The members of the police force of said City shall possess in every part of the State of New York, all the common law and statutory powers of constables, except for the service of civil process; and any warrant for search or arrest, issued by any Magistrate of the State of New York, may be executed in any part of the state by any member of the police force of said City, without any endorsement of said warrant, and according to the terms thereof; and all the provisions of Sections Seven, Eight and Nine of Chapter Two, Title Two, Part Four of the Revised Statutes, in relation to the giving and taking of bail, shall apply to this article.
The Chief of Police, to be appointed under the provisions of this Part 1, shall be (subordinate to the Mayor of the City of Albany) the chief executive of the police force created by this Part 1, and he shall obey, and cause the force under him to obey, the rules and regulations that may be from time to time established by said Police Board in accordance with the provisions of this Part 1. Said Chief of Police shall possess the powers of a Magistrate to entertain complaints for criminal offenses and to issue warrants for the arrest of persons charged with such offenses, which warrants shall be made returnable before either of the Police Justices of said City of Albany, at the Police Court. He shall also possess the power to commit persons charged with criminal offenses, until an examination shall be had before such Police Justices, or one of them.
The Chief of Police shall have the charge of organizing and directing a detective staff of not more than five, which staff shall, from time to time, be selected, designated and detailed for services connected with the prompt detection and aid in the punishment of crime, and in such mode and manner as the Board of Commissioners may select and direct.
Said Board of Police shall, whenever expedient, and on the application of a corporation or person or persons showing the necessity thereof, detail regular patrolmen of the police force, or appoint and swear any additional number of special patrolmen of the police force to do special duty within said City, the person or persons by whom the application shall be made contributing to the police fund, by payment to the Chamberlain of said City of Albany a sum not exceeding the sum of $2.50 per diem of service on such detail of special duty. But the patrolmen so additionally and specially appointed shall be subject to the orders of the Chief of Police, and shall obey the rules and regulations of said Board, and conform to its general discipline, and to such special regulations as shall be made, and shall wear such dress and emblems as the Board may direct; and shall, during their term of holding such appointment, possess all the powers and privileges and discharge all the duties of patrolmen of the police force or such special duties as may be assigned to them by the Police Board; and they may be removed at any time by said Board, without cause assigned therefor, upon notice to the person or persons who applied for the appointment as aforesaid. All supernumerary patrolmen appointed by said Police Board shall be appointed for the purpose of temporarily filling the places and discharging the duties of the regular patrolmen who may be absent from duty from time to time, and for no other purpose whatever, and while on duty such supernumerary patrolmen shall possess the same powers and be subject to the same duty and discipline as regular policemen, and they shall receive such compensation as the Board of Police Commissioners may determine, not exceeding the per diem pay of regular policemen; but no supernumerary patrolman shall be paid for any service except as in this section provided.
The Board of Police may also, upon any emergency, or apprehension of riot, pestilence or invasion, appoint as many special patrolmen, without pay, from among the citizens, as it may deem desirable; and during any day of public election it may appoint, to perform duty in said City of Albany, so many special patrolmen as may be required to keep order during such election, who may be paid for their services, as such special patrolmen on such day, $2 each out of the public fund, to be contributed by said City of Albany: provided, however, that each special patrolman so appointed shall at the time of his appointment, make an oath, before a Commissioner or the Chief of Police, that he will not interfere in any manner with the election taking place on the day for which he is appointed, otherwise than by depositing his own vote; and provided that such pay may be withheld, and he may be duly prosecuted as for a misdemeanor, if the terms of such oath be violated; and during the term of service of any special patrolman authorized as aforesaid, he shall possess all the powers and privileges, and perform all the duties of the patrolmen of the standing force, and he shall wear such emblem as shall be prescribed and furnished by said Board.
No member of the police force, under penalty of forfeiting the salary or pay which may be due him, shall withdraw or resign, except by permission of said Board, unless he shall have given to the Chief of Police one month's notice in writing of his intention so to do; every member of said police force must have residence within the City of Albany.
