§ 155 — Discipline and charges

§ 155. Discipline and charges. Except as otherwise provided by law, a\nmember of such police department shall continue in office unless\nsuspended or dismissed in the manner hereinafter provided. The town\nboard shall have the power and authority to adopt and make rules and\nregulations for the examination, hearing, investigation and\ndetermination of charges, made or preferred against any member or\nmembers of such police department. Except as otherwise provided by law,\nno member or members of such police department shall be fined,\nreprimanded, removed or dismissed until written charges shall have been\nexamined, heard and investigated in such manner or by such procedure,\npractice, examination and investigation as the board, by rules and\nregulations from time to time, may prescribe. Such charges shall not be\nbrought more than sixty days after the time when the facts upon which\nsuch charges are based are known to the town board. Any member of such\npolice department at the time of the hearing or trial of such charges\nshall have the right to a public hearing and trial and to be represented\nby counsel; no person who shall have preferred such charges or any part\nof the same shall sit as judge upon such hearing or trial. Witnesses\nupon the trial of such charges shall testify thereto under oath. No\nmember of such department who shall have been dismissed shall be\nreinstated unless he shall, within twelve months of his dismissal, file\nwith such board a written application for a rehearing of the charges\nupon which he was dismissed. Such board shall have the power to rehear\nsuch charges and, in its discretion, may reinstate a member of the force\nafter he has filed such written application therefor.\n Any member of such department found guilty upon charges, after five\ndays' notice and an opportunity to be heard in his defense, of neglect\nor dereliction in the performance of official duty, or of violation of\nrules or regulations or disobedience, or of incompetency to perform\nofficial duty, or of an act of delinquency seriously affecting his\ngeneral character or fitness for office, may be punished by the town\nboard having jurisdiction, by reprimand, by forfeiture and withholding\nof salary or compensation for a specified time not exceeding twenty\ndays, by extra tours or hours of duty during a specified period not\nexceeding twenty days, by suspension from duty for a specified time not\nexceeding twenty days and the withholding of salary or compensation\nduring such suspension, or by dismissal from the department.\nNotwithstanding chapters one hundred four and five hundred twenty-four\nof the laws of nineteen hundred thirty-six, such board shall have the\npower to suspend, without pay, pending the trial of charges, any member\nof such police department in accordance with subdivision three of\nsection seventy-five of the civil service law. If any member of such\npolice department so suspended shall not be convicted of the charges so\npreferred, he shall be entitled to full pay from the date of suspension.\nThe conviction of a member of such police department by the town board\nshall be subject to review by the supreme court in the judicial district\nin which such town is located in the manner provided by article\nseventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules, provided that the\nproceeding is commenced within thirty days from the determination of\nsuch conviction by the town board.\n