Changes improve Saratoga Springs police station

Crime victims and witnesses now have a more private place to talk to city police officers, and in the coming months police will have special rooms to question suspects, equipped with video cameras.

The small office used by Sandy Arpei, a civilian police department employee who manages records and handles fingerprinting, was recently converted to a questioning area with a desk, a computer and a few chairs.

For years, some witnesses and victims were questioned while sitting on a bench in the public hallway outside the police station, across from vending machines that everyone in City Hall used and near a high-traffic stairway.

The bench was cited by people advocating for a new police department, including the former Commissioner of Public Safety, Ron Kim, who said there was no room to move the bench inside the aging, cramped 1871 police station.

Richard Wirth, the current commissioner, promised during his campaign last year he would fix the situation if he were elected.

“It always bothered me,” Wirth said of the bench, adding it afforded victims no privacy or dignity.

The bench is still in the hallway for people to sit and wait for an officer, but police officers no longer need to interview people there in plain view of anyone walking past.

The new 100-square-foot witness area inside the station is not completely confidential — sometimes officers sit in the next room, and there is no door between the rooms. But it’s much more private than the hallway bench, Wirth said.

And best of all, it was free.

“We didn’t have to put a penny into it,” Wirth said.

He will ask the Department of Public Works to install a partition to close off the room later, which will cost some taxpayer money.

Police administrators are working on creating interview rooms for suspects, another feature of modern police stations that the city office lacks.

Currently, suspects are interviewed at an investigator’s desk, often with another investigator working on another case and perhaps talking to a witness just a few feet away.

It’s not an ideal questioning spot, said Chief Christopher Cole.

“There’s phones ringing. There’s people walking by.”

The changes will make way for two-way mirrors and video cameras.

The state will mandate such cameras during questioning in the near future, Cole said.

The two interview rooms will be located in the former juvenile aid department downstairs from the police department. Budget cuts at the beginning of this year meant juvenile investigators were merged with the rest of the investigation division, and some former juvenile officers were put on patrol.

Audio and video equipment will cost $6,000 for each room, Catone said.

Police supervisors will attend a training on the video equipment next week.

The city has not budgeted funds to buy the cameras but may be able to use federal asset forfeiture funds, Cole said.

Cameras do benefit investigators by offering up evidence at trial, Cole said.

“It takes out a lot of the guessing game when you go to a trial,” he said. “It takes a lot of the pressure sometimes off the investigators.”

The renovated area also will house a juvenile interview room that meets state requirements for minors to have their own bathroom and a separate entrance from adult offenders.

Although the adult questioning rooms will be on the same floor, officials said they would not bring a child down for questioning unless there were no adult offenders in the rooms.

Interviews with juvenile offenders are never taped, Cole said.

The Department of Public Works also recently renovated a former evidence room off the open investigators’ office area into an office for Sgt. John Catone, who used to head up the juvenile investigation unit and had an office downstairs.

“We have all our investigators in one place,” Cole said.

Categories: Uncategorized