It is hereby made the duty of said police force, at all times of the day and night, within said City of Albany, and the members of said force are accordingly hereby thereunto empowered especially to preserve the public peace, prevent crime, detect and arrest offenders, suppress riots and insurrections, protect the rights of persons and of property, guard the public health, preserve order at every primary and public election, remove nuisances from public streets, and public and private alleys, roads, places, and highways; repress and restrain disorderly houses and houses of ill fame; to arrest all street beggars and mendicants; to provide a proper police attendance at every fire, in order that thereby the firemen, fire engines, and property exposed may be suitably protected or assisted; to assist, advise and protect immigrants, strangers and travelers in public streets and at landings of ferry and steamboats, river boats and canal boats, and at railway stations; enforce every law relating to the suppression and punishment of crime, or to the observance of Sunday, or regarding pawnbrokers, emigration, or elections, or gambling, or intemperance, or lotteries, or lottery policies, or vagrants, or disorderly persons, or the public health, or any ordinance or resolution of the Common Council of said City applicable to police, health or criminal procedure.
The several members of said police force shall have power and authority, immediately and without process, to arrest and take into custody any person who shall commit, or threaten or attempt to commit, in the presence of such member, or within his view, any breach of the peace or offense directly prohibited by act of the legislature or by any ordinance of the City, but such member of the police force shall, immediately upon such arrest, convey in person such offender before the nearest Magistrate, that he may be dealt with according to law.
No person holding office under this Part 1 shall be liable to military or jury duty, or to arrest on civil process, or to service of subpoena from civil courts, while actually on duty.
Said Board is authorized from time to time to contract for and to provide suitable accommodations within said City for the detention of witnesses who are unable to furnish security for their appearance in criminal proceedings; and such accommodations shall be in premises other than those used for the confinement of persons charged with crime, fraud or disorderly conduct; and it shall be the duty of all Magistrates in committing witnesses to have regard to the rules and regulations of said Board in respect to their detention.
Said Board shall cause to be kept general complaint books, in which shall be entered any complaint of a police nature preferred upon a personal knowledge of the circumstances thereof, with the name and residence of the complainant; they shall also cause to be kept books of registration of lost, missing and stolen property, for the general convenience of the public and for the information of said police force. Said Board shall cause to be kept books of record of said Police Department, wherein shall be entered the name of every member of said police force, with the time and place of his nativity, the place where and the time when (if born out of the United States) he became a citizen of the United States; his age upon becoming such member and his former occupation, the number of his family and the residence thereof, and the date of his appointment and of his resignation of, or withdrawal or dismissal from, said force, with the cause of the latter, and against all such entries sufficient space shall be left wherein to make record of any especial arrests made from time to time by such member, or of any special service, deemed meritorious by the Board, done by him. Such books shall be, at all business hours, and when not in actual use, open to public inspection. Said Board shall also cause to be kept and bound all police returns and reports from any member of said force, and all minutes of the proceedings of said Board; which returns, reports and minutes shall be open for public inspection only in the discretion of said Board.
All criminal process for any offense committed within said City, issuing out of any court, or from any Justice, Judge or Justice of the Peace within said county, shall be served by a member of said police force.
