I will be releasing my proposed budget later today. I anticipate a tax hike of under 1% for 2007. Between now and the middle of December the Town Board will be reviewing the budget. I will post facts about different departments on this web site so you will have a better appreciation of the town. Last week I provided readers with info about the Parks and Recreation Dept. Today: the Police Dept.
DURING 2005
* 6,158 calls for medical assistance.
* 3,555 responses in unincorporated Greenburgh. 2,603 from the six incorporated villages.
* 920 serious offenses investigated by the police. The lowest number in more than 30 years.
* 36,139 calls for service – the highest ever.
* 1,632 arrests. 6,634 uniform traffic tickets. 5,121 parking summonses.
* Creation of first ever town/village marine unit. A 21’ Zodiac, Center Console Inflatable Boat was secured and eleven officers initially received maritime law enforcement training. In its first abbreviated year of service, the team logged more than 500 patrol hours, resulting in numerous vessel inspections being conducted and summonses issued. The unit also effected an arrest for Boating While Intoxicated, recovered a stolen vessel and investigated successfully a hit and run boating accident.
* The Drug & Alcohol Task Force, comprised of town and village police officers, effected 351 arrests, 95 of which were for felony offenses in 2005. 86 arrests occurred in unincorporated Greenburgh. 215 in the villages.
* The Task Force, since its inception, has seized 622 pounds of marijuana and hashish; 75 grams of PCP; 2453 grams of powder Cocaine and Crack; 324 ounces of GHB; 1,107 bags of Heroin; 512 Ecstasy pills; 50, 10 ml bottles of ketamine; 2.5 ounces of Crystal Methamphetamine as well as a variety of prescription pills, steroids and other drugs and alcohol with a street value of over $2,100,000.
* Over $100,000 in stolen cash and property recovered. 12 handguns and 9 rifles recovered.
* Cash and other tangible assets seized, which includes 18 motor vehicles, totals over $6,000,000.
* Child Safety Seat Inspection Station examined more than 1,400 child safety seats during 2005 – nearly twice the number of any other station in the state.
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
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36 comments:
More evidence that our drug laws are completely ineffective. How many millions are we spending to prosecute and incarcerate for these so called accomplishments posted by the Supervisor?
The Task Force, since its inception, has seized 622 pounds of marijuana and hashish; 75 grams of PCP; 2453 grams of powder Cocaine and Crack; 324 ounces of GHB; 1,107 bags of Heroin; 512 Ecstasy pills; 50, 10 ml bottles of ketamine; 2.5 ounces of Crystal Methamphetamine as well as a variety of prescription pills, steroids and other drugs and alcohol with a street value of over $2,100,000.
The drug laws have nothing to do with the supervisor. The drug laws are from the state.
And you believe paul feiner is listing these figures as a service to the State of New York? Gee, with all this illegal drug activity in Greenburgh I think I am entitled to a tax break since I now realize I live in a bad neighborhood. Plus I lost my bookstore and now a Carvel store.
Every community in the nation has a drug problem. Fortunately, the Greenburgh police is proactive, gives illegal activity their attention and makes arrests.
I thought that the villages have their own police -- why is Town of Greenburgh responding to almost as many calls in Villages as Unincorporated Greenburgh
Why does the Town need a marine unit? Are there any navigable rivers within the town? someone let me know??
And then what? Read the police blotters. Most of the arrests lead to quick release and at best small fines. If there was no money to be made in drug dealing, no one would deal drugs. Then we would not need a task force. Making drugs illegal creates a lucrative black market. The same black market is behind the crime the task force is playing cat and mouse with.
The Hudson River (actually not a river but a tributary) borders The Town of Greenburgh (Town is contiguous with the villages on the river (e.g. hastings) when convenient for Mr. Feiner)(not contiguous when the library is concerned).
Dear Ardslyean,
It seems to me that the villages always come out ahead. This marine unit should not be funded by the Town. We dont need it. If the Villages need it, they should pay for it.
Regarding the Emergency Medical Services, why does this take police officers off our street to provide?
"Town is contiguous with the villages on the river (e.g. hastings) when convenient for Mr. Feiner)(not contiguous when the library is concerned)."
Hahahaha ... That is so funny, and unfortunately so true.
