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Well my friends, I am back once again for another edition of The Chief's Corner, a quick roundup of events and happenings in the Suffern Police Department and the great Village of Suffern!
I would like to start off with an update on an incident that we had here in Suffern this past Tuesday evening (Jan. 12.)
We responded to a Park Avenue address for a report of a man who had threatened suicide and we believed through intelligence gathering that a gun was likely present in his apartment. After negotiations broke down with this person we called the Rockland County REACT (SWAT) team ( which our department is part of) for assistance and we took the man into custody safely and without incident.
However, we located both an AK-47 assault rifle, as well as an unlicensed handgun, at this location after obtaining a search warrant.
This man was charged with two felony weapons possession charges, sent to the Rockland County Jail, and given psychological services.
During this incident we sent out a NY Alert phone call to advise residents in the area to avoid this location and unfortunately had a few issues with the notification.
There are two great ways to receive emergency and village information which I want to highlight. The first is through our Nixle account and it is a free service which is obtained by texting the numbers 888777 into your phone and in the subject area put the numbers 10901 (our ZIP code). The second is the NY Alert system which is also free and can be signed up here at the attached link, https://users.nyalert.gov/enroll.
Over the past few weeks we have been conducting a lot of vehicle and traffic enforcement to ensure we can keep our roads as safe as possible. Due to these stops we made several arrests including persons operating vehicles with suspended licenses and suspended registrations, drug arrests, warrant arrests, and more. We will be continuing these efforts for the safety off all.
We also had one of our officers, Billy Simurra, who is a tech sergeant in the U.S. Air Force reserves called up for active combat duties in the Middle East as a member of a flight crew. We wish Billy a safe tour of duty and look forward to his return to Suffern.
At our last Village Board meeting we had two representatives of the NYPD's 52nd Precinct show up and present our department with a plaque of appreciation for all of our efforts in assisting officers’ families when they are killed in the line of duty. We greatly appreciated the plaque and recognition and will always assist others when in need.
On a final note I ask that all residents ensure that they lock their vehicles when unattended. Most of the incidents reported to us when things are taken out of vehicles happen when the vehicles are unlocked.
Have a great, safe week my friends!
Chief Clarke Osborn
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