The necessary expenses incurred in execution of criminal process within said City shall be a charge against the City. No fees or compensation whatever other than as herein provided, shall be charged or received by any officer or member of said police force, for the arrest, confinement or discharge of any person, or for mileage and travel, or for serving any warrant, subpoena or process, or for discharging any other duty required by this Part 1; nor shall any such fee or compensation be charged or received by any officer or citizen for the arrest of any person charged with crime, or for the services of any warrant, subpoena or other process in any criminal case, except as herein provided. The actual, necessary and reasonable traveling expenses, which shall include Board as well as transportation, incurred by any officer or member of said police force, or by any other officer or citizen who may have been selected to execute any process issued within said City of Albany, incurred by any such officer or member of the police force, or other officer or person in executing any such process or discharging any duty required of him by the District Attorney of the County of Albany, or by any Police Justice, Justice of the Peace, Judge of a court of record or criminal court, held within said City, for any offense arising within said City, shall be audited and allowed by said Board of Commissioners, and paid by the Chamberlain of said City of Albany. But such charges shall only be allowed upon the affidavit of the person making them, and shall not include any items for traveling expenses, in cases wherein transportation has been furnished to the party gratuitously, and without pay by him, under whatever circumstances such free transportation may have been given. The Board of Supervisors of the County of Albany shall annually cause to be raised by tax, in the manner provided by law for assessing, levying and collecting the state and county taxes, within and for said county, the sum of $2,000 to pay, in part, the expenses incurred by said police force, in the service of all criminal process issuing from the District Attorney, or any Police Justice of the City of Albany, and a sum sufficient to pay the cost, charges and expenses for police services rendered by any member of said police force, or by said Police Board in the execution of criminal process, in cases now chargeable to said county; the same to be assessed, levied and collected upon and from the City in the same manner, ratio and proportion as the accounts of deputy sheriffs and constables of said county are now charged, assessed, levied and collected; the amount thereof to be paid to the Chamberlain of the City of Albany, to be applied toward the general expenses of said police force; and it shall be the duty of said Board of Police to furnish annually, to the Board of Supervisors of said county, an accurate statement of all the moneys paid out by said Board under the requirements of this section during the preceding year, and the amount so raised shall be paid over by the County Treasurer of said county to the Chamberlain of said City of Albany.
The Board of Police, for meritorious and extraordinary services rendered by any member of the police force in the due discharge of his duty, may permit any member of the police force to retain, for his own benefit, any reward or present tendered him therefor; and it shall be cause of removal from said force for any member thereof to receive any such reward or present without giving notice thereof to the Board. Upon receiving such notice said Board may either order said member to retain the same or pay it over to the Chamberlain of said City.
All fines imposed by the Board upon members of the police force, by way of discipline, and collectible from pay or salary, and all rewards, fees, proceeds of gifts and emoluments that may be paid and given for account of extraordinary services of any member of the police force (except when allowed to be retained by such member), and all moneys remaining for the space of one year in the hands of the Property Clerk, arising from the sale of unclaimed goods, and all proceeds of suits for penalties under this Part 1, shall be paid over to the Chamberlain of said City of Albany.
All property or money alleged or supposed to have been feloniously obtained, or which shall be lost or abandoned, and which shall thereafter be taken into the custody of any member of said police force, or of any criminal court in the City of Albany, or which shall come into the custody of any Police Justice within said City of Albany, shall be, by such member or Justice, or by order of said court, given into the custody of, and be kept by, the Property Clerk of said City; and all such property and money shall be particularly registered by said Property Clerk, in a book kept for that purpose, which shall contain also a record of the names of the persons from whom such property or money was taken, the names of the claimants thereof, the time of the seizure, and any final disposition of such property or money.
A. 
Whenever property or money shall be taken from persons arrested, and shall be alleged to have been feloniously obtained, or to be the proceeds of crime, and whenever brought with the claimant thereof and the person arrested before some Magistrate for adjudication, and the Magistrate shall be then and there satisfied from evidence that the person arrested is innocent of the offense alleged, and that the property rightfully belongs to such person, then said Magistrate may thereupon, in writing, order such property or money to be returned to such person, and the Property Clerk (if he has it) to deliver such property or money to the accused person himself, and not to any attorney, agent or clerk of such accused person.
B. 
If any claim to the ownership of such property or money shall be made, on oath before the Magistrate, by or on behalf of any other person than the person so arrested, and said accused person shall be held for trial or examination, such property or money shall remain in the custody of the Property Clerk until the discharge or conviction of the person accused.
C. 
All property or money taken on suspicion of having been feloniously obtained, or of being the proceeds of crime, and for which there is no other claimant than the person from whom the same was so taken, and all lost property coming into the possession of any member of said police force, and all property and money taken from pawnbrokers as the proceeds of crime, or by any such member taken from persons supposed to be insane, intoxicated, or otherwise incapable of taking care of themselves, shall, as soon as practicable, be transmitted to the Property Clerk of said police force, to be duly registered and advertised for the benefit of all persons and parties interested, and for the information of the public as to the amount and disposition of the property so taken into custody by the police.
