Cohoes leaders hold emergency Public Safety meeting

COHOES, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- In light of the recent violence in the City of Cohoes concerns for public safety has city leaders on alert. The Cohoes Common Council held a special public safety meeting to address those concerns, Monday.

“We charged the parent for failing to exercise control over their child,” said Cohoes Police Chief, Todd Waldin about the large street brawl that happened in front of Marra’s funeral home last week.

“There's two 15-year-old girls fighting, we broke that up. A little while later two more teenage girls started fighting, broke that up. At the end of the day there was no property damage, no physical injury from the combatants and there's no crime committed,” said Cohoes Mayor William Keeler.  

It's not the only incident concerning people. Before the meeting the chief confirmed a stabbing incident that had happened at Burger King less than 24-hours before the meeting. “The information we have is everybody who was involved at Burger King last night is that none of them were residents in the city of Cohoes. It actually started over in Waterford at a basketball court,” said Waldin.

Council members sat in front of full room as the mayor and chief took questions and heard concerns from the public. “So, we have two major incidences in Cohoes and 4 weeks with multi departments having to come we have a stabbing crime is clearly on the uptick or at least it appears to be there's a bad image for our city,” said one concerned resident.

As people shared their concerns, the chief says, despite recent headlines, crime in the city is not up. “We're not trying to downplay it but were also not going to exaggerate it what took place either,” said Waldin.

“There's always that perception. So, it's understandable why they would perceive that as a problem. But there's not a public safety issue in Cohoes,” said Keeler.

NEWS10 Reporter James De La Fuente asked a few people in town, “Do you feel safe?”

“We come here every day during the weekdays for the kid’s theater program,” said Andrea Shaye. “Everyone around here is pretty nice and I feel safe walking to the music hall or to the studio,” said her daughter.

He asked folks walking their dogs. “He keeps me safe on our walks,” said a Cohoes resident.

Area business owners voiced their support for local law enforcement, “I wouldn't be able to do their job. So, I applaud them every day for being able to go out and sort of just put their life on the line and try to make Cohoes a better community,” said Zen Dog Grooming owner, Heather Vertefeuille.