Lt. Kevin Lahar is now in charge of the City of Newburgh Police Department, following the retirement of Police Chief Arnold “Butch” Amthor after less than a year on the job.

Amthor retired on April 7, just a week after the “egregious, difficult task” of completing the Executive Order 203 police reform plan before the state deadline of April 1. While Amthor said there is no connection between the timing, many residents are wondering who will fill the permanent position, what’s next for the police department, and what city officials would like to see moving forward.

Amthor’s career in law enforcement spans over 35 years, with experience as a Deputy Sheriff with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office as well as a police officer in Montgomery, Cornwall, New Windsor and the City of Newburgh. Before joining the City of Newburgh as police chief, he held the dual positions of chief at both the Town of Montgomery and Village of Maybrook Police Departments.

“I’m going to take a couple of months off and decide what I want to do moving forward,” said Amthor. “I don’t have any major plans right now, which is nice to be in a position where you don’t have to worry about jumping from one job to the next. [Going back to Maybrook] is something I won’t say is not a possibility. I want to take some time to see what I want to do.”

Throughout his career at the City of Newburgh, he was “instrumental in the creation of the Police-Community Relations & Review Board and implemented data-driven policing by hiring the city’s first crime analyst, which brought a 40 percent reduction in gun-related crime in 2006.” Additionally, Amthor coordinated “the original ‘call-in’ effort in the City of Newburgh, where more than 30 offenders caught selling narcotics were successfully diverted to rehabilitation and other services in lieu of a felony arrest.”

More recently, he has helped bring the city’s executive order 203 police reform plan in front of the city council to be voted on before the state deadline, something he believes is a solid template for whoever follows in his footsteps. Amthor also assisted with helping get the police department budget done, implemented structural changes and reorganization, upgraded equipment for officers, finished last year with the police department in good standing with overtime, made policy changes of general orders and helped search for a new police department location as the current building is condemned.
“There is no correlation between my decision and executive order 203’s timeline,” said Amthor. “I decided a month earlier that I probably was not going to finish out the full year. I wanted to see it through to completion, so it was a factor. It was passed by the city and we made it under the timeline.”

Despite these strides, Amthor describes that the City of Newburgh Police Chief position was far from easy, especially with the state of the Newburgh police department back in August when he first joined, which was struggling after not having a police chief for several months and community members coping with a police-involved shooting.

“There was some level of community distension,” said Amthor about when he first joined. “The budget process had begun and there was nobody here really accustomed to it. The department was still recuperating from the lay off, numerous retirements were pending, there was a washout of supervision with sergeants and lieutenants, outstanding personnel issues, a need for reorganization, and they are in a condemned building. There were a handful of things and nobody as police chief.”

When first joining the City of Newburgh Police Department, it was never completely with a long-term plan in mind, especially considering the fact the city had to apply for a year-long waiver because Amthor already retired from the Town of Montgomery Police Department, from which he has been receiving a pension. The waiver is something that would have to be applied for each year. With the cancellation of last year’s civil service exam (due to COVID-19) for the position of police chief, the city “hosted a number of meetings with community leaders regarding the selection process of Amthor.”

“All of those things put together created a dire situation as far as not having a chief of police,” said Amthor. “The city was able to obtain a one year waiver for me that would carry me from August 2020 to August 2021, which at that point I could have either left or got another waiver.”

Right now, it is uncertain who will be the next police chief or when that decision will be made.

While the next steps are unclear, residents and even city officials have made it clear that this is the time to bring in a police chief that is a person of color.

Mayor Torrance Harvey said that the City of Newburgh plans to move forward with other police reform initiatives, as it is a “work in progress.” With the recent announcement of the retirement of the police chief, Harvey said the city is doing “restructuring of the police department,” including recruitment of people of color. He denied any further comment at this time as it is “still being sorted out by our city manager and city council.”

Additionally, there is discussion of the City of Newburgh considering a part-time police chief, as well as a police commissioner.

“I would certainly not be envious of any person stepping in the chief’s position and thinking they can do this job on a part-time basis,” said Amthor. “City management might call it a part-time chief, but there is no such thing as a part-time police chief. They can pay you a part-time wage of 20 hours a week of work, but you are not going to be able to run this police department as a part-time chief. You will be spending double that amount of time here, no matter what. Honestly, under that type of system, you will be set for failure.”

“As far as a police commissioner, that’s the city management’s decision,” said Amthor. “I don’t know what is the intent to accomplish by making a police commissioner or commissioner of public safety. If overtime is the sole issue, then I already was able to curb overtime as the chief here.”

Since Amthor came on board, councilman Omari Shakur has continuously made it well known that he was not in support of him.

“We didn’t hear an executive order 203 presentation, we heard a Butch Amthor presentation – a White privileged male who came into our community and basically thinks he’s going to tell Black people and Brown people how they’re going to get along with this police department,” said Omari Shakur at the January 7 work session meeting after Amthor presented updates on the plan.