To the Editor and the citizens of Orange County,
The PBA of NYS will not endorse Bernie Rivers for Sheriff, nor will the Environmental Conservation Officers and Investigators union local support Bernie Rivers in his election for Orange County Sheriff.
Up until 2018, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) hired past directors off of a civil service list derived from a written test. Bernie Rivers failed this civil service test but was appointed the new director of the Division of Law Enforcement (DLE).
While Bernie Rivers’ campaign billboard states “No Scandals or Coverups,” there is a pending discrimination case in Federal Court for his appointment over higher ranking officers that actually did pass the civil service test. If any of those other candidates had actually been appointed, I believe the vast majority of our staffing, attrition, and equipment issues would have been avoided.
Currently, there are approximately 180 field officers in the DLE. Those men and women are sworn state police officers tasked with protecting the people, wildlife, and environment of New York. Those officers cover the entire state twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week protecting the waterways, air, and wildlife of the state. They answer over 22,000 calls for service annually ranging from deer poaching and hazardous material spills to the illegal sale of ivory and harmful emissions from commercial vehicles.
Bernie Rivers was not a friend of labor, or a strong leader. Upon his retirement in 2021, we were at our lowest staffing levels in decades, morale was at an all-time low, and the union had to file more contract grievances and improper practice charges against him than had been filed in the last three decades combined.
Bernie Rivers as a lieutenant, Captain, and Director constantly told the officers to not be involved, to avoid enforcing traffic and penal laws, and often denied assistance to outside police agencies when requested. In the Summer of 2020 during anti-police protests in the City of Albany, Bernie Rivers actually ordered all officers statewide to stay home and avoid interacting with the public.
During Bernie Rivers’ time as director, the number of officers continued to decline, and instead of asking for additional officers or vacancies to be filled by the DEC, he actually only requested twenty of the over sixty-plus vacancies be filled. The majority of field vacancies are now in the downstate region, especially in sensitive environmental justice areas where the poorest and most vulnerable in New York live. At last count, only fourteen officers now patrol all of NYC, down from thirty-two in 2008.
While the role of Sheriff is primarily an administrative position, let us not forget what happened in Uvalde Texas last spring when a School District Police Chief responded to a shooting. In those situations, a strong leader is necessary, which Bernie Rivers is not.
Matthew Krug
Director of Environmental Conservation Officers and Investigators for the PBA of NYS
The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Mid-Hudson News.
