O’burg detectives say they’ve been ordered off investigations, onto the road

OGDENSBURG, New York (WWNY) - The unions representing Ogdensburg police department personnel say the department’s investigations unit has been ordered to “temporarily suspend all operations.”

The unions say the order came from City Manager Stephen Jellie, and was relayed through Ogdensburg’s police chief Tuesday.

“The detectives will be reassigned to road patrol duties on 10/3/2022 and will not be able to solely focus on narcotics investigations or major crimes,” the unions said in a statement.

“The unions would like the public to have patience as cases that would normally be worked on by detectives will now be passed on to the road patrol case load. Officers may have to request assistance from outside agencies which may delay the completion of investigations.

“As always, the unions hope to work with the city councilors and city manager to come to an agreement for a better solution to manpower issues.”

City Manager Jellie said the order was prompted by injuries, resulting in “not enough staff to do all the missions of the department.”

“This is really just a matter of putting the resources where we need to maintain the primary services,” Jellie said. “This is a temporary suspension to service but I also suspect council’s going to need to address the level of services provided in the Ogdensburg police department for the coming budget because quite frankly; as I said for some time, we’ve got a 2 to 3 million dollar deficit coming. Likely cuts are going to have to be made.”

Jellie said two additional officers could become available in the next few weeks.

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