Good evening Madame President and members of the Common Council. | appreciate the opportunity to address this body and answer questions regarding the encampment at Academy Park. First | would like to start by Informing you that in 2010, 152 of your Albany police officers were injured in the line of duty. In 2011 alone, 161Albany police officers were injured while working to keep you, and every other member of this city, safe. Recent events have taught me a lot about who | am, who our officers are, and yes, even who some of you are. | have learned that despite the efforts that our officers make every minute of every day and the risks they take to keep you safe, there are still some of you who are willing to discount that for your own political gain, ‘Asa result of this realization | have decided to remind each and every one of you of the sacrifices your officers make and the suffering they endure. You will hear it from me every time | am required to address this body, regardless of the reason for my presence, From this point forward, you will live with this reality just like | live with it. No other police administration that | can recall in my entire career has worked so hard in such a short period of time to build a positive and prosperous relationship for all of us. The risks of such a bold endeavor were great for a new police chief and a new police administration. The rewards for our city and for those who have for so long felt disenfranchised are still so much greater than the risk. No other police administration or entire police department has worked so hard in such a short period of time to break down the walls separating your officers from our citizens. How unfortunate for our city, that a select few members of this Council continue to work so hard to keep hate and distrust alive in our community. The behavior of some of the members of this body in response to the events that took place in Academy Park was repulsive. The video of a council member so obviously posturing for the cameras at the expense of your officers was an embarrassment. The claims by another council member alleging that he was in ‘Academy Park when the tents were dismantled, when all of us, including the ‘members of this Council, know that claim is untrue, betrays his oath to serve the citizens he represents with integrity.[At the very beginning of the Occupy Albany movement it was the members of the police administration who were leading the dialogue on behalf of the City of Albany. In fact | tasked both my Deputy Chief of Police and my Assistant Chief of Police with this important responsibility. It was through their initial efforts on behalf ofthe city that a dialogue based on mutual respect and trust began. | was encouraged by the decisions that were made early on regarding the protesters and the police. It was always my hope to avoid a confrontation like those experienced in other cities across the country. | was concerned by the suggestion that protesters be ticketed or arrested for violating a long standing and existing city park curfew. The credibility of our department was my top priority and | knew that we did not regularly ticket people for violating curfews in any of the parks in our city. To start then, in response to what was so obviously a nationwide movement, would be disingenuous at best, and at worst, a potential violation of our citizens’ first amendment rights. Our city, like others across the country, struggled with this very issue and from the beginning | felt strongly that it was the responsibility of the courts or the legislature, or both, to provide our department with direction regarding this issue. It was never my desire to direct our officers to take such an important enforcement action when it was clear that more questions than answers stil existed. The police department and the members of Occupy Albany enjoyed a positive relationship until December 22" when members of the City of Albany Department of General Services were directed by the city to enforce a Temporary Restraining Order signed by a superior court judge. The temporary restraining order authorized the removal of tents and other items associated with the encampment. The police department was tasked with providing security while the DGS members began removing the tents. The police department, under my direction, went to great lengths to demonstrate to the protesters, our citizens, that we wanted to avoid any possibility of confrontation.Deputy Chief Reilly walked from City Hall to Academy Park and gathered together the few Occupy Albany members that were there and explained in detail what was going to be taking place. ‘The protesters that were present were given an opportunity to collect their belongings. Deputy Chief Reilly clearly explained that the items belonging to the people who were not in the park at that time were going to be inventoried, catalogued and available for the owners to retrieve at the Department of General Services. The temporary restraining order was posted inside the park and available for review by anyone interested in seeing it. The initial police presence was minimal because | did not want to create a confrontational atmosphere. As more protesters arrived at the park and the crowd began to become increasingly agitated, we slowly increased police presence. During the process of removing the tents, members of DGS were suffering a barrage of insults and threats by several of the protesters. The DGS workers became increasingly concerned for their personal safety and asked for the police to increase their presence around their operations to protect them, Your police officers also endured an ongoing and withering diatribe of hate, vitriol and threats hurled at them by “peaceful” protesters throughout the length of this process. In fact, many members of the media and public still continue to ‘compliment me on the restraint shown by your officers while they endured this barrage of hate. Much ofthis behavior was profiled on our local area media outlets. While the tents within the encampment were being taken down and removed, Mr. Mark Mischler, a local attorney representing Occupy Albany, told the police department that he along with others were going to court immediately to fight the temporary restraining order. Mr. Mischler asked if the department would be willing to save the larger informational tents from being dismantled in the event they were successful in fighting the decision by the court, The department acknowledged that request and agreed to save the dismantling of those tents until the very end. This decision was made because of our willingness to allow their attorneys @ fair opportunity in the courtroom.