Within the next 60 days 8 women who are employed by
the Saratoga Springs Police Department will be receiving
a certified check worth $5,000.00 all because no one thought that the women who protect and serve this fine community deserved a private locker room and a clean private bathroom.
You can’t make this stuff up folks.
The female complainants are as follows:
Stacy A. Rigano
Vanessa D. Canzone
Kelly L. Otis
Renee A. Willette
Abbey E. Temple
Eilleen T. Cotter
Suzanne M. Green
Meghan E. Mullan
According to the legal documents that I possess, female complainants credibly testified that the lack of adequate facilities was “stressful”, “frustrating”, “disheartening” and made them feel “very uncomfortable”, “disgusted” and “second class”
Chief Moore was well aware of these conditions when he became Chief in 2003, he also
knew that the conditions of the police department may violate the Human Rights Law. It did.
Prior to 2008 female employee’s had a locker room that was a converted broom closet measuring seven feet five inches by six feet six inches.
There was no bathroom designated for the female employee’s and although the mens restroom wasn’t specifically designated for the men only it was only accessible from the mens locker room.
Female employee’s were told they could use the ‘booking area’ bathroom that is used for prisoners. According to the document it was “filthy” and often covered with vomit, urine and fecal matter.
There were no shower facilities for female officers for the occasions when bodily fluids of prisoners or pepper spray gets on their uniforms.
However, In 2007 the mens shower was renovated, no work was done on the women’s locker room nor were any additional facilities provided for female employees.
In a press conference today at the Police Station Chief Moore did state that even after the renovations to the mens shower, that the water ‘just trickled out’ and even male officers weren’t able to use the shower facilities.
If the mens renovation to the showers were inadequate, than why wasn’t it corrected so it would work and how much did the renovations cost in the first place?
This whole debacle is an embarrassment to the citizens of Saratoga Springs. It is a shame that Chief Moore who should be an example to ALL officers regardless of gender was not PROTECTING AND SERVING his own employee’s. If he wasn’t willing to protect his own subordinates can and should he be trusted to protect our community?