Auxiliary police era ends in Orange

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Auxiliary police era ends in Orange

Last two towns' squads disband, leaving only memories

By Michael Randall

Times Herald-Record

December 19, 2007

NEW WINDSOR — An era ended, quietly, when the auxiliary police squads in New Windsor and Cornwall were disbanded recently.

They were the last auxiliary squads in Orange County towns.

The state Department of Criminal Justice Services directed that counties now must certify the training for auxiliary police.

That, more than the dwindling number of auxiliary squad members — fewer than 10 in each town — was the primary reason for doing away with them.

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What services do Auxillary Police provide?

[Guest]

Most Auxiliary police agencies serve as the "eyes and ears" of the paid side of the department. They do traffic direction and crowd control at large events so that the sworn police officers are free to patrol and do other, more traditional police duties. In cases of state/county/city/village emergency, they can be called up to assist the police force. Most of these guys are sworn peace officers, and although they get firearm training, they generally don't get to carry.

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The Aux Police Officers in the New Windsor PD would assist with traffic at Town events such as the concerts held at the Town Hall in the summer time, at the County Fire Parade that was held back in September and when other communities needed extra officers for traffic control. During the Holidays they would patrol the busy parking lots of the stores in Vails Gate. They would assist in traffic control, help motorists who locked their keys in their cars or who may need their car jumpstarted, they would get people to move their cars out of the fire lanes and overall, their presence would help deter crime. Seeing someone in a police uniform patrolling a parking lot would make a "would be ciminal" think twice about committing a crime. These Aux Officers were armed and their uniform was very similar to a regular NWPD officers uniform. Their badges were different and their department patch had "AUX" at the bottom of it where it comes to a point. From any distance, the average person could not tell the difference between a regular officer and an aux officer.

All of the Aux Officers carried the same firearm as the regular officers, they were trained by the NWPD Firearms instructors and they had to re-qualify every year. They wore the same body armor as the police officers. They were all certified "Peace Officers". They never patrolled the Town on their own. They were always paired up with a regular full time police officer. They assisted on traffic stops and any calls that the regular units answered. When they were off duty, they didnt have any powers of arrest and they couldnt carry their firearms via their shield. They had to have NYS Pistol Permits to carry outside of "work".