Improving The APD

If elected as Albany’ 76th mayor, I will drastically reduce the police department’s budget and I will institute a hiring freeze.  I will also dismiss the department’s current leadership, especially Acting Chief Brendan Cox, bringing in my own.

Perhaps the loftiest goal is this: I will also vastly reduce the number of officers and detectives as the department has way too many for a city of Albany’s size.  I’m looking at a decrease of 20 officers and 5 detectives.

I will also immediately freeze APD salaries, meaning that no one will get raises until the city can afford such a move.  Thank our outgoing mayor, Kathy Sheehan for that!

All of these things will make the department run leaner and meaner.  While all of this is happening, Albany can and will be made a safer place.  The cuts that I am proposing will not affect the city’s safety.  Now, I can’t make crime stop, but I can and will make Albany a place where criminals will at least think twice before victimizing us.

I acknowledge that Albany has a serious crime problem at this moment, but I can still reduce the APD’s numbers and drastically reduce violent crime.  How?  After getting rid of the excess officers, I will present a plan to schedule our officers for each shift.  They will be visible and they will get things done, even with reduced ranks.

How can I improve the APD where my opponents can’t?  Here are just some of the ways…

  • I will improve the department’s community outreach programs to ensure the citizens that are city is safe and is well cared for.
  • I will institute a foot patrol and bicycle patrol plan, harkening to the days when police actually patrolled on foot.
  • I will have our department partner with various organizations with the goal of making Albany even safer than it is and even better than it is.
  • I will put into effect a plan that ensures that our city’s students can travel to and from school in safety.
  • I will institute a domestic violence task force that gives support to victims and that locks away those who inflict violence upon their partners.

In other words, Albany, under my leadership, will do more with less.  I will make that happen.  Those other guys?  They will be unable to address the issue as well as I can.