Police Department

The Village of Greene Police Department was officially founded in 1967 with the appointment of its first full-time officer. That officer, who was Greene's first chief of police, was Morris "Moe" Eccleston. Moe served as Village of Greene police chief from 1967 until 1981, when he left to become the sheriff of Chenango County, where he would serve until 1991 before retiring.

Upon Moe's departure from the Greene Police Department, Chief Timothy Hagen served in the Village's top spot until 1983, when he left to become a New York State trooper.

In 1984, the Greene Police Department was run by Chief William Blake, who served from 1984 until his death in 1994. Chief Blake, during his tenure, also created a second full-time night patrolman position, which at the time was held by patrolman Edward Hitt, who had transferred from the Walton Police Department. Edward Hitt was promoted to Chief of Police in 1994, following the death of William Blake. Chief Hltt served the village until his death in 2004.

Current Chief of Police, Steven Dutcher, took the helm in 2004 after serving as the full-time night patrolman under Hitt for two years. Currently there are seven sworn officers on the police department's books, as well as a full-time secretary/grant writer.

K-9 Officers

Chief Steve Dutcher maintains two K-9s:

Ozzie, a full-time Patrol K-9 certified in drugs, patrol, search, and bite work

Mina, a certified full-time narcotics K-9

Sgt. Norm Shaffer maintains one full-time K-9:
Larz is a certified narcotics K-9.

Both K-9 officers have made many arrests, and have assisted the New York State Police and the Chenango County Sheriff’s Department with Vehicle and Property Searches.

Both K-9 officers attend training every Tuesday at Southern-Tier K9 in Binghamton, New York.

A word from our K9  Officers:

No matter where we travel in the United States, I hear working K9 Officers consistently making the same comments regarding the problems relating to their section. The first and foremost complaint of all is that of funding.

Second in line is how the section is administered. The focus of this article is to assist those in administrative positions to better understand the needs of their K9 teams. A better understanding will not only go a long way towards improving the morale of our unit, it will also increase the performance of your teams.

When a department initiates a dog section it automatically increases its vulnerability to law suits. It only makes sense, when you are using resources such as dogs to make arrests, you are going to become susceptible. Your most major defense in this regard is to put yourself into a position where the quality of teams which you have on the street are of the highest caliber.

A major number of departments I have seen place their dog teams on the bottom of the priority list for funding, yet use their teams 24 hours a day. As a result, the officers learn to get by with equipment that is outdated, and are not given the opportunity to go on advanced training programs that would enhance their abilities. This lack of funding does not come as an intentional effort to keep K9 teams on a bare bones budget. Often it is due to the simple fact that the funding just isn't available.

When the officers try to obtain funding for training or a particular training aid, the requests are often denied simply because the officer in charge feels there is a greater need for the funding elsewhere, or because he is under a misconception of what the needs of the unit are. Too often there is no real communication between the members of the unit and the administrator. We here at the Greene Police Department are fully funded by the handlers who own and have the K9 in everyday use.

Click here to go to Southerntierpolicek9.com

Here is a selection of links to other K-9 information associations
American Working Dogs
National Narcotic Detector Dog Association
National Police Canine Association
North American Police Work Dog Association
Police K-9 Magazine
ACE K-9
Complete Cruiser Cooling
Crossroads K-9 Supplies
KONG Company
Ray Allen

Click here for nytroopers.com

Assisting Other Police Agencies

As with any other Police Department the Greene Police have in the past and continue to this day to assist other police agencies in Vehicle traffic stops, search for lost persons, and all this is done with the help of the Greene Police K-9 units.
In the past and present the Greene Police K-9 units have assisted in the recovery of persons lost or who have committed a crime and ran away, such searches include building searches, school searches locating drugs, the search of vehicle’s car and trucks.

The Greene Police have aided in searches for the following departments and agencies:

• The New York State Police
• The New York State Police CNET Unit
• The Chenango County Sheriff’s Department
• The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)
• The Afton Police Department
• The Oxford Police Department
• The Norwich City Police Department
• The New Berlin Police Department
• The Endicott Police Department
• The Johnson City Police Department
• The Binghamton City Police Department
• The Sherburne Police Department
• The Bainbridge Police Department

It is our Goal at the Greene Police department to serve our community and the agencies that request our assistance.
Please feel free to contact our Police Department at Greenepolice@yahoo.com