NEWBURGH – Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler told local residents that Orange County has statistics showing evidence there is no systemic police misconduct or use of excessive force problem occurring in the county.
This assertion came, Friday morning, at a Coffee with the DA event following nights of rioting in Philadelphia resulting from police shooting a civilian there.
Hoovler said he believes the shooting in Philadelphia to be isolated and in general, large cities have very different policing than is present in Orange County.
He said there were over 200,000 calls for service last year and only five incidences resulted in the DA’s office investigating. Out of those five, he said all of the officers were found to have acted appropriately.
“The numbers, when you look at Orange County, don’t say that there is a systemic, excessive force problem, do not give you the picture that there is a systemic problem of malfeasance, nonfeasance, or conduct unbecoming. Do you always have a case where there’s one officer acts improperly in a situation- yea, that can happen all the time,” said Hoovler.
Specifically, what the DA’s office and social justice advocates are looking to correct are issues of malfeasance, nonfeasance, unbecoming conduct and excessive force, which they colloquially call the “Big Four.” These categorizations cover direct violation of duty and procedure, or lack to perform duty and procedure, with the exception of unbecoming conduct. Hoovler said this is why finding officers have been disciplined multiple times, without explanation, can paint a deceptive image.
“If an officer gets disciplined because they continually wreck a car, that’s not an issue that we’re here to really talk about, or an officer gets disciplined because their uniform is dirty, or their car,” said Hoovler. “That’s a different issue all together. We’re here to talk about the big four,” he said.
Hoovler maintains that the Orange County DA’s office is very concerned with public transparency and cited their releasing of video evidence to the public in a recent use of force investigation in the City of Newburgh.
Hoovler said over the next seven to eight months, he plans to visit every village and town in the county for a Coffee with the DA event where residents can come and speak with him directly about any concerns they have pertaining to law enforcement, or the DA’s office.
