not return to duty.
   The scandal has prompted several reforms in the department, from better evidence handling procedures to the return of the commissioner position itself.
   Bennett has slashed the number of officers who have access to evidence. Cameras are also to be installed in the secure area.
   Last month, Bennett threw out a major piece of the city police contract, saying arbitrators will no longer decide whether Schenectady police officers are fired or disciplined.
   Diamond, however, won’t be the test case, Bennett said, saying the allegations against him were before Bennett arrived and it would only be fair to judge them under the old rules.
   Though Diamond had been out on paid leave, he was still losing money.
   Diamond has consistently been among the city’s top earners. In 2006, he was fifth on the city’s earnings list at $115,155.
   His base salary was $59,252, with the rest made up in overtime. He has not been earning overtime since being out.
   Diamond worked just more than 224 regularly scheduled days in 2006. The department’s average was 197. Diamond also put in the equivalent of 140 eight-hour overtime days that year, according to a Daily Gazette review of attendance records.
   He took just two sick days and 2.5 compensatory days in exchange for overtime.
   Attendance numbers placed him squarely in the top tier of officers in each category.
   Curtis, however, the only other officer named in the drug probe, was near the bottom, with 163 regularly scheduled days worked, 50 sick days and 16 compensatory days. He also worked the equivalent of 84 eight-hour overtime days, the review showed.
   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.
   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.

Quoted from Shadow

You can bet that there were more cases than one that he tampered with and now every case that he was involved with will be under suspicion of being mishandled by every defense attorney.

Quoted from Shadow

Or should I say how will the PBA let the city deal with it.

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Sergeant suspended in drug probe
Schenectady police officer faces administrative action for allegedly shirking duty to track narcotics evidence  
  
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer
First published: Saturday, July 7, 2007

SCHENECTADY -- The highest-ranking officer ensnared in the city police department's missing drugs scandal has been suspended without pay after disciplinary charges were leveled against him.
Until the change in his employment status Wednesday, Sgt. Daniel Diamond, an 18-year department veteran, had remained on paid leave since Valentine's Day.

  
Schenectady Public Safety Commissioner Wayne E. Bennett would only say Friday that Diamond allegedly shirked his duties as supervisor of the vice squad when it came to tagging, tracking and storing evidence from drug cases.

"He failed to properly perform his duties in those areas," said Bennett, who declined to discuss the specific charges.

The latest development in the vice squad probe comes days after former narcotics investigator Jeffrey D. Curtis, 46, pleaded guilty Monday to felony drug possession and evidence tampering. He admitted to a judge that he stole crack cocaine from the vice squad locker to satisfy a drug problem.

As part of the agreement, Curtis, who promptly retired from the force after criminal charges were filed against him in March, must cooperate with a State Police and grand jury probe into the disappearance of the drugs.

State Police were called in 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.

The handling of vice squad evidence is at the heart of the investigation into the missing cocaine. The police department's own audit of drug evidence, carried out in the early stages of the investigation, exposed problems of sloppy evidence management, storage and record-keeping, law enforcement officials said.

PBA President Bob Hamilton said Friday that the union had anticipated the disciplinary charges against Diamond.

"We were expecting that they (disciplinary charges) were coming," Hamilton said.

"The PBA has been in contact with Sergeant Diamond and we're weighing our options at his time."

Speaking in general terms, Hamilton said an officer has eight days from the time administrative charges are filed to respond to them.

He said one of two things could happen after that: The officer could dispute the charges and request a disciplinary hearing or give union officials the green light to iron out a deal that would be acceptable to the officer and the police department. Nelson can be reached at 454-5347 or by e-mail at pnelson@timesunion.com.

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Spitzer should veto police arbitration bill

   It seemed too good to be true, and it was. The bill Gov. Eliot Spitzer vetoed last week, having to do with how police discipline cases are handled, turned out to be not the one that Schenectady officials are intensely interested in and had strongly urged him to veto. But it is close enough, and the logic for vetoing it similar enough, to give them — and us — hope that he will take the same action when the Schenectady-relevant bill reaches his desk.
   A veto is essential if the city is to have any chance of gaining control over its police department, a department that has had well-chronicled problems in recent years — some so serious that officers have been convicted of crimes and gone to prison. But prosecution shouldn’t be the only way to punish a cop for misbehavior, and right now it pretty much is.
   That’s because discipline has been treated as a subject for collective bargaining, and the union contract calls for binding arbitration in these cases. And as everyone knows, and Mayor Brian Stratton has amply demonstrated in a letter to Spitzer, the arbitrator routinely sides with the union, whether the issue is money or discipline. As a result, for anything short of a crime, cops in Schenectady always seem to get off with a slap on the wrist or no punishment at all. If someone were to suggest that cops think they can get away with the big stuff because they know they always get away with the little stuff, we wouldn’t argue.
   After the last embarrassment, where a drugaddicted officer stole cocaine from the evidence locker, Stratton concluded that it was time to bring in a public safety commissioner with no ties to the department to run it. His choice was Wayne Bennett, recently retired from the position of state police superintendent.
   Bennett had taken control of discipline in that job after a 2005 court decision said the Taylor Law and civil service requirements for collective bargaining for public employees didn’t apply to state police discipline. And when he assumed control of police discipline in Schenectady last month, he cited as authority a March 2006 decision by the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court. It said a municipality that had legislation on the books showing an intent to discipline its own officers, before the Taylor Law took effect in the late 1960s, could do so. The court talked about police being a “quasi-paramilitary organization” that needs to be accountable to local public officials.
   Although it is unclear whether the city of Schenectady made its intentions in this regard sufficiently clear to withstand a legal challenge by the PBA, it at least has a chance of prevailing. But not if the shameless state Legislature has its way. Because, as in almost every other case in recent memory involving unions, lawmakers have done the unions’ bidding and voted to undo the above-mentioned court decisions and once again require collective bargaining of discipline for the state police and municipal police agencies. That includes every one of our local senators and Assembly members, even though they are all well aware of the mess with the Schenectady Police Department — and, in the case of the Assembly, knew of Bennett’s assumption of control and were implored by Stratton not to vote for the legislation. Nice going, guys.
   The bill even says it will have no fiscal implications, which is nonsense. What about the hefty legal expenses the city has incurred, and will continue to, defending or settling or paying judgments in lawsuits against the police?
   Spitzer last week vetoed the bill regarding state police. He should do the same for the one regarding municipal police forces when it is presented to him.  

