Port Jefferson code officers continue push to carry firearms

Village of Port Jefferson code enforcement officers continue to press their case to carry firearms on duty, even after village officials took steps to clarify their work responsibilities — which officials say do not include carrying weapons.

The union representing the officers, who enforce village codes on parking, littering, peddling and illegal dumping, among other things, says residents haven't been as safe since the village board voted in October to bar employees, including the officers, from carrying firearms while on duty. That vote happened about a month after an unidentified worker left a weapon in a Village Hall bathroom. 

Village officials, including Mayor Lauren Sheprow, say there's no reason for officers to carry guns.

To hammer home the point, the village is removing the word "constables" from code enforcement vehicles and uniforms after finding that the designation created confusion.

Constables are peace officers who can carry weapons, but the code enforcement officers are not constables under state law, village officials say.

Daniel O'Connell, president of the Port Jefferson code enforcement officers unit of CSEA Local 1000, said the union would continue its campaign to arm the officers. He said talks between the union and village officials have failed to reach an agreement on the matter. Village officials said those talks have ended.

“If they want to call us constables, if they want to call us park rangers, they can call us anything they want," O'Connell said in a telephone interview earlier this month. "The important thing for us is that we’re armed.”

Six or seven code officers, including Chief Andrew Owen, resigned or retired after the firearms ban was enacted last fall, Port Jefferson officials said. The village has about 30 officers and plans to add up to 10 more, Sheprow said.

New code enforcement chief

In January, the village named former NYPD Officer Kevin Cooper as code enforcement supervisor to replace Owen.

Sheprow said Cooper knew when he took the job that officers wouldn't be armed. While the village previously did not issue service weapons to code enforcement officers, many carried their personal firearms on the job, officials have said.

Code officers are instructed to call Suffolk County police if they spot possible criminal activity, village officials have said.

Cooper and other candidates for the post “understood absolutely that this code enforcement department is not a militia and they do not need to carry firearms,” Sheprow said March 14 in a phone interview.

Attempts to reach Cooper were unsuccessful.

Sheprow said it's understandable that many village residents and code officers mistakenly believed the officers were constables with police powers, because their cars and uniforms had misidentified their job titles.

At a December village board meeting, the village's labor lawyer, Alyson Mathews, said a code enforcement officer is “not a law enforcement position” and may not make arrests. At the same meeting, former Suffolk County personnel director Alan Schneider, a village consultant, said Port Jefferson is barred under state law from having constables.

Mathews, who works in the Garden City office of the Bond Schoeneck & King law firm, added the village could be on the hook for a multimillion-dollar wrongful-death lawsuit if a code officer discharged a weapon while on duty.

'A deterrent' against crime

O'Connell said he and other code officers feel safer carrying weapons, and he said village residents are better protected by armed officers. 

“Today you have no armed constables. You have no armed people at any of the schools in Port Jefferson,” O'Connell said. “God help us if anything ever happens.”

In a statement, Port Jefferson schools Superintendent Jessica Schmettan said the district receives protection from Suffolk police, as do all school districts in the county.

She added code officers "regardless of the outcome of their current issue with the village, will continue to serve as a deterrent" against crime.

Some Port Jefferson residents said code officers don't need weapons because crime in the village is relatively rare.

Suffolk police said there were 34 reported crimes in Port Jefferson through Nov. 2 last year: 25 larcenies, five assaults, three auto thefts and one burglary.

“There is a code book in the village with all our codes, and that’s what our code enforcement officers have to act on. That’s what their job is: code enforcement," said Barbara Ransome, operations director of the Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, in a phone interview. “There is no need to necessarily have a sidearm.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the law regarding constables and code enforcement officers, and incorrectly described Daniel O'Connell's job title with CSEA Local 1000. The earlier version also incorrectly described the village's hiring of labor lawyer Alyson Mathews and consultant Alan Schneider.

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.