It’s a dog’s world and three Rockland police departments received equipment through a non-profit group for their K-9 units.

Spring Valley, Clarkstown and Ramapo received the equipment from the Onyx and Breezy Foundation, an organization started in 2004 by Mark and Wanda Shefts in honor of their two Labrador retrievers. The foundation supports a wide range of projects that advance the welfare of animals.

The Shefts will appear with the three dogs and officers to discuss the grants tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. in the Rockland Legislature Chambers, first floor of the County Office Building, 11 New Hempstead Road, New City.  The grants were procured by Rockland Public Safety Advocate David Fried, who works for Sheriff James Kralik on finding money for police across the county and other issues like recruitment.

Fried estimated the equipment is valued at $6,000. The  following equipment was obtained :

• Technology equipping K-9 vehicles in Spring Valley and Ramapo with temperature monitoring to ensure a safe environment for the dog when the canine is unattended on hot or cold days during emergency responses. Remote pagers would tell the officer if temperatures inside the vehicles would endanger the dog’s health. The cars also would be equipped with a cooling fan that would turn on automatically at certain temperatures. The officers also would get device that automatically opens the vehicle door to allow the dog to respone in emergencies.  Each departments has one dog each trained in tracking and narcotics.

• Computer software for the Clarkstown Police Department that would maintain records such as veterinary care, training logs and deployment.  Clarkstown has the largest K-9 patrol program in the county with two dogs. Suffern also has a K-9 unit.

The Sheriff’s Department has two dogs trained to sniff out explosive components and one canine trained to sniff out accelerants for arson investigations. A third dog trained for the bomb disposal unit coming soon.

“The equipment that is being provided is a testament to the importance of K9s in all our lives, the noble service of K9s in law enforcement and the legacy of Onyx and Breezy,” foundation Trustee Wanda Shefts said in a news release. “As a society we have an obligation to support and provide for animals.”

Kralik noted that since the terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan and Pentagon in Washington with hijacked airplanes, police dogs have played a larger role in law enforcement.

“Together with their human handlers, law enforcement has been greatly enhanced by police dogs in narcotic seizures, arson investigations, explosives detections and patrol work,” Kralik said.

Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence will look to mend splintered fences with his police department tomorrow night by publicly taking back his criticism of Police Officer Jonathan Quinn.

St. Lawrence said tonight that he will make amends to Quinn personally and publicly, saying he will apologize if his calling Quinn insensitive to a Hasidic woman’s religious views during an arrest were insensitive to the officer and department.

A few weeks ago St. Lawrence fueled a firestorm across the town by calling Quinn’s decision to photograph Shifra Cohen, 24, of Monsey, without her wig insensitive. Married Hasidic women wear a wig for modesty and don’t allow men other than their husband to touch them. Quinn also fingerprinted her.

Cohen and her husband, Joseph, are accuse of stealing more than $8,000 in Medicaid by underreporting their income on their applications. They were two of more than 40 people charged with fraud, but have drawn attention because they complained about Shifra Cohen’s treatment at booking.

Some Hasidic Jewish leaders threatened a demonstration for his actions. St. Lawrence met with community leaders and Cohen and her husband and cooled off the community.

Now he’s looking to cool hot feeling among police officers and will discuss the issues tomorrow night.

“If my comments were insensitive to the officer, I will apologize to the officer and the department,” St. Lawrence told The Journal News tonight. “I will make it clear that the officer did follow the training he was taught. My intent is to take the silver lining out of this incident and strengthen our policy, procedures and general orders and our training.”

St. Lawrence said he will meet personally with Quinn, who has been advised by his union president, Officer Dennis Procter, to keep a low profile and not talk about the incident.

St. Lawrence said a fact-finding report by Capt. James Quinn, no relation to the officer, will not be completed by tomorrow’s meeting, since additional people need to be interviewed, including dectectives with the Rockland District Attorney’s Office. St. Lawrence said the report will state Officer Jonathan Quinn followed the department’s written procedures.

Procter and many residents already have argued Officer Jonathan Quinn followed procedures and the Hasidic Jewish community should not get special treatment from the police. The incident has added to already tense feelings between some Hasidic Jews and some secular residents and other Jews, some religious and some non-religious.

In response to the incident, St. Lawrence has called for the police to have sensitive training on the Hasidic community, with Rabbi Simon Lauber of Bikur Cholim showing officers a video on the community. St. Lawrence also said he wants to extend the training to other ethnic communities.

St. Lawrence said that when he speaks at tomorrow night’s meeting, he wants to make it clear his goal is to improve the police department and strength relationships with the town’s diverse communities.

He also said he would make it clear that the police department’s video system was broken for some time. He said the system was not tampered with by the police when Cohen was being processed – as he said some conspiracy theorists have proffered.

