Millerton Police Department put on paid leave

MILLERTON —  At a workshop meeting on Tuesday, March 28, the board of trustees of the Village of Millerton unanimously passed a resolution to immediately suspend all activities of the Millerton Police Department (MPD) until an experienced, qualified police chief could be hired and take over supervision of police officers.

Millerton’s two part-time MPD officers Erik Breen and Michael Veeder will be placed on paid leave until a police chief is in place.

The action occurred after the presentation of the findings of municipal consultant Michael Richardson, which included the legal opinions of outside labor counsel James Girvin and village attorney Andrew Lessig.

Background to police assessment

The workshop meeting held in the Millerton Library Annex was well attended by the public and also by off-duty, uniformed Millerton police officers standing at the back of the room.

Mayor Jenn Najdek explained the background to commissioning the police study, which began with the discovery of the potential liability exposure to the village represented by the MPD.

She reiterated that the intention of the board of trustees was to understand the policing needs of the village and whether, organizationally, the police department followed state, village, civil service and municipal law.

In a public meeting last year, the Dutchess County Sheriff ‘s Office explained the law enforcement services it could provide to the village. At the same time, the board considered two laws regarding the police, but no action was taken as it became clear that many in the community wanted to retain the MPD.

In order to get an objective, informed view of the village police department and an assessment of the village’s needs for police services, RFPs were published seeking professional assistance.

After receiving a range of proposals priced from $6,000 to $62,000, Richardson was selected. His 21-page report was submitted to village trustees the week of March 20 and published on the village website on March 28 with print copies available at the workshop meeting.

Legally the village must find a police chief

The first finding of the report was based on legal opinions, which found that the village police department has been operating in violation of state and municipal law for years because there has been no qualified, designated police chief to supervise officers.

The consultant also determined that officers were incorrectly identifying themselves as “Chief – Officer in Charge Police Department” and “Sergeant – Millerton Police Department.”

Police activities analyzed

Part 3 of the study, which focused on policing activities, reported that of the five part-time officers on the village police roster, only two officers have reported on a regular basis in the first two months of this year – 20 hours a week for Breen and 11 hours for Veeder.

Law enforcement agency response to 911 calls in 2021 were summarized. Based on 911 call records, only 6% of calls from the village and 22% of calls from the Town of North East were answered only by the MPD.

There were only 340 total calls in the entire year — approximately one call per day.  The county sheriff and/or the state police answered 10% of these calls with the MPD and 79% without the MPD’s presence.

The consultant recommended the village consider a pilot study to assign schedules for village police coverage including Friday nights and weekends, which have not been staffed recently, and eliminating weekday night coverage when the sheriff or state police would be the sole responding agencies.

The study also found deficiencies in required training documentation and annual evaluation of police officers.

Part of the consultant’s assignment was to compare Millerton to other Dutchess County municipalities and consider alternatives to local policing. Six of the eight Dutchess County villages, including Millerton, have a designated police department.

With only five part-time officers, Millerton has the smallest police force with lowest per-hour pay of $20.16. Only Fishkill has a police chief, with other village police departments supervised by sergeants.

Police take over during executive session

In order to consider the recommendations of the study, the board left the audience in the Annex and went into executive session. In their absence, the police took over the front of the room, where Officer David Rudin, with Officer Veeder at his side, presented their response to the study.

Rudin stated that the village did not need a police chief and that Veeder was hired from the civil service list. A former Dutchess County sheriff, Rudin stated he had passed the sergeant’s test and has been supervising police for a long time.

Rudin claimed the mayor refused to hire additional officers and denied approval to send candidates to the police academy. He also maintained that the mayor restricted police hours, which resulted in staff attrition, and that January and February coverage statistics were not representative because of low staffing levels.

Rudin maintained that “the village could not exist without us.” Rudin fielded questions from the audience and reminded people that there is a village election in June.

When asked by The Millerton News reporter what he thought of the recommendations, he said, “You don’t want to know — not a fan.” Rudin invited anyone to sit down with him and look at his laptop records; however, attempts by this reporter to contact police for their response were unsuccessful.

Final resolutions of the board

Following a 20-minute executive session, the board, accompanied by the consultant and attorneys, returned to the podium to vote on the study’s recommendations. All resolutions were passed unanimously:

—Resolution 1. “The Village trustees should consider maintaining the Village of Millerton Police Department and implementing a series of three-month long pilot studies to assess different staffing levels and the days and hours of coverage once a Police Chief is employed.”

— Resolution 2. “The Village Trustees should immediately take steps to hire a Village Police Chief.”

— Resolution 3. As part of the first pilot study, the Village Trustees should consider employing a part-time Village Police Chief with a flexible schedule of twenty hours per week to perform usual and customary administrative and supervisory duties and to coordinate services when needed with County, State and Federal public safety and emergency response agencies.

— Resolution 4. The Village Trustees should immediately instruct all police officers not to identify as any rank other than that of a police officer.

—Resolution 5. The Village Trustees should review and update the Civil Service roster for those police officers who have not worked for several months.

— Resolution 6. The Village Trustees should consider removing the Senior Police Assistant from the Civil Service roster as this position has not been utilized for several months.

—Resolution 7. Before the current police contract with the town expires, the Village Trustees should consider no longer contracting with the Town of North East to provide a police officer to the Town Court.

—Resolution 8. After much discussion between trustees about the potential liability of continuing to operate a police department without a supervising officer, Trustee Matt Hartzog proposed placing active police officers on administrative leave with pay until a chief could be recruited, effective immediately. It was agreed that the sheriff of Dutchess County would be notified and a job posting placed.

Resident impressions varied

Ray Nelson, who has a “Support MPD” sign in front of his village home, attended the meeting and had “very strong feelings” about the evening. “We were told a year ago that a study would be done and that they would get back to us. It’s very disturbing that the study was presented and voted on the same night without any public comment. I found the report very narrow in its scope. After the meeting I approached the consultant with some questions about inconsistencies in the report and was told by him, ‘I was paid to prepare a report, not to answer questions.’ I don’t understand why we have operated for 50 years without a police chief and can’t move forward with our existing police for another few months.”

Another village resident, who asked to remain anonymous, had a completely different take: “I was astonished and alarmed by some of the facts outlined in the police assessment report. I view the actions taken by the village as appropriate measures to defuse a contentious issue. The resolutions remove the liability of unsupervised police officers and gives the trustees time to evaluate their next steps.”

By phone to The Millerton News, Najdek said the village just could not continue kicking the can down the road. She also refuted many of Rudin’s statements, especially concerning staffing: “The board made it clear that we would no longer send candidates to the police academy and that we wanted to hire experienced officers. Officer Veeder never met with the personnel committee to discuss this and never posted position openings.”

Neither did the board restrict hours, according to Najdek. After the meeting village resident Delora Brooks commented: “Money has made my decision for me. This should not have been going on this long.”