Today at 4:30pm, the Mayor’s office of the City of Beacon sent out a press release to announce that Beacon’s Police Chief Junjulas and Captain Fredericks have retired starting on July 7, 2020. Chief Junjulas had been promoted to the position of Chief when former Chief Doug Solomon left abruptly to take the position in Newburgh. Solomon was suspended and has since resigned from that position after riots over the fatal shooting of a black man in March.

Both officers participated in a City Council Workshop last week in which the public was able to watch but not comment with questions, because the City Council Meeting happened to fall on a Workshop night, which is every other Monday, and does not allow for public comment. The video on that meeting and brief summation can be found here.

Also on that presentation call was Lieutenant Figlia, who is the officer in charge of training and has been participating in the protests by listening to the speakers. At the last protest this past Saturday, he shared his personal story of fleeing his abusive father with his mother, which became his turning point in becoming and officer and wanting to help people.

During the following week’s City Council meeting, which was last night 6/15/2020, the public is allowed to call in during a “Public Comment” session, where a person can speak for up to 3 minutes. During that meeting, there were about 27 callers (members of the public), when normally there are about 5 (hey, don’t you want to spend your Monday nights at City Council meetings? come on down all the time! they are all important! you can view on their YouTube channel now!).

Several callers spoke in favor of defunding the police by 50%, and advocated for change in training, and in re-allocating a portion of police budget to be spent more on programs for youth, the Recreation Center, and other educational opportunities.

What follows below is the press release issued by the Mayor’s office of the City Of Beacon:

After more than three decades of service each, Police Chief Kevin Junjulas and Police Captain Gary Fredericks are retiring from the Beacon Police Department as of July 7, 2020. Both have indicated their willingness to assist in the City in the transition process.

Junjulas and Fredericks were appointed Police Chief and Captain respectively in 2018, with the unexpected departure of the prior chief. Both were eligible for retirement at that time, and have been contemplating retirement for some time. Both have 31 years of service, more than 2 dozen of which were with the City of Beacon, rising through the department ranks together.

Chief Junjulas, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and Police Science, said, “It has been a privilege to serve the City of Beacon over the last 25 years and to lead the men and women of the Beacon Police Department. It has been an honor to serve this great community, and stand ready to assist in the transition.”

Captain Fredericks added, “I am grateful and honored to have served the residents of the City of Beacon over the last 26 years. I have great respect for the men and women of the Beacon Police Department, and full confidence that they will continue to serve the City to the highest standards.”

Mayor Lee Kyriacou said, “I want to thank Chief Junjulas and Captain Fredericks for their decades of service and leadership for the city, and their willingness to afford me some initial time in office before retiring. I appreciate their guiding the department toward increased professionalization. Their calming and dedicated approach will be missed, and I wish them both well in their future endeavors.”

The Mayor continued: “I note, that as a City Council member from 2002-07, I was at first alone calling for control of police chief, actions and budget. Eventually the unanimous Council brought U.S. Justice Department oversight of the police, demoted the then chief, settled multiple lawsuits, and helped professionalize the department. The Justice Department ended its oversight four years ago. While the department has reformed substantially, the ongoing national tragedy points out there is more to do, even locally, and we will look carefully again at multiple issues.”

The City will initiate a recruitment process immediately to begin a search for a new chief. The process is anticipated to take several months.

A Little Beacon Blog emailed Mayor Kyriacou and Chief Junjulas with followup questions, inquiring about the level of safety an officer felt if major changes are proposed, to public perception. We have not heard from Chief Junjulas yet.

For the Mayor’s answers, we received a reply from the City Administrator, Anthony Ruggiero. Anthony prefaced his answers with: “As you know you, the Mayor is always available for additional questions or information. I understand that you may be speaking to him later.” For context, Mayor Kyriacou has agreed to an interview with ALBB on a new podcast ALBB is working on, which will record next week.

ALBB: Are there any other reasons [for the retirement] other than what was stated in the press release?
No, the Press Release details the full information.

ALBB: Has the public been calling in about those two officers specifically?
No, not at all.

ALBB: Are these two officers not looking forward to reforming? Or to changes in police training?
No. Both have looking towards retirement for some time.

ALBB: Do they feel unsafe if changes are made?
No. Both have been looking towards retirement for some time.

ALBB: Were the numerous callers on last night’s City Council Meeting too much for them to want to work with?
No. Both have been looking towards retirement for some time.

ALBB: Was this resignation a surprise?
No. Both have been looking towards retirement for some time.

ALBB: Does each officer collect the same salary they are collecting now? In their retirement?
Both fall under the NYS Retirement Pension System. Police Officers are able to retire with 20 years of service and receive 50% of their Final Average Salary. More information can be obtained on the NYS Comptrollers website.

In Related Police News:

• An officer in Cold Spring resigns amid public pressure for his involvement in a shooting of an unarmed black man during a drug search. (Highlands Current)

• The black flag with the blue line decal that stands for support for fallen police officers but has also been recently embraced by white supremacists has been removed from Cold Spring police vehicles by the Officer-In-Charge Larry Burke. (Highlands Current print edition)

• New York City has disbanded local plain-clothes anti-crime teams who are tasked with walking around to look for violators, stating that it is a final step in removing the stop-and-frisk era. (Bloomberg via LinkedIn editorial pick)

• “The U.S. Supreme Court refused to re-examine the legal doctrine shielding police and other government officials from lawsuits over their conduct." (Washington Post via LinkedIn editorial)