Wednesday, October 31, 2007

PATROLLING THE STREETS OF GREENBURGH WITH POLICE CHIEF ON HALLOWEEN, 2007

This halloween evening I spent some of my time driving around town with Police Chief Kapica. We've been patrolling the streets of Greenburgh for 16 years on Halloween night-- monitoring the police calls (there were over 60 calls to the police department) and checking up on problem areas.
The town assigned 31 police, 6 auxiliary officers to patrol unincorporated Greenburgh on Halloween. 11 officers were on overtime. The approximate overtime cost: $4,000.
It was a busy evening. The good news: no significant reports of property damage as of 11:30 PM. We did experience some incidents of halloween pranks/mischief. I stopped by and spoke to a couple who experienced the typical shaving cream/egg problems some people expect on Halloween. The police caught some students who were involved in the incident and required them to clean up the mess they caused. Good, solomon like punishment! There were some fights among students. The police put a stop to the fighting. A few students were taken into police headquarters.
Although it was a busy night, Halloween, 2007 was mild compared to 16 or 17 years ago when cars were vandalized and when there was significant property damage. I feel that providing the police with the funding they require to adequately patrol the town is money well spent.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////Why were 11 officers on overtime .we are trying to save money.
What about the police who were on regular duty this night.
I'm sure thaqt they could have handled the problems.
Management management is what is needed throughout the town.

Anonymous said...

I guess you also feel that kapica shouldn't have used overtime to successful stop the burglaries in edgemont? This town is well managed. i'm happy

Anonymous said...

Have the burglers been caught.

Anonymous said...

The problem with the Police Dept is, there are to many special details and officers that work inside. do you know they have a patrolman assigned just to do schedules.This could be done by anybody else and put the patrol officer back on the street,Also they should stop wasting money to train police officers to do rescue work, when you have over 100 firefighters that are trained already.

Anonymous said...

3:49
You are 100% right. Our local fire departments have been very well trained in all emergencies.
The police dept. need not train and retrain their men and ladies.
This is one area that should be studied for waste of tax money.
As a blogger said some time ago there should be a thorough study of the police dept.
The place for police officers is out in the streets not behind desks.

Anonymous said...

The police department provides our ambulance service. the fire departments dont. we have one ambulance company in greenburgh and a lot of different fire drpartments.

Anonymous said...

most times you have 3 police officers going in the ambulance to the hospital, which could take up to an hour that they can't patrol. they should have civilian medics to do it,

Anonymous said...

2 not three(3)

Anonymous said...

The problem with the police dept. is the leadership

Anonymous said...

Kevin Morgan knows what has to be done at the Police Dept.

Anonymous said...

Yes Kevin Morgan is the one to oversee
The DPW
The GPD