Democracy In Albany

To the Mayor and the Common Council members who be nominating and confirming a new leader for the men and women of the Albany Police Department, I'll quote again Tom Constantine's words:  "Courageous police leadership is critical to our most important client - the victims of crime."

His resignation does not take effect for a few days. So maybe he will finish the "machine gun" investigation.

I hope now that this embarrassment is gone the men and women of the Albany Police Department can start to rebuild their pride. Tuffey ruined the self pride of over three hundred dedicated men and women. The chief will have their work cut out for then. I for one will look at the Albany Police differently know that the sorry excuse for a chief has quit. I only wish he got the public recognition he desreved, that would be a public firing.

Crime is all about victims.  Truly effective community oriented law enforcement makes crime victims its highest priority.  Under Chief Tuffey's leadership, the APD has focused on statistics and technology, not victims.  It is largely for this reason that I publicly stated months ago that the Albany Police Department needs new leadership.  His abrupt departure will make it possible to get that leadership.

Mayor Jennings' press release on the Tuffey retirement states that in searching for a new Police Chief, he will look for a candidate who will countinue our effort to advance community policing.  The fact is that under Tuffey for the past four years, we have been on a very retrograde course away from anything remotely like community policing. Albany has been far behind the curve on this.  It will take a very big effort on the part of the next Chief to get us on track.

As the city searches for a new police chief, I'd also urge that we bear in mind the larger picture of where law enforcement leadership is headed in this country and seize the opportunity for the innovations that will be developed and implemented under the leadership of our next chief to put Albany at the cutting edge in the field of public safety.

Over the past two decades, a variety of strategies and tactics has evolved under the rubrics community policing, problem-solving policing and intelligence-led policing, to name a few of the most familiar. At the same time, statistics-driven deployment practices, such as Tuffey has given us, have worked against these advanced concepts and discouraged the establishment of a robust infrastructure of community-based crime prevention and neighborhood preservation organizations.  Lost in the shuffle have been the victims of crime.

A new administration for our police department gives us the opportunity to synthesize all of these progressive public safety concepts and create something unique to our Albany community.  It also gives us the opportunity to make response to victims of crime our highest priority.

We must ask for and receive a fundamental commitment from the next chief of police that he/she will provide the best possible service to all victims of crime at every stage of interaction between the department and the victim.  If we do that, we will maximize our crime prevention effort, reduce fear of crime in our community and ultimately reduce future victimization of members and visitors to our community.

Here is a three-part program of initiatives that would help us along:

Operation IMPACT

There is pending state legislation (Assembly Bill No. 1048) establishing Community Justice Councils to determine community priorities in spending state aid for public safety.  Sponsored by M. of A. Destito (D-Utica).  http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A01048.  If, for example, gangs and lack of youth programs contribute to crime, this is the vehicle for insisting that IMPACT monies be spent on those priorities, not technology and police overtime.  

NPCPA

DCJS must implement the Neighborhood Preservation Crime Prevention Act of 1983, which has been on the books all these years, but completely ignored.  Abandoned housing, "broken windows" and effective community-based crime prevention activity must be addressed comprehensively.  This program is intended to promote an infrastructure of non-profits that will work in partnership with law enforcement.  See: http://www.metroland.net/back_issues/vol30_no02/newsfront.html

Victim Response

Don't buy into the rhetoric.  It's a dodge.

Tuffey and The Tan One have had an opportunity to deny the accusations.  They haven't done so, and Tuffey is walking away from the job.  That should give us all a pretty good indication about the validity of the accusations.  

If the accusations weren't valid, the reaction would have been a lot different.  Red faces, loud voices, fingers pointed - that kind of thing.

Of course, it goes without saying that I'm a bit biased when it comes to matters of anonymity and pseduonymity.

Signed,

After all, that's how he bucked the system and got elected the first time sixteen years ago, by garnering the minority vote.

Then he forevermore turned his back on those who then elected him, their community, their problems.

Blight has a much deeper social connotation than just some unsightly delapidated buildings as they are simply seen by the casual passer-by.

Blight smacks of racism, always. And also opportunism for those well connected. If the mayor cared at all about our neighborhoods, we would have seen blight reduced and the living conditions improved in those neighborhoods. As well, we would have had our tax base enhanced by their improvement.

But after 16 years he's delivered the exact opposite: Blight has increased, encroaching more stable neighborhoods and the living conditions for those in our poorer neighborhoods has deteriorated along with our buildings, while violent crime and our taxes have gone up. Year after year for the past 16 years.

We all know Jennings only cares about those with deep pockets, lightened just a bit after their generous donations to his campaign.

Talk about "playing the race card".

This one transparent act should be enough to convince rational voters Jennings needs to join Jimmy in retirement out at the golf course, where they can argue on into eternity.

Enough is enough some would say. But I would say enough has become too much.

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Stimulus Money Buys Blackberrys For Baltimore Cops
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More than 2,000 Baltimore police officers soon
will begin carrying sophisticated smart phones
allowing them to check warrants, retrieve
driver's license photos and conduct
background checks on hand-held devices,
reports the city's Sun. The initiative is
designed to get police out of patrol cars and
walking the beat. The new phones will be
purchased with $3.5 million in federal stimulus
money. Police Commissioner Frederick H.
Bealefeld III called it the most extensive
program of its kind in the country.

In the next few months, nearly all of the
department's patrol officers will receive
BlackBerrys equipped with an application
called PocketCop, which allows for rapid
access to critical databases. The phones' built-
in GPS function will also let the department
track movements and deployment patterns of
police, a feature that is making some officers
wary. Bealefeld said that the previous
generation of technological advances "made
the vehicle a mobile office, except now
[officers] don't leave the office." The smart
phones "will help break that tether," he said.