FAMOUS COP TRUDY LAFORGIA BACKS ED DAY’S CUTS TO SHERIFF’S DEPT.

To the Editor,

As a Rockland resident and former chief in the New York City Police Department, I take strong exception to the substance and tone in the letter “Day’s sheriff cuts will burden local cops.”

Sheriff Falco needs to do what every department in county government has been doing; restructure to run more efficiently. Instead he has expanded the scope of the department, something Chief Anemone states in his report. By not taking the steps necessary to be more efficient and make those tough choices, he leaves Mr. Day, a highly decorated former law enforcement person himself, with the decision that he not want but clearly needs to make.

Chief Anemone’s operational analysis points out that the Sheriff claims triple his actual arrest totals, 600 open warrants, calling a fingerprint check on a volunteer firefighter an “investigative case.” Sheriff Falco’s claims that his BCI would be decimated by the proposed cuts, and then we find that this supposedly elite unit has no certification!

County Executive Day sees this as a former police executive, as I see it also. Significant change is needed, as some of the items I pointed out above would have resulted in a NYPD commander being relieved of duty.

As a taxpayer and law enforcement professional, I support Mr. Day’s efforts to return the Sheriff’s department to it’s core mission – protecting county property, civil, and corrections. We cannot afford this unneeded overlap of police services. And Mr. Day has stated that he will work with the Sheriff, the union and the legislature to work through these glaring issues.

Trudy Laforgia
Assistant Chief NYCPD Retired
Former Mount Vernon Police Commish