Please find and view the most up to date news and information regarding the Town of New Windsor Police Department listed below.
The New Windsor Police Department recently established a Bicycle Patrol unit. This unit consists of 6 Police Officers that were specially chosen and trained for this assignment. They have all attended graduated from the NYS Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) Law Enforcement Bicycle Patrol Course. This 5-day course was designed as an entry level training for law enforcement personnel utilizing specialized mountain bikes for patrol activities. The course combines classroom training (such as vehicle & traffic law and bicycle safety, performance and maintenance) with practical application exercises (such as mock scenarios, obstacle negotiation, dismounts, take downs, suspect contact and tactical response with firearms). Students learned cycling techniques involving obstacles such as stairs, curbs, parking lots and off-road trails. Members of the New Windsor Police Bicycle Patrol Unit are: Officer Arcaro, Officer Gagliardo, Officer Fayo, Officer Lake, Officer Lubarsky, and Officer Vega.
The New Windsor Police Department conducted Holiday Patrols in the commercial areas of town during the month of December 2020. This increased patrol initiative consisted of uniformed officers in marked police cars, as well as less obvious patrols of detectives in unmarked police cars. The patrols occurred in and around the Vails Gate commercial area, as well as other strip mall and convenience store locations in Town. The overall purpose of these highly visible Holiday Patrols is to deter robberies and larcenies from occurring and to increase the overall safety of shoppers in town. The Holiday Patrol Initiative proved to very successful again this holiday season. In the commercial areas where the patrols occurred, there were no robberies and only four (4) larcenies reported for the whole month of December 2020. Additionally, all four larceny cases resulted in an arrest and they were all shoplifting related. Police Chief Robert Doss stated, “Historically across the country, law enforcement sees an increase in robberies and larcenies during the holiday season and we simply will not allow this to happen here. 2020 marked our third holiday season in a row where we conducted these type of high visibility patrols. Impressively and once again, our efforts showed an overall decrease in these type of incidents. I think it is so very important that people coming to New Windsor to visit our businesses feel safe and I think we accomplished this. The success of the Holiday Patrol initiative is a direct result of the hard work of our officers and detectives and I appreciate all their efforts.” It should also be noted that these patrols were conducted at no additional cost to the taxpayers.
What a great afternoon it was for Chief Doss and Officer Arcaro on their bicycle patrol.
15 miles, 3 hours, 6 bottles of water and many great interactions with the community. That’s what we call a successful bicycle patrol!
Chief Robert Doss commented, “I want to thank everyone who stopped and talked with us today. I was truly overwhelmed by the welcome we received as we rode through the neighborhoods. This is what community policing is all about. The bicycle patrols we recently implemented have not only made the town safer but they have shown to be a great mechanism to bring our police officers closer to the community in a way that promotes positive interactions. This is so important when it comes to the level of trust and legitimacy people have in their police force.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE #23-10 Issued on: 06/09/23
On June 30, 2023 New Windsor Police Officer Brian Levy and K-9 Marty graduated from the Police Canine Patrol School that was hosted by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. The school consisted of 16 weeks of hands-on training where the officer and the K-9 were instructed in obedience, agility, evidence recovery, criminal apprehension, and searching for suspects and missing persons.
Officer Levy and K-9 Marty were already certified in explosive detection and are capable of indicating on 21 explosive odors. Officer Levy has been serving with the New Windsor Police Department since 2017. He is a proactive member of the department and has served in the Community Policing Unit and the Bicycle Patrol Unit. He was recognized as the Department’s 2020 Officer of the Year.
K-9 Marty is a two-year-old German Shepherd, imported from the Slavic Republic. He was named after former New Windsor Police Detective Marty Mitchetti Jr. who passed away in 2005. Detective Mitchetti was a canine handler at the time of his death.
New Windsor Police Chief Robert L. Doss recently hosted several members of the town’s Community Advisory Panel at a training session at the Police Department’s firearms range. The panel was established April 1, 2021 as a result of New York State’s Police Reform and Reinvention process. Part of the mission of the Community Advisory Panel is to plan, attend and participate in certain police trainings to make recommendations to the Police Department on how to better serve and engage the community. This training session focused around officers receiving reality-based situational training and de-escalation techniques. The officers also received use of force training along with pistol proficiency and qualification training. Chief Robert Doss commented, “The experience of having the Community Advisory Panel members at the range and interacting with our officers was such a great thing to see. This is just a first step of many that I have planned to bring the Police Department closer with the community that we serve. It is so important for people to see how we train and understand why we train the way that we do. The panel’s involvement will become a great way to ensure we are meeting the communities needs and expectations.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE #23-06 Issued on: May 15, 2023
This year, in honor of Police Week, New Windsor Police Chief Dan Valeri, along with Lieutenant Matt Monahan, Sergeant Hannah Lake, PBA President Frank Volpe and School Safety Officer Hardy Pierce, participated in this year’s Virtual National Police Week Memorial 5K – a race uniting thousands of law enforcement officers and their supporters to remember those officers killed in the line of duty. Chief Valeri ran in honor of Sergeant Vincent Oliva and Officer John Cortazzo of the Port Authority Police Department, both of whom died as a result of illnesses sustained during the rescue and recovery efforts following the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Chief Valeri was a classmate of Cortazzo and a student of Oliva when he attended the Port Authority Police Explosive Detection Canine School in 2001. Lt. Monahan ran in honor of NYPD Officer Patrick Monroe who died as a result of cancer that he developed following his assignment to the search and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Officer Monroe was the uncle of New Windsor Officer Joseph Finnerty. Sgt. Lake dedicated her run to the memory of NYPD Detective Michael Hanson. Det. Hanson died of a neurological illness which was likely attributed to his response to the 9/11 World Trade Center Attack. His family is still awaiting the line of duty death designation. Officer Pierce, who is assigned as the School Safety Officer at the Little Britain Elementary School, ran with school employees Todd Grodin, Marisa Sitko, Lindsey Krause and Jeanna Santagato, who chose to join his team for the event. Together they ran in honor of Officer Breann Leath. Officer Leath was an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer who was shot and killed on April 9, 2020 while responding to a domestic disturbance. In addition to honoring the fallen officers, Chief Valeri created the team to participate in this year’s event to promote wellness and unity within the department. He also ran the 3.1 miles in his department issued bulletproof vest as a reminder to officers that there is no good reason not to wear their body armor. The National Police Week 5K is presented by The Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP), a non-profit organization dedicated to honoring America’s fallen law enforcement heroes. As the largest law enforcement memorial in the United States, ODMP preserves the memories of 26,000+ fallen officers in its online memorial and reflection pages.
[PHOTO CAPTIONS] NWPD team members (left to right) Lt. Monahan, Chief Valeri, Sgt. Lake and PBA President Volpe. Little Britain School team members (left to right) Todd Grodin, Marisa Sitko, Lindsey Krause, Jeanna Santagato and School Safety Officer Hardy Pierce.
This morning, Officer Joseph Bell and K9 Duke graduated from Canine Patrol School after 16-weeks of training in obedience, agility, criminal apprehension, handler protection, tracking and article searches. A very special thank you to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Carl Dubois for hosting the school and to 1st Sergeant Dustin Palen for running the school and sharing his knowledge. Congratulations to all the police K9 teams that graduated. We are very excited for Officer Bell and K9 Duke to finally be out on patrol interacting with the community as they keep everyone safe.