Our Police Chief Actually Said This! Then Our Police Captain Did His Best To Outdo Her!

During public comment time following the Hudson Police Department report to the Comon Council's new 4-member Safety Committee last Monday night, the answer to my one allowed question was telling.

My question for Chief Mishanda Franklin and Captain David C. Miller was a fair and simple one that I didn't think had anything to do with safety, but somehow the answer did.  I was just trying to get at the core of the never-ending and confusing issues related to the city's inconsistent overnight odd/even parking rules (depending on the street and the month, there are actually two distinct rules out there).  I'm not the first person to bring this issue to the attention of the Common Council and HPD, but it had been a while since anyone spoke of it.  The fact that the issue continues to surface (and annoy residents) is evidence that something is not right with the rules.

This was my question:

Does HPD ever issue overnight alternate side parking tickets when the DPW street sweeper or snowplows are not out on the streets in the morning?

Mishanda:  Yup.

Miller:  Of course.  It's not one or the other, it's...

Me:  Isn't that the reason for the rule?

Miller: No.

Me: What's the reason for the rule?

Miller:  It's the safety.  It's all the concerns of all the cars being parked uniform.  Safety concerns where abandoned cars are being left.  There are so many different reasons.

Me:  Then why is it done away with in the summertime?  If it's a safety issue, why do you do away with it on summer weekends?

Mishanda: You'd have to ask the former Police Commissioner.

Can you believe that our Police Chief actually said this out loud at a public meeting of the Hudson Common Council?  She didn't say "the Police Commissioner" but "the former Police Commissioner"!  The former! Mishanda might as well have flipped me the bird with both hands.  Would she have responded with such inane, dismissive words had a council member asked her the same questions I did?  Can you imagine the lack of respect and unwillingness to get anything accomplished?  "It's not my problem, jerk.  Go talk to someone who resigned last year and leave us alone.  How dare you ask us such a question."

Boy, our Police Chief really cares about the residents of Hudson and the city she grew up in, doesn't she?  She's really dedicated to making Hudson a safer city, even as it might somehow relate to overnight parking, isn't she?  She's really making things happen, isn't she?  She really knows how to delegate responsibility like a true professional, doesn't she?  It's clear she doesn't even want to know the answer to my question.  And why would she?

  

Just in case you don't know who I should have been directing my question to instead of HPD's top brass at Monday's meeting of the so-called Safety Committee, that former police commissioner with the solutions to all of our overnight parking issues -- including safety somehow, of course -- would be a certain Shane Bower, a former so-called city official we haven't seen or heard from in 4 months (we never saw or heard much from him anyway, so it was no big loss).  Bower, as readers may recall, was a retired Hudson cop who for five years as our Police Commissioner -- a position that is questionably necessary -- was doubling as the leader of the Columbia County chapter of the DOOMSTRIKER LAW ENFORCEMENT MOTORCYCLE CLUB, a position that he likely still holds.  That's the motorcycle gang with the creepy paper flyers featuring the controversial thin blue line flag that has been criticized as a symbol of white supremacy, racism, encouraging police solidarity (the blue wall of silence), police misconduct, police brutality and - surprise surprise -- lack of police accountability.  That image in the background of the flyer I came across that our former so-called police commissioner displayed in public spaces last summer is indistinguishable from the logo featured so prominently and proudly on our Hudson Police Department's Fakebook page. Talk about creepy!  Are the Hudson Police Department and the Doomstriker Law Enforcement Motorcycle "Club" one and the same?  Is anyone surprised that HPD's Fakebook logo featuring the thin blue line flag is nowhere to be found on their webpage on the city's website?  

Our most recent Police Commissioner is pictured below.  Remember him?  What a charmer!  What a smile! It's been a long four months since Doomsdaystriker Bower quickly and quietly slipped out the door, and the new mayor still hasn't filled his shoes!  (Perhaps his shoes are too big to fill.)  If only Bower were here to help us get this issue related to overnight parking safety settled once and for all!  If only someone (like the Police Chief) had asked him a few important questions while he was here that the Police Chief and Captain aren't able or willing to answer!  

The problem is that over the course of five years as our so-called police commissioner, I believe Doomsday Bower attended all of one informal council meeting, only because he had to fill in for an absent Chief Moore. One meeting!  And while Bower was around, our current police chief mentioned something about him twice at informal meetings, once to Margaret Morris:  "The police commissioner does not work for HPD.  He works for the city administration."  Got that?  The City of Hudson Police Commissioner does not work for the Hudson Police Department, and the Hudson Police Chief wants nothing to do with him.  So, even if the city were to have a police commissioner right now, how would anyone -- council members, committee members, the council president, members of the public -- be able to ask him or her even one question if they don't show up to meetings?  Do you see why nothing gets accomplished in Hudson and no one -- even council members -- knows who to talk to or if they are talking to the proper city official?

