Captain vacancy filled in Troy
Eight-month wait led police union to file grievances
The city has appointed a new police captain, nearly eight months after the vacancy occurred when a retirement opened up the post.
Capt. Shane Kiley is the newest captain, taking over the internal affairs post which became vacant when his predecessor Capt. Adam Mason moved into the detective bureau captain position following the retirement of Capt.
Joseph Centanni.
The city’s delays in promoting its last two captains led to the Troy
Police Benevolent Association filing grievances for captain-level back pay for the sergeants that were on the promotional list but not promoted. The budgeted base pay for a captain is $97,000 compared to $78,834 for a sergeant.
The city sued the PBA, which represents officers, detectives and sergeants, to stop the cases from going to arbitration. The city lost the lawsuits but has appealed.
Officer Nick Laviano, the PBA president, said it was about time the internal affairs post was filled. The PBA has criticized Madden for not making prompt promotions.
“The internal affairs captain spot has been vacant since Jan. 11. The PBA is glad to see the city is finally filling that spot and we can work toward being a more transparent department with the public,” Laviano said in a statement.
John Salka, a spokesman for the mayor, declined to comment on the litigation with the PBA citing city policy.
Kiley’s promotion came following the death of Sgt. Randall French from COVID-19 at the end of April. This allowed the police command to reach Kiley, who had not been among the top three sergeants on the captain’s civil service list.
French had routinely scored first in the captain’s civil service test. Sgt. Stephen Seney and Sgt. Salvatore Carello were the next two top scorers.
French, while favored among many officers to be promoted, was considered to be politically unacceptable as a result of his fatal shooting in April 2016 of Edson Thevenin during a DWI stop and a pending civil rights lawsuit brought by Thevenin’s family. A county grand jury voted not to indict French in Thevenin’s death.
Centanni wrote an internal affairs report that was critical of French’s actions in the fatal shooting of Thevenin. The city commissioned Michael D. Ranalli, a former Glenville police chief, to evaluate Centanni’s findings about French’s shooting of Thevenin. Mayor Patrick Madden has refused
to release the Ranalli report citing the pending civil litigation.
The police department didn’t respond to requests for comments about Kiley’s promotion. The city has not been announcing promotion ceremonies during the coronavirus pandemic and has limited attendance to them.
Joel Abelove, a former Rensselaer County district attorney, is presently on trial for two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct for allegedly not presenting evidence to a grand jury investigating Thevenin’s death and not having French waive his immunity from prosecution before testifying to the grand jury. Abelove also faces a felony count of first-degree perjury for lying about a previous officer’s waiving immunity to prosecution in another fatal police shooting case. Also promoted in the Troy police department were Sgts. Rob Smith and Carlos Nazario from the rank of officer.
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