To the Editor:

This letter follows the May 23, 2024 Altamont Enterprise article “No recourse for driver faulted in GPD accident report ….”  I would like to expand on the last sentence in which I was quoted as saying my experience with the Guilderland police “destroys me.”  It did not destroy me.  What it destroyed was my confidence and trust in the police and my sense of safety and security.

From the start and throughout my interactions with the police there were signs that the hit-and-run accident I was involved in was not being handled in an objective and honorable manner:

— The officer omitted from the initial report that the driver of Vehicle 2 left the scene of the accident and that she told him she was not aware she had been in an accident;

— In the diagram he included with that report, he misrepresented what I had said and drawn for him.  I said the light was red; he indicated it was green. I said and drew that I was back from the intersection behind other cars when I started changing lanes; he indicated I started changing lanes at the intersection;

— When I took the faulty report to the police station, met with the officer, and pointed out that the diagram was wrong, he said, “It doesn’t matter”;

— When I pointed out that there was nothing in the report about the other driver leaving the scene of the accident, he said, “She was a young driver and she was very nice and she was polite … and she wasn’t aware she had been in an accident.” I asked how she could claim to know details of the accident when she didn’t know she had been in one. He replied, “I just wrote down what she said.” He didn’t question the obvious contradiction;

— When I obtained a copy of the revised second report, still there was nothing about the other driver leaving the scene or that she wasn’t aware she had been in an accident;

— When I brought the revised report to the police station and spoke with Chief [Daniel] McNally, I pointed this out and also pointed out that the report was skewed in the other driver’s favor. Even though I had reported the accident, and therefore was labeled Vehicle 1, the other driver’s statement came first.  Chief McNally said, “It doesn’t make any difference.” Nevertheless, I asked that my statement come first;

— In the revised third report the statement of the driver of Vehicle 2 still came first, my statement came second and, after that, “Upon further investigation and further statements V2 stated that she was unaware that she had been in an accident.” The officer had confirmed to me that the day after the accident the other driver told him she didn’t know she had been in an accident …. And still he didn’t question the obvious contradiction. Clearly this third and final report was skewed in favor of the other driver;

— When I brought my completed complaint form to the police station, I asked what the review process was and who performed the review. The person at the window said she didn’t know, checked with someone else, and then came back to the window and said, “We don’t know.”  She said she would give the complaint to Chief McNally (who was named in the complaint); and

— Finally, the police reviewed my complaint about the police, which is hardly objective, and there is nowhere else I can turn for an objective review.

This is not an isolated incident that affects me alone. It is yet another example in the larger issue of lack of police accountability, as evidenced by other articles that have appeared in the media ….

Supposedly the police have sworn to serve and protect law-abiding citizens. But who is going to protect us from the police?

Jill Harbeck

Altamont

Editor’s note: The Enterprise published a story last week about Jill Harbeck’s allegations after she raised them at a Guilderland Town Board meeting, reviewing her complaint and all three versions of the accident report. The Enterprise could not reach the other driver nor the officer who filled out the accident report but did talk to the police chief who backed the officer’s report.