Opinion ID: 745321
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Putnam County Police Act

Text: 37 The plaintiffs also relied on the Putnam County Police Act in the court below, and renew their arguments relating to it here. The Act provides, in pertinent part, the following:§ 1. Establishment, organization and operation of police departments in all towns in the county of Putnam. Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, the establishment, organization and operation and all matters concerning police or police departments in all towns in the county of Putnam shall be governed by the provisions of this act. 38 § 2. Establishment of town police department. The town board of any town in Putnam county which now has a police force or police department, or employs a police officer or police officers ... or which hereafter employs such police officer or police officers ... shall establish a police department and may appoint a chief of police, and such lieutenants, sergeants and patrolmen as may be needed and fix their compensation. 39 1941 Laws of New York, Ch. 610. The plaintiffs argue that this Act requires every town in Putnam County to have a police force. 40 This act uses the phrase employs a police officer distinctly from the phrase establishes a police department, yet the plaintiffs' interpretation would equate the two phrases. We read the statute as stating that if a town in Putnam County has a police force of any sort, then it must have a police department, i.e., a division of local government dedicated to the policing function. If the town Board passes the threatened bill, there will be no police employed by the Town of Putnam Valley, and so the Putnam Valley Police Act will not apply to Putnam Valley. We therefore reject the plaintiffs' argument that the Putnam County Police Act is an obstacle to the defendants' threatened action.