POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess County Sheriff Kirk Imperati is preparing a plan to start a Humane Law Enforcement unit within his office. Undersheriff Jason Mark said the proposal will be introduced to the Dutchess County Legislature during the 2024 budget process.
Humane Law Enforcement (HLE) officers are certified peace officers according to New York State law. While they routinely wear police-style attire, including firearms, the officers only undergo 35 hours of training, compared to the several months of law enforcement training that police officers must undergo.
The HLE officers are tasked with handling complaints regarding animals in which criminal behavior is suspected, such as abuse or neglect under state agriculture law.
In Dutchess County, the SPCA HLE officers investigate complaints with the assistance of the sheriff’s office. To that end, according to Undersheriff Mark, the process can be streamlined by having specially trained members of the sheriff’s office handle humane complaints from start to finish.
“We have the available staff, we are a 24-hour law enforcement agency throughout the county, and our detective bureau already handles humane law enforcement investigations received by the Dutchess County SPCA. We are in a position to provide humane law enforcement services throughout the county,” he said, noting that the sheriff’s office is already training officers from other police agencies in the county to become HLE officers. “We are not looking to take over animal control duties,” the undersheriff said. “The DCSPCA has contracts with several municipalities to provide those services and other municipalities, such as the City of Poughkeepsie, have their animal control officers.” Animal control officers handle complaints including loose or stray animals compared to HLE officers who deal with criminal behavior including animal abuse.
One aspect of animal cruelty and animal abuse is already monitored by the sheriff’s office; the Dutchess County Animal Abuse Registry, enacted in 2019. People who have committed serious animal welfare crimes are prohibited from owning or living with an animal for a period of 15 years and to be listed on the Dutchess County Sheriff’s website to restrict their ability to obtain an animal.
Any individual convicted of an animal abuse crime after September 16, 2019 and residing in the County of Dutchess must register with the sheriff’s office, and will appear on this registry.
