Editorial: Arrests must be made public promptly

[Swimmy]

sure, to justify the tax increase they wanted, duh!

lol

[corner]

for definitions of police officers check out criminal procedure law 1.20 paragraph 34 SUNY has its own police dept at various major universities which is different than colleges or community colleges. allothers are saftey officers with peace officer status as appears to be the case at HCCC..

[dgriffin]

Ralph is correct, as I understand it. And as far as a full police infrastructure, the DEP is all of that. When you walk in to get your fishing permit, it's like a normal police stations, patrol cars parked around the outside, guys in uniform, etc. Turns out New York City owns the roads around the reservoir and lets the public use them, an interesting twist, but it wouldn't matter anyway since the DEP is sanctioned by the state as a police agency. BTW,these guys (and girls) have a legitimate function, to patrol the reservior and its roads, etc. It's just that resentments boil over as they inveigle themselves into the local policing of the area. Next topic .... Shopping Mall police .... any one want to start? Will there be a police agency for every venue in the future? Will we be overrun by peace officers?

[kim]

We need police in the mall here in Greensboro...people keep getting shot there! I try to avoid the mall down here at all costs! I think, over the last 4 years, I've been there maybe 8 times.

I worked at the mall at Sangertown once, and as I was closing the store, my husband (then boyfriend) was waiting for me in the back alley because I was going to be going out that way. One of the security guards saw him, inquired as to what he was doing, and then, after receiving the answer, apparently didn't believe him. This security guard actually stood there and waited to make sure my husband wasn't just some crazy guy out to harm me! I thought that was pretty neat.

[Swimmy]

Sangertown Mall already has mall police (not to belittle the New Hartford Police Department). And according to Concerned Citizens, the mall pays nothing to have the NHPD present.

[froggy]

Yeah which is total bullshit. Pyramid gets its own private police force, funded by taxpayers. Load of crap. My guess would be its an exchange type deal. The police don't pay rent for the substation and the mall doesn't pay for the protection. Still stinks though because I doubt the rent is a 100% match to the police resources they get out of the deal.

[Clipper]

I also imagine that any tickets they write would be answerable in NYC, if the reservoirs belong to NYC. Just another way to fleece upstate folks to finance the follys of the city dwellers.

[dgriffin]

Problem would be control of all of these police forces. Not hard to figure out why townships are asking malls to police themselves, however, to reduce tax burden. I know when they built a mall in one town near me here in the 70's, that town's small police force almost doubled. Whether it all works out fairly, of course, is another problem. I remember that same town's assessor saying he had to go to court against expensive and large law firms who were trying to get their clients' taxes reduced below a fair amount. Dave

[oc455]

State University of New York (SUNY) police officers are just that, they are cops period. Their jurisdiction is the State University's of New York. They are not how ever, New York State Troopers. We have New York State Park Police that work the area too, and their primary jurisdiction is the State Parks and such, but they have been known to do road checks, and make traffic stops to and from different state parks they are assigned. They are all police officers. And yes if there is a crime that is committed in front of them, they do have that right as a police officer to act. HCCC, if remember correctly has campus safety like MVCC has. They are not police officers, but act as security and enforce campus rules and regulations...not to act as police officers. I believe a few of MVCC's campus safety officers are retired police officer's, don't quote me....as far as them investigating a crime and making an arrest, I don't think so. It was probably turned over to the local law enforcement agency to handle.

[Ralph]

HCCC's Officers differ from MVCC's Security Officers in that HCCC's have actual Peace Office status.

MV's security is no different than anyone else's, they are basically "rent-a-cops" despite their former status in LE.

[oc455]

HCCC security is just that, security. Peace Officer status does not give them police powers. Corrections officers State and County are also considered Peace Officers, but they do not have the authority to arrest anyone either. I'm not trying to get into an argument about this or anything of the sort. I was just trying to point out that Peace Officer status does not make them law enforcement officers. They are still security that enforce the colleges rules and regulations.

[frankcor]

Thanks for injecting some fact into the conversation, oc455. I knew that the terms peace officer and law enforcement officer had legal definitions but I wasn't sure there was a distinction between the two.

[Ralph]

I don't think anyone is trying to argue the while thing.

Point is I know that they lump everyone form security to probation in the Peace Officer category, but I was under the impression from the way it was reported before that they had a much wider scope than others.

There are so many groups lumped in together there that it is hard to figure out just who can do what.

[corner]

Isn't the botom line that either Herkimer Police or even the State Police have the ultimate responsibility here to investigate, arrest and prosecute?

[Ralph]

I think the biggest questions are who is hiding what and why?