Exactly how badly is crime in the City of Newburgh? Only city officials know the true answer as they have now resorted to hiding nearly all crime information from the public and the media, The Newburgh News, LLC has confirmed.
Call it your tax dollars hardly at work.
Multiple sources have alleged that the Newburgh City Council and City Manager Todd Venning are covering up crime to improve their image. The Council has adamantly denied these claims.
The latest censorship comes in addition to a slew of taxpayers being censored by Mayor Torrance Harvey. On several occasions, Harvey has censored the public and said they are not allowed to “point fingers” at or criticize the City Council during public meetings. The First Amendment allows the public to redress their grievances to the government.
It’s not just inadequate fire protection that city officials are censoring. They are now censoring crime data too.
The Newburgh News has repeatedly written to City of Newburgh Police administrators throughout the last year requesting to receive press releases when they are issued. Those requests have all been ignored.
On February 5, 2023, The Newburgh News submitted a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to Newburgh City Clerk Lorene Vitek’s office seeking police incident reports for all shootings and stabbings from November 1, 2022 through February 5, 2023. Vitek is appointed to her position by the City Council.
On February 10, 2023, Deputy Clerk Lisette Acosta-Ramirez sent a written acknowledgement to The Newburgh News claiming, “We are identifying and collecting the records.” Under New York State law, the City Clerk’s office had 20 business days from the date of acknowledgement to provide the data. Today marked the deadline and the request went ignored, which is now legally considered a denial.
Inside sources reported that some press releases may have been issued and not posted to the City of Newburgh’s webpage. On February 15, 2023, The Newburgh News submitted a FOIL request to the City Clerk’s office for all press releases issued by the City of Newburgh Police Department. On February 22, 2023, Acosta-Ramirez issued an acknowledged receipt. That deadline is coming soon and no information has yet been provided.
The Newburgh News is in the process of filing an appeal with the City of Newburgh Corporation Counsel regarding the denied police incident reports.
The Newburgh News is also preparing a written complaint with the New York State Attorney General’s Office to determine how deep the crime cover-up actually is in the City of Newburgh and whether all crime data is being properly reported to the Department of Criminal Justice Services.
On September 22, 2022, the City Council announced they will begin to “control the narrative” to the media and to the public in order to improve their image (story here).
From January 1, 2022 through October 28, 2022, a total of 34 press releases were posted to the City of Newburgh Police Department’s social media pages regarding violent crimes including murders, shootings, stabbings, and gun busts (See the documents below). Approximately one month after the “control the narrative” discussions, the press releases abruptly stopped.
Since then, only one press release was publicly posted by the City of Newburgh Police Department – on December 2, 2022, in which the Police Commissioner patted himself on the back for supporting the FBI while they executed arrest warrants. No other press releases have been issued regarding any crime or incidents in the City of Newburgh. Instead, their social media pages only show police interacting with children and other feel-good material while omitting any mentions of crime.
A retired City of Newburgh police officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation and losing his pension, raged, “You really have no idea how crooked this city is until you’ve worked here for twenty years. If this was the private sector, they’d be out of business by now. This place is a breeding ground for corruption.”
The City of Newburgh’s censorship of crime data comes amid backlash of inadequate fire protection being provided to the public. Harvey, who is facing opposition this Election Day, has repeatedly censored the public from what he said is “pointing fingers” at the City Council for property damage, injuries, or fatalities in recent fires (story here). In one meeting, Harvey exploded in a fit of rage during a City Council meeting when they were criticized. See the video below.
The public has accused the city government of covering up crime since last year, saying that the censorship is counterproductive and only worsens the city’s negative image. City Council members have vehemently denied that crime is being censored from the public and the media, despite the sudden non-existence of press releases and the Council’s own public statements of their intentions to “control the narrative.”
