I understand it would help to contact the State Liquor Authority as well.

APD are the best. They are not the problem.
Sounds like you had a rough night with all the noise and drunk kids keeping you up. Sorry for that, but really, did you not know there were bars there when you rented the place? This is a college town.
With all due respect, you may want to consider relocating.

The APD in general is good, but the officers continue to look the other way for bars, their patrons and their vendors. The enforcement of the noise and patio rules are lax if at all. The beverage distributors double park or unload in no stopping zones with impunity from officers driving by. If an ordinary Albany resident were to do so,they would be ticketed or told to move on.

smallbany, if "APD are the best. They are not the problem." Then why would someone need to relocate? Even bars have rules they are supposed to follow. And there are no bars in my end of town, yet it is like living right inside one. So I think APD needs to have the courage to step up and enforce simple laws before we declare them the best. Just worrying they will show up in an emergency is enough to keep me up at night since history has shown otherwise.

APD is the best Hah!!! I used to live very near Lionheart, and both the APD and the (former) owner Jerry Aumand were adept at ignoring the law. "The patio closes at 11." Right. IF the APD did their jobs, there would be no need to avoid living near a bar.

Smalbany, some of us are not renters, but homeowners and longtime residents of the neighborhood who had little or no problems with the neighborhood bars until the last few years with Lionheart and Lark Tavern specifically. There are two bars between my house and those two bars that I have no issues with. But there is a definite lack of enforcement of existing laws at the problem spots.

Thank you for your submission to See Click Fix. Several times throughout the summer months we run a joint detail with code enforcement to address concerns in the area. Officer Lynch will continue to check to see if the Patios are complying with the closing times. I will forward this complaint to Sgt. Dolan the midnight Supervisor, he can be reached at rdolan@albany-ny.org. if you see something that is happening please call police dispatch at 438-4000, and a police unit will be dispatched to handle the complaint.

What are the days and hours of Officer Lynch's shift?

APD equipts their NEU with city funded cell phones, as well as business cards to hand out with the phone number printed on it. Those are not "emergency" phone lines. They are in place so that the community, that the NEU officer is patrolling, can contact him or her directly. Stop giving us email addresses and a general phone number and give us the phone numbers to the NEU officers. What's the point of that unit if they aren't dealing with these matters?

Anonymous, these guys usually work M-F daytime, the times they are usually least needed. But to answer Garfield, the whole thing appears to be nothing but smoke and mirrors. Public relations. Incidents on Broad Street with a ton of evidence and countless calls and communications have resulted in no citations and an escalation of more serious problems that have also been allowed. Makes me cringe when I see the PR from the mayor and police chief basically passing off blame to citizens when they do not report things to the police. Just aren't the words to describe this level of disingenuousness.

I believe the NEU unit (blue shirts, usually on bikes) work until midnight. That's why if APD LT-NEU would stop yanking our chains and give us the phone numbers to the officers who they are directing is to, we could just call on real time as it's happening. The police are public servants and those cell phones numbers are are supposed to be public knowledge.
What's the point of having that special unit if we can not have access to them?
And this isn't me trying to stir sh*t up.
Webster and Lynch are constantly getting their butts handed to them on this forum. How can they stop a problem as it's currently happening when they have to wait for a call into dispatch and then out to them? If APD is going to hang them out to dry, at least give them a fair shot at giving it all they can. I'm sure they are following up on the incidents, but it may be hours later after a call is made.

I'm asking for the hours for Officer Lynch (and Webster and Ready) to be provided here because APD continues stating that Officer Lynch is ensuring patio closure time and noise ordinance adherence, when neither is happening, and the last I heard the officers report (themselves not heresay) their hours were from approximately 8:00 AM- 4:00 PM weekdays and maybe one weeknight to midnight, but they said officers head back to the station about an hour before shift ends. Officer Lynch is genuinely not seen in the neighborhood he is the NE Officer for and has not attended a neighborhood meeting in many months with residents repeatedly reporting no one sees him on any of the blocks he is assigned to. He is MIA, as far as residents/tax payers can see, no matter what the NEU reports here. So what are the actual hours (not just on paper, but when they are really in the neighborhood working) of the NEU officers residents are constantly referred back to to address everything from bar brawls at 4:00 AM, to homeless encampments and fights in Washington Park in the middle of the night, to revving, motorcycles popping wheelies and drag racing at 2:00 AM? That should be public knowledge. It makes no sense to spend the alleged insufficient resources on NEU officers during the day. If we can't have both day and night/overnight NEU officers, then they are clearly needed at night. But that is where the police union is always cited as the reason this area is not receiving night time foot/bike patrol coverage. Who is in charge of Public Safety and quality of life related to ordinance and law violations? The Mayor, the Chief of Poice or the union? I'm being serious. I genuinely want to know because, while the union may have the best interest of the officers as priority, the citizens must have an equally authorized/powerful advocate and decision maker. And where is our Common Council Representative with all of this? It's important to be an involved concerned citizen, but where are the people also elected and/or paid to be aware of, and address, these issues? I know there are competing priorities in the city, but it's much easier and less expensive in time and resources to stop issues early than to get drug and violence issues under control once out of hand. We've already had people shot and wounded, people shot at, and people stabbed (resulting in a death) on Madison and Hamilton, etc. over the past year and very recently. The issues are already here. We have to take back our community all the way from litter and people not picking up after their pets to aggressive panhandling, public alcohol and drug use, untenable noise and disorderly behavior, to crime and violence. It's all a part of the same slippery slope continuum. I appreciate the efforts of DGS, the APD and the people posting here who care enough to stay informed and stay involved. I believe in this community and our city despite challenges, but the current approach needs upgrading.

it's really too bad this city cannot figure out how to let its consumers have a drink outside in the summer like most other cities. its really sad that residents are not noting the correlation between rigid and uptight policies and the cyclical business closings in the Lark st. area.

I see this issue has fallen by the wayside.

You are so right, JustJen. Any hope of action falls by the wayside while the problems grow, because a certain ilk of business owner (certainly not all of them and kudos to the responsible considerate ones) has no intention of respecting laws, nor respecting the residents who support them by patronizing their establishment. They are only emboldened by the ongoing lack of enforcement.

closed in 2018

APD LT-NEU closed this again, without any satisfactory response. What is the point of making complaints here which APD regularly ignores?

closed in 2018