Why is Greenburgh contrubuting towards a marine unit?! Not even one centimeter of the Hudson River touches Unincorporated Greenburgh. A marine unit may be a nice idea ... if those four villages want to fully fund it. Please pull this out of Greenburgh's budget.
As a resident of Unincorporated Greenburgh, I'm looking forward to examining the "A" budget. (Though the statement "There will be a tax decrease of $9.20%" is not mathematically valid. I'm assuming this means a 9.20% decrease?)
"86 arrests occurred in unincorporated Greenburgh. 215 in the villages."
"3,555 responses in unincorporated Greenburgh. 2,603 from the six incorporated villages."
Why is Greenburgh Police doing the work of the villages' police departments? If anything, the villages' police departments could be handling some of Unincorporated Greenburgh (i.e. Chauncey, Mount Hope, Glenville, etc.)
Of course if backup is needed, police departments certainly help each other out. But it sounds like Greenburgh Police is doing too much of the work for the villages' police departments. That should cease right away.
I want the police to cooperate with each other. A criminal caught in Tarrytown or Elmsford is less likely to rob those of us who reside in unincorporated Greenburgh. The more the different police departments cooperate with each other the better. Police intelligence should not stop at artificial borders.
The police should be part of the marine unit. I feel safer knowing that the police don't restrict their intelligence activities to only unincorporated Greenburgh. I read that the NYC police dept has teams in Israel. These teams gather information that is helpful to their NYC operations. The desire by some bloggers to turn every initiative the town takes into a fight between unincorporated and the villages is STUPID. If we cooperate with each other we'll be safer and our tax dollars will be stretched further.
As I said, "Of course if backup is needed, police departments certainly help each other out." Police and fire departments in the area certainly need to cooperate and communicate with each other, for specific situations and in general. But by those stats, it makes me think that Greenburgh Police may be too generous in doing the actual work for other municipalities' police departments.
I agree with the Greenburgh Police and the elmsford police should assist each other. For ex. if a crime happens in greenburgh and the criminal happens to flee into the unicorporated area, the police in that area would assist to captured the criminal. I think this is a great idea. Also keep on capturing these drug offenders and keeping crime down in our town. I think we should appreciate the efforts that all of the police are doing and that they are working together. Just like our fire departments work together not only in the town and unicorporated areas but all over the county, state and the country. This is a no brainer.
I get the feeling that some people want to promote division in our town. I want unincorporated Greenburgh and the villages to work together, not to fight each other. Having police depts work cooperatively makes us all safer.
Dear Dano,
You wrote:
"3,555 responses in unincorporated Greenburgh. 2,603 from the six incorporated villages."
Unfortunately, the original posting of data was somewhat misleading. The data is a breakdown of EMT responses. The EMT function, while technically I assume under the Town's Chief of Police, is an activity that is funded from the "A" budget. In this case, the % of calls from unincorporated Greenburgh (3,555 / 6,158) or 57% approximates the 55% of the "A" budget taxes that are paid by unincorporated Greenburgh. This one looks like a reasonable balance of both tax burden and results, beteen the Villages and unincorporated Greenburgh.
As to the Town Drug Task force, each of the Villages, I believe, contributes police manpower to the force. I know that the Village of Ardsley has one full time officer assigned and he goes whereever the need takes him, most of the time out of Ardsley.
As to the marine unit, I guess that Ardsley and Elmsford might agree with the land locked unincorporated portion of the Town.
The Greenburgh police does an excellent job. It's important for our safety that they continue working with neighboring jurisdictions. We are all intertwined. More cooperation translates into a safer unincorporated Greenburgh.
Dear Michael,
and what about the discrepancy that most arrests are in the villages. This seems pretty one sided to me.
some people's ideas of cooperation are that the unincorporated areas should subsidize the villages. That is not cooperation
Dear Anonymous (2:15 PM),
Afew questions. What were the data for the prior period(s)? What is the composition of the combined Town Task Force? Are you recommending to Chief Kapika that this be stopped? Do you think that the Chiefs of Police of the Villages are incapable of organizing their own task force if that is the decision of Chief Kapika? If the combined task force doesn't make sense, so be it. I am not knowledgeable enough to make that determination. While you are on a police related matter, why not pursue the Town SWAT team?
