Following is the report by Officer-in-Charge George Kane of the Cold Spring Police Department for the month of June.
The month of June 2016 was as expected busier than normal for the Cold Spring police. Officers handled 100 calls for service in the village, the most notable being two burglaries and two attempted burglaries on June 7. This case is still under investigation. Another notable event was an arrest for DWI, which occurred on Route 9D on June 18 and another arrest made for aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle which occurred on June 16.
Officers issued 126 parking tickets for various village code violations including limited time parking and expired parking meter at the Fair Street lot. Officers also issued 68 tickets to motorists for various vehicle and traffic infractions.
As the summer vacation season starts CSPD reminds residents to take advantage of the department’s Dark House program. After filling out a short form, officers will make regular checks of your home while you are away on vacation. The purpose of this program is to prevent and deter burglaries and give the homeowner peace of mind while they are away.
The Community Day celebration (July 3) went very well. Several thousand spectators came out to celebrate the Fourth of July. Just about every parking space in the village was taken. In the end only two incidents occurred; these were not related to the festivities. CSPD along with Putnam County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to Little Stony Point beach to assist New York State Park Police with large, unruly crowd, which was dispersed after several beach patrons were issued tickets.
At approximately 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 3, CSPD arrested a male for Assault 3 after he punched a woman causing physical injury while they were exiting the Cold Spring Boat Club. The male was arraigned on July 4 in Village Court and remanded to the Putnam County Jail on $2,500 cash bail or $5,000 bond.
Officer Kane’s clear and helpful report on police activity in Cold Spring would be improved by including an addendum with statistics showing important detail, such as a breakdown of calls by category, shift and day of week, how many calls were “mutual aid,” and how many calls were from outside the village. It is hard to see how the board of trustees can effectively execute its responsibility to manage the police force without these basic statistics.
It is likely that the data entry system used by the Cold Spring police for many years can provide summary statistics on incidents by time, source, and category. Even if the current system has weak reporting functions, surely it should be able to make the raw data captured over the years available for analysis. From that data, it should be possible to generate a comprehensive history going back several years that would inform the trustees’ budget discussions.
This certainly is a fascinating and often surprising discussion.
At least viewpoints and differences may be presented with frankness and civility, as they are here, tempered in an appropriate level of restraint and caution. That is as useful and laudable as it is increasingly uncommon nowadays.
When Putnam Valley abolished its standalone police department back in 1997 (I think that was the year), the PD budget was well over $1 million a year and climbing drastically. At that time, the population was under 10,000 people and we were also well-served by the State Police and Sheriff’s Department, especially when it came to “major” crimes that our local PD could not handle. Like CS we effectively had three police agencies in a town with hardly any crime to speak of. Abolishing our town PD created a civil war that lasted for several years. There was actual violence directed mostly at those who favored abolition. Families were divided in half between those who wanted to keep the police and those wanted to get rid of the department. It was truly one of the ugliest periods in my town’s history. Like Cold Spring, this was more of an emotional issue than a financial one. We had all the same arguments that I am reading here, especially the fiction about “local control.” Ultimately our courageous town board did the right thing and voted to abolish, despite literally threats against themselves and their families. Shortly thereafter we had a referendum in which people voted to abolish. Cold Spring should take note: When all was said and done, Putnam Valley saved millions of dollars with no loss of police services. We now have both a Sheriff’s substation and a place for the State Police. Our population has gone up over the years,… Read more »