Former MTA Police Chief Announces Bid for Putnam Sheriff
Politics does not belong in law enforcement, according to former MTA Police Chief Kevin McConville, who announced his bid to seek the Republican nomination for Putnam County Sheriff on Thursday, April 4 on the steps of the historic courthouse.
He is looking to oust incumbent Sheriff Don Smith (R-Kent) who has been in office since 2002.
“The role of the sheriff is not about politics and just showing up to events,” said McConville, a 56-year-old lifelong Cold Spring resident. “It is a hands-on job that requires the knowledge of how a law enforcement agency works and how to do it effectively and efficiently.”
McConville thinks the race for sheriff should focus on ideas, law enforcement experience, effectiveness, responsibility and accountability to the taxpayers.
“Who is going to do a better job for sheriff’s department from today forward should be the focus of the race,” said McConville. “The sheriff is a difficult position. You are the chief law enforcement officer in the county so you have to work well with everyone and have everyone on the same page with your agency. It is more than a job, it is more than something you do; it is a lifestyle.”
He added. “You have to get along with everyone. You can disagree on different issues, but you do not publicize those issues.”
McConville, who started his career as a police officer for the Village of Cold Spring and then the Village of Wappingers Falls before his almost 30-year career with the MTA police, believes that he is the best candidate to be sheriff because of his first-hand experience.
“I have been at the head of one of the states’s largest law enforcement agencies,” McConville said. “You have to be accountable, responsible and able to work with everybody. [The MTA police] worked with everybody—local and county police departments as well as state and federal agencies, during my time as chief.”
McConville believes that even though Putnam County has one of the lowest crime rates in the state that now is the time for a change in leadership.
“It is time to have a responsible, accountable and efficient law enforcement leader… one that stays within the budget,” said McConville. “Over the past 10 years, the current sheriff has increased his overtime expenditures from 1.1 million in 2003 to 2.5 million in 2012 or 120 percent. After a dozen years of the current leadership Sheriff Smith has brought us higher expenditures, archaic and ineffective management and a host of questionable practices and behavior.”
McConville stated that during his first 10 months as chief for the MTA police he reduced overtime by 67 percent “without reducing services.”
He credits the county executive and the legislature for keeping the taxes manageable. However, McConville thinks the sheriff has overspent.
“As budget preparations were undertaken in 2012, each county department was asked to reduce their budget by 10 percent, the current Sheriff sought to increase his budget by 1.9 million dollars, which is currently set at 23.8 million dollars,” said McConville. “That is neither responsible nor accountable to those you represent. This is a business that is being run. Even though it is the business of Putnam County it cannot be in the red. It has to break even at the end of the day.”
McConville acknowledges that there are times when an agency has to spend money.
“When the opportunity that you have to spend money because of a true crime or circumstance dictates it you absolutely do, but you have to know what is going on in the agency,” McConville said. “You cannot be doing it from the ‘ivory tower,’ you have to know what is going on at the midnight, 2 a.m., 7 a.m. and during the lulls.”
McConville wants the agency to apply for more grants and use technology to become more efficient.
This is the second time McConville is running for sheriff. In 2009 he ran with the Democratic Party.
“I was always a Republican. I switched parties for the 2009 election because I felt I would have gotten lost running as a Republican with so many other people vying for the line,” said McConville. “By running as a Democrat people were able to hear me and see me. Everything I said in 2009 has come true today: high expenses, lack of leadership and an archaic ineffective management.”
Smith, a 65-year-old Kent resident, who is a retired Army brigadier general, would not comment on the finances of the sheriff’s department. Instead Smith touts how safe Putnam County has been since he has been in office.
“From 2002 to 2011 (the latest year for which statistics are available), the rate of violent crime in Putnam County was reduced by 12.7 percent, the property crime rate was reduced by 36.6 percent and the overall index crime rate was reduced by 35.2percent,” said Smith. “We have achieved this by creating a climate and spirit of teamwork among all law enforcement agencies who, working together, have kept Putnam County the safest county in the Hudson Valley, having among the lowest crime rates of all counties in New York and throughout the entire country.”
Smith said that he is running for re-election because “there is still more work that needs to be done—not only in fighting crime, but in uncovering and excising the cancer of corruption that threatens our beautiful county.”
He would not elaborate on what corruption he was speaking of.
Although Smith has been at odds with some of the elected county officials recently, particularly County Executive MaryEllen Odell and District Attorney Adam Levy, he believes he has the support of the community.
“From the feedback I have received from so many people, I know there is strong grassroots support for my continued service as their sheriff,” said Smith. He also thinks that he best represents the Republican Party.
“While I proudly serve all the citizens of Putnam County, I am also proud of my lifelong affiliation with the Republican Party and I earnestly embrace the values and principles that the Party espouses,” said Smith.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.