Politics & Government
Refusing to Email the Clarkstown Police
Some officials across Rockland Co. have told staffs not to email Clarkstown cops because the administration had accessed police accounts.
The Rockland County District Attorney and several police chiefs in local municipalities have instructed staff not to email the Clarkstown Police Department because of allegations that town officials had gone through police email accounts, The Journal News reports.
Clarkstown officials have been sued by police Sgt. Stephen Cole-Hatchard, who alleges in the lawsuit that they forced his reassignment from the Rockland County Strategic Intelligence Unit, which he headed, because of emails between him and a reporter for The Journal News.
"Until we know that the practice is over, we’re going to refrain from (emailing town police),” District Attorney Thomas Zugibe told reporter Jon Bandler. “We’re not going to convey anything we wouldn’t want the public to be aware of. Once it's beyond the police department, it's considered in public.”
Read the entire article on lohud.com.
The move by other municipalities comes after an attempt by some county legislators to pass a resolution criticizing Clarkstown officials and demanding the reinstatement of the suspended police chief, Michael Sullivan.
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According to the Clarkstown Police Department's annual report, the Strategic Intelligence Unit was created in early 2015 by the Town of Clarkstown Police Department and the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office as a joint intelligence based operation.
One of the primary missions of the Unit is to transition the Clarkstown Police Department to an “Intelligence Led Policing” model.
In most police departments throughout the United States current police operations entail responding to calls when requested, and tackling past crimes one laborious investigation at a time. Response time and problem solving generally increases and decreases in direct relationship to money and resources available.
Intelligence Led Policing (“ILP”) provides the capacity to provide more effective and productive police work without the concomitant need to spend more money or increase police resources. In essence, ILP provides the tools to do more with less – to reduce crime and enhance quality of life without spending more taxpayer dollars.
The SIU specialized, according to the annual report, in crime forecasts, support for departmental investigation into crimes and information for "violence interruption" protection of potential victims.
Apparently, it was also involved in investigating political contributions.
In the suit, Cole-Hatchard said he was removed as director of the Rockland County Strategic Intelligence Unit because he had been checking up on a large contribution to local Republican campaigns — including Clarkstown Town Supervisor George Hoehmann — from a member of the force who had been dismissed, the paper reported.
The suit claims that the Town Board's suspension of Michael Sullivan is related, according to TJN.
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