By Kathleen Moore
The Daily Gazette
ALBANY, N.Y. — In an effort to solve arsons more quickly, the District Attorney’s Office may give two city firefighters the authority to interrogate suspects and make arrests.
Fire Chief Michael Della Rocco formally asked the district attorney for the privilege, and the district attorney in turn recommended it the county Legislature.
The Legislature may approve the request this week.
For now, firefighters can only determine the cause of a blaze. If they are interviewing witnesses and get any indication that the fire was deliberately set, they must back off and call in police to finish the interview.
The police are so busy that such investigations are happening slowly, Della Rocco said. He wants to speed it up -- and has the backing of the Police Department to do so.
He emphasized that he believes city police have the best evidence technicians in the state -- but that they’re simply overburdened with other crimes.
As an example of how his investigators could handle cases more quickly, he cited a fire at 2033 Broadway, the burned-out shell of Tony’s Meat Market. It burned in 2009, but the building is still sitting in a state of severe deterioration. It can’t be knocked down until police are certain they have all the evidence they need.
If firefighters could have handled the investigation, Della Rocco said, “it certainly would have made it easier at the time.”
Law enforcement officers have access to information that firefighters can’t get. They can look at databases that list people convicted of other arsons and of gangs involved in arsons. They can demand information from insurance companies. Among the information that might have been important to know about Tony’s Meat Market: the owners hadn’t paid taxes in nearly a year when the fire occurred.
If the county approves giving law enforcement status to two firefighters, they will attend special classes on interviewing techniques, interrogation rules, constitutional law, and other relevant topics. Instead of attending a law enforcement academy for months, they will take those classes intermittently, Della Rocco said. He says he thinks they would be trained by the end of the year.
Their training might encourage the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to create a local arson task force with their help. That would bring more resources to solve arsons, Della Rocco said.
District Attorney Robert Carney wrote a memo to the county supporting the idea, particularly because he was able to indict suspects on five arsons after assigning an investigator to work with the firefighters. If the firefighters were given that authority, he wrote, “We believe there are many more such cases that could be successfully prosecuted.”
If approved, Fire Deputy Chief Scott Doherty and Capt. Doug Faulisi would be designated district attorney investigators, giving them law enforcement authority.
Copyright 2012 The Daily Gazette Co.