BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

OGDENSBURG – Ogdensburg City Manager Stephen Jellie has suspended operations of the Ogdensburg police investigative unit to ensure operations of the road patrol.

Jellie said the city’s police department is currently short staffed due to injuries and other reasons and said his focus is ensuring the road patrol can be maintained.

“Right now the priority is maintaining adequate personnel on the road patrol,” he said.

A press release issued by the Ogdensburg Police Benevolent Association and Police Supervisory Unit said the decision was made due to concerns about adequate manpower.

“As always, the unions hope to work with the city councilors and city manager to come to an agreement for a better solution to manpower issues,” the release signed by Matthew Erwin, PSU president, Timothy Murray, PSU vice president, Charles Shaver, PBA president, and Danielle Pryce, PBA vice president stated.

According to the release the move will see detectives reassigned to road patrol duties on Monday, Oct. 3. They will not be able to solely focus on narcotics investigations or major crimes.

“The unions would like the public to have patience as cases that would normally be worked on by detectives will now be passed on to the road patrol case load. Officers may have to request assistance from outside agencies which may delay the completion of investigations” the release said.

The city had already taken similar action in May, when it reassigned one of the city’s two detectives to road patrol.

The union warned then that it would be a dangerous move.

“Reassigning the Narcotic Detective to patrol only puts officers and citizens in more danger. Much of the officer safety information that is passed through the department comes from the Narcotics Detective. Without this detective obtaining and passing on this information, patrols are more likely to respond to incidents without prior knowledge that a substantial threat is potentially waiting. Raising the minimum staffing for the night shift without increasing staffing creates issues with officers getting time off, and increases burn out on officers,” union officials said in May.