D. 
All property and money that shall remain in the custody of the Property Clerk for the period of six months without any lawful claimant thereto, after having been three times advertised in the three official newspapers of said City shall be disposed of as follows: such property shall be sold at public auction, according to the tenor of such advertising, and the proceeds of such sale shall be paid over to the Chamberlain of said City of Albany.
E. 
If any property or money placed in the custody of the Property Clerk shall be desired as evidence in any police or other criminal court, such property shall be delivered to any officer who shall present an order to that effect from such court. Such property shall, however, not be retained in said court, but shall be returned to said Property Clerk to be disposed of as hereinbefore provided.
Said Board of Police shall at all times cause the ordinances of the City of Albany, not in conflict with the provisions of this Part 1, to be properly enforced; and it shall be the duty of said Board at all times when consistent with the rules and regulations of the Board, and with the requirements of this Part 1, to furnish all information desired.
Said District Attorney shall also have the power to appoint two persons to discharge the business pertaining to his office. The appointment shall be in writing under the hand and seal of the District Attorney, and shall be filed in the Clerk's office of the County of Albany; and such appointment shall continue during the pleasure of the District Attorney. The persons thus appointed shall, before they enter upon the discharge of their duties, take an oath well and faithfully to perform such duties, to the best of their ability, which oath shall be taken before the Clerk of Albany County, or his deputy, and the same shall be filed in the Clerk's office. The persons thus appointed shall be under the direction and control of the District Attorney. They shall have all the powers granted to a Sergeant of police of said City of Albany, and shall have power, and it is hereby made their duty, to serve all criminal or other process, and all bench warrants and other papers, in any and all parts of the state, which may be issued by said District Attorney. Any member of the police force of said City of Albany shall also have power to serve any of the above-mentioned papers, or process, or warrants, when issued by such District Attorney. The officers, whose appointment is provided for in this section, shall each receive a salary of $1,200 annually, which salary shall be paid in the same manner, and at the same time, as the salaries of the police force of said City of Albany. Each of such above-mentioned persons shall be allowed his necessary and actual traveling expenses necessarily and actually incurred while traveling on official business, under the direction of the District Attorney. The amount of such expenses shall be sworn by the person incurring them to have been actually and necessarily incurred while traveling on official business, under the direction of the District Attorney, who shall also certify to the facts of such direction. The amount of such traveling expenses, when thus certified and sworn to, shall be paid upon presentation of the bill therefor in the same manner as the salaries of such persons. On or before the first Monday of December next, the Chamberlain of the City of Albany shall report to the Board of Supervisors the amount of such salaries and expenses paid under the provisions of this section, which sum shall be audited by the Board and paid by the County Treasurer to said Chamberlain of the City of Albany; and such sum thus paid shall be a county charge. And also, on or before said first Monday of December next, and thereafter annually, said Chamberlain shall report to the Board of Supervisors the amount that will probably be necessary to be paid for such salaries and expenses during the then-coming year, which amount shall then be levied and assessed and collected, in the same manner as other county charges and shall be paid by the County Treasurer to the Chamberlain of the City of Albany. The amounts thus paid to the Chamberlain shall not be used or appropriated by him for any other purpose whatever than the payment of such salaries and expenses. The Chamberlain shall keep a just and full account of all moneys paid to and expended by him under the provisions of this section and shall keep vouchers for all moneys paid out by him; and at the time above specified, in each year, he shall make a full report to the Board of Supervisors of the amount received and expended by him under the provisions of this section, giving items and dates and, when called upon, producing vouchers therefor. The accounts of the Chamberlain, under this section, shall also be open to inspection by the Board of Supervisors, or a committee thereof; and Section 43 of Title 12, Chapter 77, of the Laws of 1870, is hereby repealed.