קרית יואל פאבליק סעיפטי ווערן קאנסטעבלס

KJ fires chief, opts for safety director

By Chris McKenna
The Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com

Kiryas Joel – Village officials have eliminated the position of security patrol chief and hired a public safety director to oversee their security force.
The shakeup follows an embarrassing incident in November in which it was found that the patrol chief, Mendel Greenberg, had hired a former convict who soon was charged with impersonating a police officer on a traffic stop.
Mayor Abraham Wieder said Greenberg was fired partly because of that episode, among other reasons that he declined to discuss. He did say the village no longer wanted a constable – which he said was technically Greenberg's position – because it comes too close to being a police officer.
Village Clerk Gedalye Szegedin said yesterday that Greenberg had worked for the village for less than two years, patrolling at night.
"Things didn't work out," he said. "Whatever happened, happened. I wish him all the best."
On Nov. 3, Patrick McGrath was charged with impersonating a police officer and illegally carrying a weapon – a police baton – while working as a security officer for the village. He was not supposed to carry a weapon because of his 1993 grand larceny conviction.
McGrath pleaded guilty to the charges after they were reduced from felonies to misdemeanors, and is due to be sentenced April 24.
Kiryas Joel has since hired Moses Witriol as part-time public safety director. He oversees six security officers who patrol the Hasidic village in two cars during Shabbos – from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday – and on Jewish holidays.
State police cover the village of 13,000 people from a Monroe barracks just outside Kiryas Joel. But for at least 15 years, the village has also employed security officers on Shabbos and holidays, when residents don't drive or use phones.
The village now plans to hire more security officers to work weekday nights, when Greenberg used to patrol. Szegedin said officials are concerned about women and children walking home at night from weddings, bar mitzvahs and engagement parties.
At the village's request, Orange County sheriff's deputies have recently patrolled Kiryas Joel to quell fears of a terrorist attack, both during the Jewish holidays after Sept. 11 and during Passover, which ended last week.
This week, the village will apply for a $400,000 state grant to build an emergency command center that would house its ambulance corps, fire department, rescue squad and security force, Szegedin said.