POUGHKEEPSIE – Many people in the community have come to know “Captain Rich Wilson” from the Poughkeepsie Police Department because he has served the department for 30 years. With the recent retirement of Chief Tom Pape, Mayor Yvonne Flowers tapped Wilson to serve as the Interim Police Chief of the department in late May.
At a recent Procedural Justice Committee meeting which was open to the public, Wilson provided insight into his background now that he is serving as the chief.
Wilson’s first job, the audience at Beulah Baptist Church learned, was as a camp counselor at a city park in Poughkeepsie in his younger days. He also coached baseball at Spratt Park and has lived in either the City or Town of Poughkeepsie his entire life.
Wilson and his wife, a retired New York State Trooper, have been married for 27 years and they have two children; one is a recent college graduate and the younger is pursuing a nursing degree at a college in Pennsylvania.
Wilson’s law enforcement career he says, began as a dispatcher for the city. In 1994 he became a sworn police officer, noting that when he was hired there were 76 officers on the job, compared to the current 68 officers. “It’s amazing that I’m standing here struggling with manpower just as we were 30 years ago when I got hired.”
Contractually, the city is supposed to have 96 sworn police officers but that number has fallen below 70 officers in the past two years.
Wilson has experience in several units within the police department, including the Community Policing Unit, where he served as a sergeant for a decade. He described the transition from patrol officer to community policing as challenging, describing himself as a “go-getter police officer with zero tolerance, who had a lot to learn about community policing.” He admittedly did, saying “I quickly understood the collaborations and relationships with the community were the best way to combat crime.”
At the forum, Wilson introduced Lieutenant John Zeltman and Lieutenant Sean McCarthy, both of whom are the force behind the police department’s Procedural Justice training. With the recent retirements in the command staff, Wilson says Zeltman is moving to a Captain position and McCarty will move from uniform to the Detective Lieutenant position to replace Detective Lieutenant Matt Clark, who is retiring in July.
“It’s going to take the three of us to move this department forward,” Wilson said confidently.
