ULSTER COUNTY ‘CAN’T BE TOLERATED’
Intimidation of off-duty police, families must end, law-enforcement leaders say
KINGSTON, N.Y. » From the steps of the Ulster County Courthouse on Tuesday, District Attorney
David Clegg joined the county sheriff, police chiefs and other members of law enforcement in calling for an end to the intimidation of off-duty police and their families.
Speaking at a press conference attended by members of the county Sheriff’s Office; the Kingston, Ellenville, Lloyd, Marlborough, New Paltz, Olive, Rosendale, Saugerties, Shandaken, Shawangunk and Woodstock police departments; and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection police, Clegg said: “Sadly, there have been incidents here in Ulster County where off-duty policemen and their families have been targeted. This will not be tolerated in our county.”
Clegg called the town of Lloyd, where he said there have been three incidents in the past
month, the “hotspot” of police harassment in the county.
Lloyd Police Chief James Janso said the incidents in his town, which remain under investigation, involved unidentified individuals taking photos and videos of officers’ homes.
“That, in itself, may not be a crime, but what’s the intention?” Janso said. “It’s one of those things where they’re saying, ‘I gotcha, I know where you live.’ That can’t be tolerated.”
Clegg said a fourth incident, in Esopus, involved criminal mischief and a possible attempted burglary at an officer’s home in April.
Officials would not provide further details about any of the incidents, which they said remain under investigation.
“We are in tumultuous times,” Clegg said. “Nevertheless, we are, here in Ulster County, reimagining policing and our criminal justice system in a way that is extremely positive.”
Law-enforcement review boards were formed locally after Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered on June 12 that police reform panels be formed in all New York communities that have police departments. The order was issued in the wake of the May 25 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a police officer in Minneapolis and the protests that followed nationwide.
Cuomo wrote in his order that the deaths of unarmed, “predominately Black and African-American” civilians requires evaluating police policies.
The panels are to comprise the “head of the local police agency and stakeholders in the community,” and they are to evaluate use-offorce policies, procedural justice, any studies addressing systemic racial bias or racial justice in policing, implicit bias awareness training, de-escalation training and practices, and conflict resolution.
A report on the findings and recommendations in each municipality must be adopted by April 1, 2021.
Referring to the lawenforcement committees formed locally, Clegg said: “Whether you are an activist or a community leader or somebody in the neighborhood, you are now learning on these committees how much our law enforcement is above and beyond what we expect to see nationally; that they are way above the curve; that they are actually very forward-thinking and are putting in place policies already way before these events that happened nationally had occurred.”
Clegg said local law-enforcement members and the new committees on which they serve have made “tremendous progress” in efforts to improve Ulster County’s criminal justice system.
“We are making this inroad between activists and police chiefs and the lawenforcement community, and we can’t let that go,” he said. “We can’t let some vigilante-type behavior change the course of what we’re doing.”
Speaking on behalf of the Police Chiefs Association of Ulster County, town of Ulster Police Chief Kyle Berardi said the recent incidents have heightened the
“Whether you are an activist or a community leader or somebody in the neighborhood, you are now learning on these committees how much our law enforcement is above and beyond what we expect to see nationally; that they are way above the curve; that they are actually very forward-thinking and are putting in place policies already way before these events that happened nationally had occurred.”
— District Attorney David Clegg
fears of the “mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters” of police officers.
Berardi also thanked Clegg for supporting the concerns of county law enforcement.
“The job, as carefree as it may seem, can turn ugly in an instant,” he said. “And every shift is filled with that harsh reality. It used to be that when a shift was over, a sigh of relief was heaved, family members could revel in the fact that they were safe. … But society’s views on law enforcement are changing. There are members of our society that believe in revenge and that their cause is greater than the safety of others. Instead of trusting in law enforcement and letting justice prevail, they are channeling their frustrations by using harassment and fear tactics intending to instill fear … bringing the fear into our homes and into our children’s lives.”
Last week, in response to questions about alleged harassment of off-duty officers, Detective Lt. Abram Markiewicz of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office said some deputies, “out of an abundance of caution,” do not park their service vehicles in front of their homes.
Markiewicz, though, said he was not aware of any “specific, confirmed sustained instances” of harassment of Ulster County Sheriff’s deputies.
He said police always have been taught to remain vigilant about their surroundings on and off duty, “even at the academy.”
“There’s a lot of anti-law enforcement sentiment,” Markiewicz said. “It stands to reason that there’s at least one segment that will take it to the next step. The question is how prevalent it is.”
State police Troop F spokesman Steve Nevel said last week that troopers have not been harassed. State police were not represented at Tuesday’s press conference.
Also last week, Ellenville Police Chief Philip Mattracion and Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra both said there had been no incidents of officers being harassed in their communities. Mattracion was at the press conference Tuesday, and Capt. Stephen Filak represented the Saugerties Police Department.