Growing
APD to follow operating manual



ALTAMONT — The police department here is small, but that doesn’t mean that it should be without standard operating procedures, say Public Safety Commissioner Anthony Salerno and Mayor James Gaughan.

The department, which has one full-time and eight part-time employees, has been operating under a guide since Oct. 3, when the village board accepted the document on a provisional basis.

The mayor and commissioner reviewed the manual with The Enterprise yesterday. The mayor said that he had counted the unnumbered pages of the document to be 223.
"Throughout the country, every department has a guide," Salerno said. The manual that he put together for Altamont is a result of researching similar guides in other municipalities, including the town of Guilderland, he said. The discs that he used to come up with the final document were part of a national set of guidelines, he said.

Although Altamont doesn’t have a sergeant, lieutenant, or investigator, the duties assigned to those positions are laid out in detail in the manual and referred to regularly throughout it.
"All positions below chief refer to him," Gaughan said, pointing his thumb at Salerno; nowhere in the document is this stated, though. Leaving those job titles and descriptions in the manual allows for future growth, Salerno said, if the village hires someone to fill one of those positions, the duties will already be set out.
"You have to think about future growth," he said.
The manual specifies that officers should be courteous and respectful towards the public. It also says, "They will so conduct their private lives that the public will regard them as an example of stability, fidelity, and morality." The eight part-time officers have greeted the manual with praise, Salerno said. Most of them work in other law-enforcement agencies and have a similar code to follow at those departments, he said.
Of stipulating morality in officers’ private lives, Salerno said, "There’s higher expectation for officers within the State of New York."
In the section on compensation and benefits, the guide says, "Non-sworn personnel, radio communications and clerical, because of their sedentary job tasks, will maintain a level of general health and fitness necessary to perform their assigned duties." The manual doesn’t give any definitions for what an acceptable level would be.
Although Altamont’s police department doesn’t currently have any employees in this category, Gaughan said, should there be non-sworn employees in the future, "I don’t think that non-sworn personnel should have to do push-ups."
In another section the manual reads, "An annual performance evaluation will be given to each employee." The evaluation is to be done by the employee’s immediate supervisor and handed up through the chain of command to be signed by the public safety commissioner. Since there is no chain of command in the Altamont Police Department the commissioner will be writing all of the employees’ evaluations.
"Contested performance evaluations will be reviewed by the Commissioner of Public Safety/Chief," the manual says. "In this review process the Commissioner’s decision is final."

When asked if this portion of the document was a problem for the Altamont Police Department because it lacks the infrastructure that is necessary, Gaughan replied that, if the document needs clarification, he would do so after discussion with the village board. Although it isn’t stated in the manual, Gaughan said that any employee who has a concern can go to him.
"Disagreement comes to me, period," he said.

Among the 66 procedures described in the manual are those for civilian complaints, bicycle operation, missing persons, hostage/barricaded subject incident, traffic enforcement, and infectious materials and disease control.

Some things, like the use of unmarked police cars and Tasers, which are discussed in the handbook, don’t apply to the Altamont Police Department because it doesn’t have them, Salerno said.

Other things, like the ability for the public safety commissioner to conduct a survey of residents’ impressions of the department haven’t been used yet, Salerno said.
"We’re done with the phase of reducing the workforce down to the critical few," Gaughan said of the department, which has been paired down to nine officers, but the department might need some structural changes.