"The police commissioner does not work for HPD.  He works for the city administration." 

Gee, that's so helpful, Mishanda! Thank you for clearing up that confusion for us!  

Before I spoke at the meeting, a female resident seated in the back row brought up a valid and common concern about safety related to online collection and sharing of personal data.  She was concerned about her information being shared via the city's parking app and kiosks and all that hi-tech crap the city has decided to bank its parking revenue on.  Of course, this is a safety and security concern all over the world, particularly in our plugged in, data-driven, hyper-surveilled country.  But concerns about data collection were never an issue related to parking or people parking in Hudson before the parking meters were removed.  So, did that concerned resident who took the time to attend a council meeting miss a recent press release, announcement on the city's website or a town hall involving HPD to reassure everyone that their personal data was safe with the city's new online paid parking system?  Of course not!  Surely, HPD has been well aware of data collection safety issues, right?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Since HPD took over parking in July, did anyone there ever make any sort of effort publicly to quell concerns about safety related to data the city and its parking vendor are now constantly collecting from people parking in town, including residents such as that woman?  Of course not! Nobody missed anything because there was nothing to miss, not even among the several recent parking updates on HPD's Fakebook page (where else would such information be posted?).  Concerns about personal data collection and sharing?  What are you talking about?

Franklin's, Miller's and committee head Henry Haddad's long, confusing and meandering responses to that resident's concerns (from 3 different people!  Two too many!) was as useless as it was insulting.  Nobody knew what they were talking about, and none of them had thought about the issue at all prior to the meeting.  Here is what our oh-so-helpful Captain Miller said at one point, turning to face the woman who voiced her concerns about personal data collection.  "Yeah, and I suggest if anybody feels that way strongly, there is plenty of free parking here, honestly.  Paid parking is not the only option here in the city.  I'm just saying, if they feel a certain way, there's plenty of other parking."  Our second in command at HPD, recently crowned our parking specialist, actually said this to a city resident at a council meeting!  He might as well have told that concerned resident "If you don't trust our kiosks, then don't fucking park on Warren Street."  This is called being dismissive, unsympathetic and unhelpful, possibly even disdainful.  It's frightening what comes out of these people's mouths when they are off script.

Why do we get gobbledygook and disrespect from HPD in response to residents' serious and legitimate concerns about parking rules and tickets, privacy, secure data and PERSONAL SAFETY!   The answer is that they don't know what they are doing, they are out of their league, this new paid parking system never should have been instituted (this was not HPD's idea; they were handed it!), and they simply don't truly care about residents' or visitors' safety even as it might somehow relate to overnight parking.  Just look at the signs shown above!  That's the HPD station in the background of the second picture. Yeah, they care!

You try to keep things simple and all you get is nonsense, confusion and dismissiveness, all of it seemingly intentional.  And no help:  "Shut up and talk to the former police commissioner, you annoying jerk!"  "Park elsewhere if you are scared."  What a wonderful way to run a city.

If HPD (or whoever the hell is in charge of parking) had one ounce of sense or accountability, they would have long ago announced on the city's website or at a meeting how safe everyone's data is in the new paid parking system they are in charge of.  HOW ABOUT A TOWN HALL INTRODUCING US TO THE NEW PAID PARKING SYSTEM AND RAISED PARKING RATES YOU ARE FORCING ON EVERYONE!  You know, some simple reassurances that they know what they are doing and that THEY CARE ABOUT US.  About taxpaying residents.  About visitors to Hudson.  About the future of Hudson. 

The whole system, in general, is set up for failure.  It's like they want to fail and to fail us.  And so, something like a bent and unreadable/unscannable plastic parking sign that needs replacing just 4 days after it was installed is inevitable.  Or dozens of new scannable plastic parking signs that all face the street and not the sidewalk.  Or parking signs ignored for so long that they are literally unreadable.  Or a raised concrete island spanning the entire width of the city's largest public parking lot that remains covered in snow and ice for weeks.  And no one would even know who to talk to about any of these things.  Or, if we're lucky, HPD's top brass might direct us to former Police Commissioner DOOMSDAY BOWER.