Albany leaders discuss disconnect with the community amid protests, pandemic

ALBANY NY (WRGB) - Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins says his officers have been working around the clock in response to recent riots in the city.

“We’ve got a guy who worked almost 24 hours straight,” Hawkins said. "We’ve got others who work a shift, go home and sleep for a couple hours, then come back. Incredibly dedicated and committed and I’m very proud of them."

Monday night, Hawkins was out himself speaking with protesters and listening to their concerns.

But he says right now, the department has 56 open officer positions.

He says they have 19 beat officers in the neighborhood engagement unit.

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While Hawkins says that number hasn’t changed during the pandemic, he says they did have to minimize contact with the community.

“Their responsibilities and duties changed a little bit in the immediate aftermath for health and safety reasons because we didn’t know what type of risk they, or the people they were serving, were facing,” he explained.

I asked Hawkins if he would like to have more beat officers to help improve the relationship between police and the community.

He responded, “Yes, absolutely I would love to have more beat officers. I think we have a finite amount of resources and we have a seemingly unlimited demand for those resources from our community and rightfully so. They deserve the best.”

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I then asked the Chief if he planned to have any of the 56 open positions devoted to more beat officers.

“Right now, no, we’re not planning on allocating those to beat officers. But all those new officers will be required to work with our beat officers. They’re going to be required to go out and walk a beat,” he answered.

Mayor Kathy Sheehan was walking her own beat today, stopping to speak with neighbors, and explain to business owners impacted by the riots how they can get funding for repairs not covered by insurance.

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“With everything that’s been going on, I just wanted to take an hour out of my day to go business to business, talk to owners, find out if they have any other concerns, any other ways that we can help, and just hear from them about what they’re hearing and seeing in the community,” Sheehan said.

Just like with police, Sheehan says because of the pandemic it’s been a challenge for elected officials to have meaningful face to face dialogues to address concerns, fears, and pain felt deeply by so many right now.

“We’ve really gone three months without public forums, without neighborhood association meetings, without the opportunity to address concerns that people have at the time that they have them,” she said.

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