If it ain't broken don't fix it. Crime rate in Greenburgh is now at its lowest level ever-- in history, according to the Police Chief. Leave policing to the police professionals.
Michael,
The statistics are from above,
I am not commenting on whether or not these programs, the Task Force, or for that matter the SWAT are worthwhile, just to whom they should be charged
Anon: Focus on the big picture. The big picture is this: keep crime low. If we focus on the small issues we will keep on fighting each other. This could jeopardize the excellent cooperation between police departments.
The politicians and politics should not be allowed to destroy our excellent police force.
I do fully support the importance and necessity for cooperation and collaboration among police departments. It does seems strange, though, that 71% of the arrests made by Greenburgh Police were made in other police districts.
Working cooperatively is clearly essential. Of course Greenburgh Police should collaborate with its neighbors - Yonkers, Ardsley, White Plains, Tarrytown, Scarsdale, Elmsford, etc. But I do feel that Greenburgh should not *subsidize* and do *extra* work for neighboring municipalities.
As examples, I'd imagine that Yonkers PD and Hastings PD have worked in collaboration and communicate regularly; Mount Pleasant PD and Tarrytown PD; Dobbs Ferry PD and Irvington PD; Greenburgh PD and Scarsdale PD; etc.
Thankfully, that's the spirit of law enforcement. But (again, just as examples) I doubt if Mount Vernon subsudizes Bronxville or if 71% of Port Chester's arrests come from Greenwich and Rye Brook.
I'd assume some people will still disagree with my perspective - and that's okay - but kindly re-read my first two paragraphs above before responding.
Dano: If the 71% of arrests made by the police in other jurisdictions stopped these criminals from entering unincorporated Greenburgh - isn't that good for the town? I'm not complaining. I don't care if the Greenburgh police have to go to hong kong to make their arrests.
It looks to me like like the Gburgh police are doing the work of the Village police. I know the Gburgh police want to do their job and stop criminals, but the issue is how the costs get charges. This is not fair, and we have to figure out a better way.
These look like doctored and orchestrated stats designed to sell a budget and make the Supervisor look good. I'd like to hear from the police chiefs of Greenburgh and the villages to see if these are real and what they mean. I am sure there is less to this than meets the eye. Nobody should get too excited.
You may not like Supervisor Feiner. Facts are facts. THe Greenburgh police department has done a great job under Supervisor Feiner and Chief Kapica. Our crime is very low. The police have some great programs that protect all of us.
"I am sure there is less to this than meets the eye."
Hahaha! I didn't think of that. I don't know the town's supervisor and am not in the position to accuse him of anything shady, but yes, stats can certainly be spinned.
To anon and dano
I don't dislike the Supervisor and I don't think he is shady. I just know that raw numbers don't mean much.
For example, what does it mean that the Greenburgh police made many arrests in the villages. Did they chase criminals from Hartsdale into Ardsley? Did they give information to the village police? Was a village resident arrested in Edgemont? Were there joint operations with village police? Are speeding tickets given to village residents who drive too fast in Greenburgh considered arrests in the villages?
What does this marine unit do, and how is Greenburgh involved? Is the Town paying for it? Are we merely signed on to it?
Are we charging any of the Town's police budget to the villages? How much?
Are village police doing the same for Greenburgh?
See what I mean. Raw numbers don't tell the story.
But I am delighted that the Greenburgh police and the village police are working cooperatively. Now if only our Town Council worked cooperatively with the villages, that we be news, and good news.
I don't think that the sup is trying to spin anything. I think he just wants to keep us informed. Personally, I think he is overloading us with facts --much of it is interesting. I don't think any other elected official provides their citizens with as much info about the community as Feiner does.
these facts are very interesting. We have a great police dept. We live in a town with great services.
Wow, and does Kapica have any comments regarding the effective dismissal of charges against parents who had teen party.
No one supports these arrests. It measn homeowners pay big legal fees. Studies have shown most complaints about teen parties come from persons not invited.
Why is the town wasting money going after these parties? Easy answer -- more arrests
but they are meaningless -- other than costs to the homeowners involved.
IF YOU ONLY KNEW !!!!!!
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