Citing dwindling manpower and a new focus on community-oriented
policing, Kingston Police Chief Egidio Tinti has ended the
department’s relationship with URGENT, the countywide drug and
gang task force. The move is the latest blow to an operation
that has been held up as a model of big-picture police work and
inter-municipal shared services.  “The working relationship is
still there, it’s just that I, as an administrator cannot be
sending officers outside the city and footing the bill,” said
Tinti. “Right now I need all hands on deck.”  The Ulster
Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team was founded in March
2007 by then-newly elected Sheriff Paul Van Blarcum. The task
force combined personnel from the sheriff’s office, Kingston
police and a number of other agencies, including small-town
police departments, the county probation department and district
attorney’s office and the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.  Working from a headquarters at the Ulster County
Law Enforcement Center, URGENT carried out