PROBLEMS OF POLICING

Schenectady made The New York Times on Friday, with a photo of Police Chief
Greg Kaczmarek sitting atop the lead story on Page B1. It was, of course,
not good news, but a summary of the Police Department's troubles, including
the indictment of four officers (two of whom have pleaded guilty) over the
past couple of years.

That can only reinforce the negative stereotype of Schenectady police as
the Rodney Dangerfields of law enforcement, incapable of winning respect.
Yet the latest statistics from the state Division of Criminal Justice
Services show crime declining by a greater percentage in Schenectady than
in any other Capital Region city - and this in a period after the police
scandal, and when it can safely be assumed that no officers were illegally
trading drugs for information.

After the first two officers were suspended in 1999, and police were
subjected to a firestorm of criticism, the arrest rate in the city went
down. Since then, however, it has gone back up, and the crime rate
continued the track of decline it has been on since 1992. The adverse
effects of the scandal seem to have been overcome within the department, at
least when it comes to officers doing their jobs, which is no small
achievement.

Of course no one should downplay problems within a police department - or
pretend that they are confined to Schenectady's. Last week the Division of
Criminal Justice Services announced it would probe the city of Rensselaer
Police Department, which like Schenectady's has had its difficulties in
recent years. And from many other places, too, come reports of too many
officers drinking too much, hanging out in strip clubs and otherwise giving
evidence of lapses in judgment or character.

But these criticisms do not apply to most officers, who conscientiously do
a demanding, sometimes dangerous and always essential job. And as another,
July 30 New York Times story pointed out, the relentless, broad-brush
criticisms police are routinely subjected to these days have had a
widespread adverse effect on morale, recruitment and retention of good
officers. It will be tragic if the result is an end to reductions in crime.

One of the alleged murderers of Hassan Noorzai, the pizza deliveryman who
was ambushed and killed at Yates Village in Schenectady last year, is now
on trial. The testimony in that case, about the cold-blooded brutality of
the murder, and the drugs purchased with the proceeds of robbing Noorzai,
can serve as reminder of why law-abiding residents and police need to work
together, to keep cutting crime here until the reductions are as dramatic
as they have been in New York City over the past decade.