St. Lawrence has won elections as supervisor on the strength of overwhelming support from the Hasidic community and some Orthodox Jewish communities. His support for housing for the religious communities and other services has led to opposition from many non-religious areas of the town.

Haverstraw town moved forward with switching six police officers’ pension plans so that they can get full benefit after 20 years instead of having to work until they are 62 years old.

It took about 15 years for the officers to notice that their retirement plans were different from what other officers have. And in 2004, the Policemen’s Benevolent Association started negotiating with the town to change those officers’ 35-year retirement plans to the 20-year retirement plan, which would require the town to put a higher contribution.

The town was not forthcoming in the beginning, saying that the town did not make mistakes but those officers did when they applied for their pension plans.

The PBA representatives argued that the town had plenty of time to notice the mistakes but did nothing.

But the town has recently held two special meetings to prepare for the state Legislature to pass the home rule legislation to enroll six police officers in the 20-year retirement plan. The home rule legislation is a necessary step to make the changes.

The bill passed the state Assembly and Senate, though it still needs to be signed by the governor.

Get out your dancing shoes and watch your toes.

The Rockland County Police Hispanic Society’s 5th annual “Salsa into the Summer” Dance Fundraiser will be held Friday from 8 p.m. to midnight at the Nyack Seaport, Burd Street, Nyack.

Tickets are $35 at the door. And proceeds from the event will go to Meals on Wheels and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Northern New Jersey-Rockland County chapter.
For more information go to www.rcphs.com

Nyack will hold a community forum Wednesday to talk about the gang fights that took place on village streets last month involving between 40 and 50 teenagers.

The meeting was supposed to be held Monday, but was changed to accommodate the schedules of public officials. Nyack Mayor John Shields, the Nyack Village Board of Trustees, Orangetown Supervisor Thom Kleiner, and Orangetown Police Chief Nulty among others will answer questions and hear comments and solutions from the public.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Nyack Center, 58 Depew Ave. For more information call Nyack Village Hall at (845) 358-0229 or the Nyack Center at (845) 358-2600.

This community forum comes about two weeks after Nyack leaders held a closed meeting about the fighting. Some members of the public wanted to attend, but were shut out. So was the press.

Here are a few stories about the melee:

In wake of gang fights, Nyack leaders ask how to help youth

Gang fights quelled by police

Police will show ‘colors’ as Nyack confronts gang issues

The Rockland Sheriff’s Department will received it’s accreditation certificate from New York State this afternoon during a ceremony planned for the Rockland Legislature chambers in the County Office Building in New City.

Division of Criminal Justice Services Commissioner Denise O’Donnel is scheduled to be on hand to hand the certificate to Sheriff James Kralik. Other dignitaries, including County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef and legislators, were on the guest list.

The Sheriff’s Department became the fifth Rockland police force accredited, joining Clarkstown, Ramapo, Stony Point and Orangetown. Clarkstown went through the re-accreditation process last week, with police officials and state law enforcement personnel inspecting the department and its records. Suffern also is planning on going through the process. Accreditation lasts five years.
Out of 600 departments across the state, just more than 100 have been accredited by meeting the 130 standards set by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.

As a barometer of professionalism, the state accreditation indicates a department has established rules and regulations and is abiding by them. It also means a department has established training programs, evidence-keeping procedures and is maintaining records. The accreditation also can lead to a department paying less for insurance, which reduces costs to taxpayers.

Thanks for stopping by for the Rockland Week in Review, where we look back at the biggest Rockland stories of the past seven days.

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Former Spring Valley Trustee Bettie Brown has said she has personally witnessed Mayor George Darden use profanity towards village clerks.

Darden did not return calls seeking comment, and village officials wouldn’t speak on the matter.

Brown was speaking yesterday during an interview for a story I wrote (which appeared in today’s paper) about Trustee Demeza Delhomme’s request for police presence during workshop meetings.

Delhomme alleged being the victim of a profanity-laced verbal attack by Darden. The trustee also said he witnessed similar verbal attacks by Darden upon former village clerk, Sherry Scott, and the current clerk, Mae Naber.

Brown often was the lone voice of dissent on the board, and often was criticized by Darden for not showing up to board meetings.

Brown said yesterday that she couldn’t come to Village Board meetings for a few months last year because she underwent major surgery. After the surgery, she said, “I did not have peace of mind to come back to the board meetings because of (Darden’s) demeanor, because of his attitude, during the meetings.â€?

But, on one occasion in the fall, the board sent two Spring Valley police officers to her home to collect her to attend a board meeting, she said.

“The police arrived with the resolution they passed to do it … and told me what their business was and I read it and I asked them ‘are you arresting me?’ and they said no, ‘I’ve come to escort you,â€? she recalled.

Even though she missed meetings, Brown said she was always accessible to her constituents and kept up with her duties. Her absence didn’t change the outcome of any votes, she added.

Residents have increasingly been criticizing the Spring Valley Village Board as being dysfunctional.

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