Documents Regarding Albany Police Officers Slain in the Line of Duty

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New York State Freedom of Information Law (1977 N.Y. Laws ch. 933), I hereby request the following records:

Documents pertaining to the failure of the City of Albany Police Department under Chief Steven Krokoff to properly memorialize City of Albany Police Officers killed in the line of duty, failing to properly memorialize them on the City of Albany website and on the NYS Police Officers Memorial in Albany. If my request appears to be extensive or fails to reasonably describe the records, please contact me in writing via Muckrock.com.

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"Please take a moment to read their stories and remember their sacrifice to our community."
http://albanyny.gov/Government/Departments/Police/Memorials.aspx

Most of the links for the stories of City of Albany police officers killed in the line of duty have not been working in recent years, which does not provide much opportunity to remember those police officers' sacrifices for the community. The one link that did work http://albanyny.gov/Government/Departments/Police/Memorials/DetectiveKennethWilcox.aspx , what was supposed to be a story memorializing fallen officer Kenneth Wilcox, instead has been blank or has read "Page under construction", presumably from 2006 (demonstrably from 2008 http://web.archive.org/web/20080829083446/http://www.albanyny.gov/Government/Departments/Police/Memorials/DetectiveKennethWilcox.aspx ) to 2013. The URL now provides an error message instead of reading "Page under construction".

Links to the officers' stories that did work in recent years could be found with some effort much further down the page in a sidebar. However, that website visitors would look that far after finding that the all but one of the prominent links near the top of the page didn't work and that the one link that did work led to a "Page under construction" makes it unlikely that the working links were found by many people.

http://albanyny.gov/Government/Departments/Police/Memorials/Keyes.aspx for example, archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20101016120352/http://albanyny.gov/Government/Departments/Police/Memorials/Keyes.aspx did in fact provide the opportunity to read the fallen officer's story. The page is now at http://www.albanyny.gov/Government/Departments/PublicSafety/PoliceDepartment/Memorials/Keyes.aspx However the main Police Memorial page at http://www.albanyny.gov/Government/Departments/PublicSafety/PoliceDepartment/Memorials.aspx links instead to http://www.apdonline.org/police/memorial/keyes.htm which has not worked for some time - possibly not since 2005: http://web.archive.org/web/20050217024443/http://www.apdonline.org/Police/memorial/keyes.htm As Steven Krokoff was appointed Chief of Police in 2010, it is possible that City of Albany Police Officers slain in the line of duty have not been properly memorialized on the City of Albany website for the entire duration of his employment as chief.

The NYS Police Officers Memorial in Albany is intended for "honoring and properly reflecting the duty, dignity and devotion of the police officers of New York State who are slain in the line of duty" http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/ops/docs/pomc/eligibility_inclusion_guidelines.pdf The City of Albany Police have seemingly not submitted the names of any such officers who died prior to 1935 (none prior to that date are mentioned on the City of Albany Police Department's website or the NYS memorial) and has the City of Albany Police have not responded to communications regarding properly memorializing Patrolman Frederick Biehler (d. 1889 http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=105016630 ). The submission of the name of a City of Albany Police Officer can come only from the City of Albany Police Department, a state of affairs that is unfortunate when the City of Albany Police Department fail to respond to calls for help from the public about memorializing fallen officers, e.g. "Albany Patrolman Fred Biehler, d. 1889, Fisher Cemetery in Bethlehem?, cont." January 8, 2013 12:05:26 AM EST which had been sent to police@albany-ny.org and to Chief Steven Krokoff <officeofthechief@albany-ny.org>. Town of Bethlehem Supervisor John Clarkson in e-mails in March 2013 indicated that Town of Bethlehem Police Chief Louis Corsi would reach out to Chief Krokoff to properly memorialize Patrolman Biehler (who is interred in the Town of Bethlehem) and that the Town of Bethlehem would follow up with Chief Krokoff in April 2013 or so if need be. Even after Supervisor Clarkson and Chief Corsi tried to encourage Chief Krokoff to properly memorialize a City of Albany Police Officer slain in the line of duty Chief Krokoff has evidently elected not to do so, just as the links for the stories of other fallen City of Albany Police Officers continue not to work.

Chief Krokoff's apparent lack of concern for the publics' desire to see to the proper memorialization of fallen officers is not unique. Chief Krokoff has failed to consider the public with respect to other serious matters, being grossly out-of-touch with the operations of his department and unfamiliar even with the approximate size of the community he is supposed to serve and protect :

"Albany Police Chief Steven Krokoff was surprised to find out that his officers have conducted some 655 strip searches dating back to January of 2009".
TU Editorial Board. "Why so many strip searches?" Albany Times Union. December 12, 2012. http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/why-so-many-strip-searches/23305/

"'I'm looking into our handling of it,' Police Chief Steven Krokoff said".
Lyons, Brendan J. "Cops chided in finger-biting case; Victim says police slow to probe attack that nearly cost her finger." Albany Times Union. January 31, 2013.http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Cops-chided-in-finger-biting-case-4236663.php

