Woodstock, town of Ulster review police discipline policies

Town officials in Woodstock and Ulster are amending policies in response to court decisions and executive orders intended to add accountability to disciplinary action within their police departments.

Both towns are responding to court findings and state lawmakers’ contentions that local handling of police discipline has been too easy to hide when handled only by administrators in municipalities. In a Feb. 16, 2021 decision the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against New York City in a case involving control over withholding information about disciplinary cases involving police officers while records of other public employees must have disciplinary records released under state Freedom of Information Law.

“Because the public has a stronger legitimate interest in the disciplinary records of law enforcement officers than in those of other public employees, the District Court correctly determined that there was a rational, nondiscriminatory basis for treating the two sets of records differently,” the ruling states.

The town of Ulster’s amendment included where disciplinary actions are taken once substantiated at the local level.

“Any substantiated complaints of a criminal nature or complaints meeting the requirements of Executive Law … shall be referred to the New York state Attorney General Law Enforcement Office by the Chief of Police,” town officials wrote.

The Ulster policy was also revised to include language that requires “investigations alleging criminal conduct to the (state) Attorney General Law Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Office.”

Ulster Town Supervisor James Quigley said the changes were adopted as part of police reforms suggested by the draft town Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Committee.

Woodstock police policy revisions include putting final determinations for disciplinary action in the hands of town board members.

“The discipline of police has been for years in the police contract that we have with them,” Woodstock Supervisor Bill McKenna said.

“There was a legal case… where New York state courts ruled, and it’s been upheld several times now, that discipline is not something that can be negotiated,” he said. “So it’s not legal to have discipline in police contracts.”

The Woodstock resolution notes that the state Court of Appeals found that municipalities can not “bargain away” to police unions or collective bargaining representatives the “statutorily delegated power of municipal boards to impose disciplinary measures on members of the local police department.”