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Schenectady PD gets 10 new recruits
7/10/2007
By: Web Staff

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- The Schenectady Police Department is getting some new reinforcements.

Ten new recruits start training this week and will hit the streets come March.

Mayor Brian Stratton says he hopes the incoming officers will help improve an image tarnished by several incidents -- most recently the arrest of ex-narcotics officer Jeffrey Curtis, who pleaded guilty to stealing crack cocaine from an evidence locker.

Stratton says the department is getting better but still has to earn the community's trust.

"I think the new face of the police department is our resolve to make sure that every officer new or old knows that he or she is going be held accountable and that they are expected to do nothing less than an outstanding job," said Stratton.

This is the largest incoming class of police recruits in nearly six years, selected out of a pool more than 250 candidates who passed the civil service exam in December.

Officials say recruiting will continue until the department is fully staffed in 2008.

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Ten new recruits start training this week and will hit the streets come March.

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Surveillance camera increase gets mixed reaction
7/11/2007
By: Erin Billups
  
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- "There's been cameras in stores, there's been cameras everywhere. If they're gonna do something, they're gonna do it," said a Schenectady resident.

And that's the feeling of several residents we spoke to about the subject. They didn't want to go on camera. They don't like them. And it's the same when it comes to surveillance cameras.

Khemrj Donald's son owns a store in the city that's been robbed at least five times. He said cameras are not enough to deter crime.

Donald said, "They will still commit the crimes. They depend on that to live."

The Electric City is getting more electronic surveillance in its neighborhoods. Tuesday night the Schenectady County Legislature voted unanimously to pass a bill to quadruple the amount of cameras in the across the city. Our Erin Billups has more on what residents think about the approved plan.



  
    


But it's something that will be more of a way of life in Schenectady. Tuesday night the Schenectady County Legislature unanimously passed a bill accepting state funding through an Operation Impact Grant that will add 30 new cameras to the current surveillance program over next several months.

One community leader said the 10 cameras already in place in the Hamilton Hill and Vale neighborhoods are making an impact.

Schenectady Inner City Ministry Director Phillip Grigsby said, "I think people are now doing things, realizing the security cameras are there, and so they're moving away from the cameras. The good thing about a small community is there are only so many places you can go."

Management at Tony's Market said since the cameras have been installed, they feel safer and they see a real difference.

Manager Yousef Savsea said, "Every night you have more kids here and the neighborhood...but the camera, when I see them it's good. The cops come every five minutes. I like it."

District Attorney Bob Carney said he hopes it will help people feel safer. Residents say it's a start, but more needs to be done.

Grigsby said, "Right now the police are, because of their numbers, they're stuck on doing incident based policing. That means you call in, they dispatch a car. Everyone wants community police, everyone wants the cop on the beat."

"If you wanna do something around here, be serious about it and put more officers around here," said one Schenectady resident.

Locations for the cameras still have to be approved. Eight of the 30 new cameras will be installed within the next couple months.

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The Electric City is getting more electronic surveillance in its neighborhoods. Tuesday night the Schenectady County Legislature voted unanimously to pass a bill to quadruple the amount of cameras in the across the city. Our Erin Billups has more on what residents think about the approved plan.

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Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE
Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com.
Legislators
undermine
Bennett
   Very well. Last month Schenectady’s new public safety commissioner, Wayne Bennett, announced that he was going to assume control of discipline in the Schenectady Police Department and dispense with outside arbitrators, based on a little-noticed Court of Appeals decision from the previous year.
   He said arbitrators’ decisions had been “very, very inconsistent” and sometimes “outrageous.” It was clearly a move to assert authority over a department that has been tarnished by scandal over the years, as first one officer and then another was convicted of criminal conduct.
   And it was heartily endorsed by Mayor Brian Stratton, who said it would help instill integrity in the department.
   No more reliance on outsiders assigned by the Public Employment Relations Board. The boss would be the boss.
   That was on June 4. Seventeen days later a bill came to the floor of the state Assembly negating the Court of Appeals decision that had made Bennett’s move possible and mandating that arbitration be employed in all cases of police discipline, regardless of what local law might require, thereby undermining the efforts of Bennett and Stratton as well as other mayors and public safety commissioners across the state.
   The bill was almost certainly written by police unions and simply handed to the Legislature.
   How do you suppose the two Assembly members who represented the city of Schenectady at the time, Paul Tonko and Jim Tedisco, voted on that bill? Well, from the way I have set up the question, you won’t be surprised to learn they voted in favor of it. In other words, they voted to cancel Commissioner Bennett’s authority to do what he said he needed to