Putnam Sheriff Issues Directive for Officers to Stay Out of NYC
Putnam County Sheriff Robert Langley Jr. issued a directive this week prohibiting any of the department’s officers from conducting any enforcement activity in New York City.
Langley’s stance was in response to a recent law signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio that made any temporary restraint of a combative subject, such as kneeling, sitting or standing on someone’s back or chest in the course of making an arrest, unlawful and punishable as a misdemeanor.
“Given the likelihood that the restraint of a non-compliant person during the course of effectuating a lawful arrest often requires some type of pressure to the chest or back of the subject for at least a brief period of time and that the New York City Administrative Code Section 10-181 criminalizes such actions without respect to intent or injury, this directive is intended to protect sworn members of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department for actions consistent with their training and Department policy,” Langley stated in a July 20 memo.
Langley stated the only exception for Sheriff’s deputies to go to New York City would be to pick up a prisoner already in the custody of another police agency.
The City of Yonkers and other Westchester County police agencies are also banning their officers from traveling to The Big Apple.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
