Nice Work If You Can Get It!

The Albany Times Union newspaper ran an article on May 7th regarding an officer in our Hudson Police Department by the name of Jacob Hoffman.  Written by Roger Gilson and Emilie Munson, it is titled Hudson Police Officer Investigated Four Times In Five Years.  Taken together, the officer's misdeeds are astounding.  More astounding is the fact that Hoffman is still a paid Hudson cop, though an inactive one.  I will offer some quotes from the article.

"At the conclusion of the investigation, Hoffman was suspended without pay for 14 days for violating 10 department policies.  He also received a letter of reprimand from Chief Moore."  This investigation, ending in 2020, had to do with Hoffman leaving behind several personal guns and boxes of ammo in an unlocked locker in the former police station on Warren Street, the weapons having been discovered at least 18 months after HPD had moved to Union Street.  One of the guns was loaded, and one was unregistered.

Another internal investigation in late 2020 found Hoffman to be driving an unregistered personal vehicle and having an expired driver's license.  Here is how he responded when a fellow officer asked him why he wasn't complying with motor vehicle requirements: "Seriously, it's the three hour wait just to renew my license that I can't do.  And god knows if I did I'd be stuck in line next to whatever biggest local scumbag possible."

I could go on about this Hoffman fella's obscene behavior, but let's just say that he seems to have no shame.  He was the D.A.R.E. officer in 2019, teaching Hudson school children how to lead good, clean lives.

Then there's this in the Times Union article, which was written earlier this month:  "The injury that has kept Hoffman on inactive duty occurred while he was working.  He has not been on active duty for two years... [Chief] Moore said he could not discuss specifics of the officer's injury because of medical privacy laws."  

According to documents I recently received, HPD Officer Jacob Hoffman banked $91,096.49 in Hudson taxpayer money last year.  He was the 6th highest paid officer (of 24) at the Hudson Police Department then, and there's no reason to doubt that he still ranks 6th this year -- all the while on inactive duty.  (One wonders what that entails.  Does he even have to show up to the police station to report to "duty"?).  Hoffman took home $4,000 more in salary last year than our now departed Chief Moore did.

It's also interesting to note that during at least one of Ed Moore's last few monthly reports to the Common Council, Ed spoke of his department being short a few officers.  Unsurprisingly, I suppose, no mention of Officer Hoffman nor his injury were ever made at any council meetings, at least as far as I heard.  The details of the investigations into Hoffman's transgressions that Gilson and Munson wrote about came mainly from Freedom of Information Law requests.

Is the accident while in his D.A.R.E. vehicle 4 years ago the reason Hoffman is currently on inactive duty?