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Constables help keep peace
'Backyard' policing has its rewards

BETHEL- Ray Neuenhoff of Smallwood remembers the  21st anniversary of the Woodstock celebration in 1990 well. He wasn't celebrating, but was busy arresting 25 campers trespassing on the Woodstock site in Bethel.

Neuenhoff, 59, isn't a police officer, but has much of the same authority and power. He's a constable, a type of peace officer found in only four of Sullivan County's 15 towns: Bethel, Rockland, Highland and Lumberland.

Appointed annually by their municipal boards, constables have many police powers. They enforce penal law   like vehicle and traffic laws and boating laws, and are empowered to arrest anyone committing a crime in their presence, as well as issuing criminal summonses.

"The basic difference is a constable can't execute a warrant of arrest or a search warrant,"   said Neuenhoff; a full-time constable in Bethel since 1975.

That still leaves plenty to do. Neuenhoff, along with Bethel's other full-time constable, Doug Ketchum, is busy patrolling the roads, enforcing vehicle and traffic laws, and enforcing boating regulations at White Lake and Kauneonga Lake. And there are many community duties.

They trail school buses carrying children home from school, ensuring drivers don't pass the stopped buses while children are departing. They may help out on ambulance calls if a driver is needed.

"There's no average day,"  said Neuenhoff, also president of the White Lake Fire Co. and vice president of the Bethel Volunteer Ambulance Corps. A day's work can include answering calls about activated alarms, lost dogs, and sometimes lost children. Finding the latter is "the fruit of the job," Neuenhoff says.

Often a constable can help avert trouble before it starts just by keeping a close eye on the community known so   well. Like a couple of years ago,  when Neuenhoff noticed two 4-year-olds walking down the main drag in Kauneonga Lake. He promptly brought them home.

"You're always helping someone.You rehelping the community,"  he said.

That's literally possible in a town the size of Bethel - population 3,740, according to the 1990 census – where faces are as familiar as currency.

"Knowing a lot of the people, knowing who you're dealing with, it makes it easier,"  said Ketchum, 46, constable nearly 20 years.

"Who knows their own back yards better than someone who spends all their time there?" said Sullivan County Sheriff Dan Hogue, describing constables as a  "strong presence of patrol." The Sheriff's office dispatches calls to the Towns of Bethel, Highland and Lumberland. The State Police dispatch calls to Rockland, as well as to Highland and Lumberland. The sheriff's department also has radio contact with all the town constables, Hogue noted.

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