Police inactive after chief arrested
GALWAY, N.Y. » The village’s part-time police department faces an uncertain future following the felony arrest Tuesday of Chief Leslie Klein and three officers.
Charges brought by the state attorney general’s office, following a lengthy investigation, allege that Klein, Sergeants Mark LaViolette and David Goodwin, and officer Mark Kirker falsified documents, claiming officers had completed required training.
The three-member Village Board, which met Tuesday night, took no formal action, but the police department is inactive and might stay so for an undetermined time, Mayor William Hyde said Wednesday.
“There hasn’t been any notification of cease and desist,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned we still have a police force. However, nobody is doing anything. We’re not having anybody patrolling. We could ask for a dedicated sheriff’s patrol, but I’m not going down that road until I have an opinion on the matter.”
No police were on duty Wednesday and Klein could not be reached for comment.
Klein, LaViolette and Goodwin were each charged with three counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing. Kirker, who is also a full-time Schenectady County Sheriff’s deputy, faces one count of the same charge. All four defendants pleaded not guilty Tuesday during their arraignment in Albany City Court.
Persons seeking to become police officers, or returning to service following an extended absence, must undergo rigorous physical and written training.
But Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office says Klein “admitted to investigators that he did not always ride with or observe officers on field training” and instead “admitted that he simply signed paperwork left on his desk.”
Charges leveled against
other officers allege that they didn’t receive all required training, and in some cases weren’t present; or did not teach portions of the course as required.
Hyde, who has been mayor for 18 years, said he was aware of an ongoing investigation, but not the specific allegations. He said Klein contacted him by email on Saturday, to let him know charges would likely be filed Tuesday.
“I’m surprised at the whole thing,” Hyde said. “I know our chief. I know he’s a good, honest guy. He tries to help people.”
Klein, 71, a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran and former ultra-marathon bicycle racer, has been police chief for 22 years.
The question confronting village officials is whether Galway, with approximately 200 residents, still needs a police force. The department costs the village $11,000 per year, plus expenses, as Klein and fellow members work for nominal pay. Officers buy their own uniforms and equipment.
“We have people coming in, they keep their accreditation and give us their time,” Hyde said. “Even a part-time police force is better than no police force. It’s worked well up to now.”
But a few years ago, some business owners said police were being too aggressive in handing out traffic tickets, which made customers avoid the village, hurting sales. In 2013 alone, the department issued 532 vehicle and traffic tickets, many of them for speeding near Galway Central Schools.
“A village that’s a quarter-mile long doesn’t need 11 or 12 officers,” Cock ‘n Bull Restaurant owner Rick Sleeper said Wednesday. “It’s too many people with nothing to do. They look for problems that aren’t there. I’ve been stopped a lot of times, going home at night. They’re fishing and they do it to my customers and staff.”
“I think the Galway Police Department has needed a shake-up for a long time,” he said. “I didn’t know how it was going to happen, but it had to happen.”
Non-village resident Ed Pike, of West Galway, said, “Do I think they need a police department here? No, I do not. The sheriff has a more-than-adequate department and state police could overlap.”
But in a 2014 interview, Klein said he had done a great deal to improve the department’s image and effectiveness. At the time, officers included a former longtime Troy police officer, a retired state trooper and Sgt. Geoff Bullock, who was in Force Recon, an elite U.S. Marine Corps special operations unit similar to Navy SEALS.
“None of us are in it for the money,” Klein said. “It’s dedication to the community. Public image is very important. We’ve done a lot to earn the respect of other law enforcement agencies.”
However, the department’s existence might now hinge on the outcome of charges he and other officers are facing.
“It’ll all come court,” Hyde said. out in