Town mulls changes to its constabulary
The Rochester Town Board is reviewing a consultant’s report about whether changes should be made to make the ninemember police constabulary more effective.
Town Supervisor Mike Baden said public discussion of the report was scheduled for a meeting that was called off last week due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have a police constabulary as opposed to a police force,” he said. “It was started in 2016, I believe. It originally dates back to the 1700s, but it has been on again, off again.”
The report was provided to the Town Board several weeks ago.
“There have been some citizen complaints about it ... [and] some questions about why we need it,” Baden said of the constabulary. “So we hired a consultant to do a top to bottom review.”
Baden said the report includes recommendations about changes that could be implemented to simplify the rules used to govern the constabulary.
“One of the largest complaints is that the policy manual and guidelines [are] based on a larger police force,” he said.
Baden said the constabulary works on an “as needed, as available” basis. Law enforcement in the town otherwise is provided by the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office and state police.
“The average constable probably works in the neighborhood of 10 hours a month,” the supervisor said.
Constabulary Chief Rich Miller said there are only a few differences between a police officer and a police constable.
“The difference between police officers and peace officers in New York state is slender,” Miller said by phone Monday. “If you read through all the duties and responsibilities of a peace officer ... number one, we can’t do a ‘reasonable suspicion,’ meaning we have to have ‘probable cause’ to talk to somebody.”
However, both forms of law enforcement can have their officers carry weapons and make arrests, he said.
Baden declined to make the consultant’s report available to the public or to the constabulary, citing a recommendation by the town attorney.
Kristin O’Neill, assistant executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, said sections of the report that contain facts and statistics should be available but recommendations in the report can be withheld until the Town Board discusses the information.