At Tuesday's City Council meeting, Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen stated, matter of factly, that when Greg Veitch becomes the chief of police it will leave a hole in the upper-end of the department that will need to be filled by other officers.

So it sounds pretty official that Veitch is the new chief, which isn't a surprise. I'm told a press conference or press release will be issued Friday about the transition.

The other part of his statement is also something to pay attention to. When Veitch takes over for Police Chief Chris Cole, who is retiring, it is going to mean that two of the top three positions in the department will be left empty (Assistant Chief and Captain). There are I believe five lieutenants and a handful of sergeants, a couple of whom will likely be moving up in the department.

In the mean time, the City Council just voted to hire two new police. While the only dissenting vote was the mayor, John Franck came to the defense of the cuts that have left the department in a seeming perpetual state of short-staffing.

Mathiesen has long advocated for hiring the officers back who had been laid off in 2010. "It puts too much pressure on the remaining members of the force," he said Tuesday. 

Mathiesen said the cuts were "foolhardy" and "apparently taken lightly," for which Franck told him he was "uneducated" about the issue.

Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan, who (curiously) was the one to propose hiring two new officers, argued that the "magic number" in the department seems to be 72 officers, but Franck said before the layoffs "they were saying they needed 91 officers."

Mathiesen, then, said they may need more than 72.

"72 may bee too low, frankly, given the activity in our city," he said. If he had his druthers, he said, he would hire a consultant to evaluate how many officers the department actually needs.

Many seemed in favor of that, but as Mathiesen has told me in the past, it may cost a good deal of money which could be applied to more important public safety needs.

Maybe with two new officers coming in, though, now will be the time.

UPDATE: At about the same time that Lucian hit publish on this blog post, WNYT ran an exclusive report confirming Cole's retirement. We've since confirmed that news, too, although Cole has not returned numerous phone calls. Here's our story on his retirement and his turbulent 3-1/2-year tenure as police chief: http://www.saratogian.com/articles/2013/04/24/news/doc517850bbc4590888048702.txt
-- Emily

This is a rumor, but one that I have heard from a number of people (people who would know if it were true).

Chief Cole may be retiring from his role at the head of the Saratoga Spring Police Department.

I'm not sure of the reasons.

I have put calls in to: Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen, Deputy Commissioner Eileen Finneran, Cole's office and cell phones but they didn't answer and I haven't heard back.

I did speak to Assistant Chief Greg Veitch, who I hear is the likely successor, but he said he had no comment about the rumors.

He said, however, that he is no longer considering a run for Saratoga County Sheriff, a change from earlier this month when he told me he was.

Police Benevolent Association President Paul Veitch said he too had heard rumors, but would not comment on them.

Civil Service Commission Secretary Patsy Barrigan said her office has not received any letters of resignation or retirement from Cole.

She said a Civil Service list is being compiled from a test in March but won't be done until June. In the meantime, the names of the five people who took it are not public.

Last time around (in June 2011, about a year and a half after Cole's promotion to chief), there were only two people who took the test: Greg Veitch and now-retired Captain Michael Chowske.

Barrigan said Chowske still has time to come out of retirement, though, if he wanted to be considered for the job (but added, "who would want to come out of retirement?")

Like I said, I don't know the reasons, but it has certainly been a tough run for Cole as chief.

He started the job behind the 8-Ball, coming in after seven officers were laid off amid budget concerns and things didn't get better.

He was the focus of a sexting scandal that at a time when Rep. Anthony Weiner's political career was crashing and burning for the same reason. 

Last year the department was roundly criticized for its handling of information following a reported rape on a city street.

More recently there have been a series of high-profile crimes (alleged machete assault, alleged hammer assault, alleged beating of a woman with a BB gun on Granger Avenue, sexual assault and robbery of a woman outside her home on Union Street).

Major crimes, including violent crimes, are up for the third year running (See 2010 Public Safety Annual Report, 2011 Annual report and the recent 2012 Public Safety Annual Report).

Recently Assistant Chief Veitch gave a presentation at a Planning Board meeting to address some of the concerns of the public over safety in the Spa City. 


Anyway, I'll of course be following up on this tomorrow (barring hearing from any of the people I have already called tonight), so stay tuned.