"Police Chief Steven Krokoff says his department was 'insensitive' when it conducted a training exercise that involved police firing blank ammunition and using flash grenades near occupied apartments at the Ida J. Yarbrough Homes.
"The chief said the department will review how it conducts 'neighborhood-based training' after Thursday's operation drew criticism from residents who said they were frightened by a chaotic scene that seemed real to them.
"Krokoff released a statement as photos of the incident spread on Facebook. The pictures showed armed officers in tactical gear as well as fake blood and spent shell casings that were left behind at part of the public housing complex that is now deserted and slated for demolition."
Stanforth, Lauren. "Police training exercise draws criticism; Residents of Ida Yarbrough describe explosions and gunfire; chief apologizes." Albany Times Union. March 25, 2013. http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Police-training-exercise-draws-criticism-4379839.php

"Q [Steve Barnes]: Pop quiz: Geographically, in square miles, how big is the city of Albany?
"A [Steven Krokoff]: 60?
"Q: It's 21.8
"A: Shoot. I knew that.
"Q: Wasn't it on the chief's exam?
"A: Yeah, sure. [...]
"Q: Pop quiz: How many 'likes' does the Albany Police Department's Facebook page have?
"A: Just above 8,000.
"Q: Wow — it's 8,104 as of this morning.
"A: That's something I follow."
Barnes, Steve. "Conversing with Steven Krokoff, Albany's top cop." Albany Times Union. April 18, 2013. http://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/article/Conversing-with-Steven-Krokoff-Albany-s-top-cop-4445351.php

Begin forwarded message [line breaks in e-mail removed]:
Subject: outdated/incorrect sexual offender registry information?
Date: October 1, 2012 11:24:11 PM EDT
To: police@albany-ny.org
When the Times Union was distributing the number for the Golden Chicken Pizzeria 438-8000 instead of the number for the Albany Police Department 438-4000 in the Pine Hills/SUNY rape case articles, Albany Police were able to get the TU to fix it, when the Times Union had simply ignored my e-mail about it.
Perhaps you'd be able to get this fixed as well:
(1) The University at Albany Sexual Offender Registry at http://police.albany.edu/SOR2.shtml states:
"There are currently three (4) registered sex offenders enrolled or working at the University. The following Information has been released:"
and then actually lists six (6) sex offenders. The copyright in small gray text at the bottom left of the page is 2009.
(2) The University at Albany Sexual Offender Registry at http://police.albany.edu/2ColPage.asp?PageSName=SOR2 states:
"There are currently two (2) registered sex offenders enrolled at the University. The following Information has been released:"
and then actually lists three (3) registered sex offenders. There's no date on the page, but I think it might be from 2007 or 2008.
The Directory at http://www.albany.edu/directories.php only lists faculty and staff, but there's a directory within UA Mail that includes everyone. [Three people] aren't in the directory. I don't know if it's possible people for people to have themselves removed from the directory; it could be they're no longer at the university, in which case their information really ought to be removed. Probably legally must be removed, I'd think.
There's three [people sharing the same name as someone on the registry] in the UA Mail directory, each with a different middle initial. Regardless of which [...] is teaching [...], probably a middle initial ought to be included.
I had contacted the Office of Sex Offender Management/Sex Offender Registry http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/nsor/contact_sor.htm at infodcjs@dcjs.ny.gov on Thursday, September 27, 2012 but as yet have received no reply and the information has not been corrected. At that time I'd only seen the first registry, not the second, older one.
Possibly UPD ought to put a date on each of their pages indicating when it was last updated, and perhaps even identify by whom it was last updated.
Hope you're able to meet with as much success with this matter.
Thanks,
Christopher K. Philippo

Some of the above-mentioned problems with the Sexual Offender Registries at the University at Albany, a university from which Chief Krokoff has a degree and had been pursuing a second degree, and where he has evidently spoken and been honored http://www.albany.edu/burton_lecture/bio-krokoff.php , continued to exist on into 2013 — months after the City of Albany Police failed to respond to the above e-mail alerting them to the problems.

• Sexual Offender Registry #1 "© 2009 University at Albany"
"There are currently three (4) [sic] registered sex offenders enrolled or working at the University. The following Information has been released:" was followed by a list of six (6) offenders.
Accessed: October 19, 2012 Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6BXAjbUOP
Accessed: February 19, 2013 Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6EZ55k2vF (it still read © 2009 at that time)

• Sexual Offender Registry #2 No date (probably circa 2007-2008)
"There are currently two (2) registered sex offenders enrolled at the University. The following Information has been released:" was followed by a list of three (3) offenders. Accessed: October 19, 2012 Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6BXAsiiOT
http://police.albany.edu/2ColPage.asp?PageSName=SOR2 now redirects to UPD's homepage

There had been an audit by the NYS Comptroller's Office in 2007 with a follow-up in 2009 http://osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093009/07s121.htm which found a number of problems, but it evidently failed to take note of the obvious mismanagement of the sexual offender registry.

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I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Christopher Philippo

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 12, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #W001520-091213.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 12, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #W001520-091213.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Sept. 12, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #W001520-091213.

Thank you for your help.

FOIL NO: W001520-091213

Dear MuckRock MuckRock,

Your request is hereby denied for the following reasons:

The information that you provided regarding your FOIL request is unclear, please be more specific in your request. It does not apprear that you are requesting specific records.

Any person denied access to records may appeal the denial in writing within 30 days. Such appeals should be addressed to:

Appeals Officer
Andrew Wood
City Hall, Room 109
Albany, NY 12207

Please specify the provisions of the law under which you are filing the appeal. An appeal must be decided in writing within 10 business days of the receipt of the notice of appeal.

Sincerely,

Mr. Nala R. Woodard
Records Access Officer