September 2, 2010, Albany, NY — Andre Claridge of PC Public Affairs announced today that Governor Paterson has vetoed a bill that would have given NYS University Police Officers the right to transfer to other police forces and departments.
“This is a major disappointment for the hard working men and women of the University Police Officers Union,” said Claridge. “The police transfer bill means a lot to them and I am sure Assemblyman Canestrari and Senator Craig Johnson are as confused as we are as to why Governor Paterson would veto a bill he voted for when he was Senator.”
The legislation would amend the civil service law to include New York State University Police Officers in the provisions of the law which allow police officers to transfer from one police force or department to another [Section 58 (4) of the Civil Service Law] without having to take another civil service examination. The legislation seeks to correct a legislative oversight by granting the New York State University Police Officers parity with other police officers in New York State who currently have the right to make lateral transfers to other police forces or departments without having to take another civil service exam.
New York State University Police Officers have been unfairly prevented from making lateral transfers even though they take and are hired from the same competitive civil service exams taken by municipal police officers, complete the same health and psychological exams prescribed and conducted by the New York State Department of Civil Service and must pass the same physical fitness exams administered by the Department of Criminal Justice Services to municipal police officers in New York State.
The legislation does not require a police agency to hire an officer applying for a lateral transfer; it merely gives the officers the right to make application to a different police agency without being unfairly penalized by having to take the civil service exam more than once for a position of equal standards. In addition, the legislation would allow police officers from other departments to transfer into the SUNY police force. The legislation would only apply to those officers who meet all required employer standards.
“The original law which granted police officer status to SUNY Police Officers (Chapter 424 of the laws of 1998) should have included a provision to allow them to make lateral transfers,” said Claridge. “This legislation merely addresses one of a handful of legislative oversights created by the original law which gave police officer status to SUNY police officers.”
“We are truly perplexed by the Governor’s action,” said Claridge. “I’ve been in meetings with the Governor where he has expressed concern over laws that treated groups of people unfairly, this would have been an opportunity for him to correct one of those injustices.”
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