Crime and other law enforcement issues were on the agenda during a recent sit-down between Suffolk PBA President Louis Civello and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“We had what I consider a productive dialogue,” said Civello, who took over the reins of the 1,800-member PBA in November. She was willing to listen to every one of my concerns.”
Civello said he made his position clear on various issues, including cashless bail, making police discipline records public, police oversight boards, erroneous and false complaints levied against police officers, and the Tier 6 retirement program, which requires new officers to cover more of their pension, and health care costs than those in previous tiers.
“I think it's important to keep these channels open, to have a dialogue,” Civello said of the Southampton meeting while the governor was on the island to herald the completion of the South Fork Wind Farm. “Of course, we don't agree on everything. But she is the most powerful person in the state, and I think if we're ever going to get anything changed, we will need her support,” he said, adding, “I don’t want to get into what she supports and doesn’t support; that’s for her to speak about.”
The meeting came as the state is in the grips of a crime wave officials say is the result of the cashless bail system that Hochul supports and the pro-criminal, anti-law enforcement agenda of the Progressive Democrats who control the levers of power in Albany. Controversy over the state’s criminal justice system was reignited when Hochul recently called in the National Guard to protect New York City subway riders from assailants, and four Suffolk residents were released without bail after being arrested for mutilating two bodies and hiding the parts in local parks.