WAPPINGERS FALLS – Police Commissioner David Fisher has asked the village board to consider changing the department from a commissioner-led model to one led by a police chief. The village board has put it on the December 9 agenda for public comment.
Fisher, a retired police officer with nearly three decades of service, was hired as commissioner in 2024 for $35,000. When he took office, he said the department had four full-time officers, including a sergeant, and seven part-time officers. One full-time senior police assistant and nine part-time dispatchers supplemented the officers.
In November 2026, the department is staffed by two full-time police sergeants and 13 part-time officers, with one full-time senior police assistant and 10 dispatchers.
Fisher says he has been talking to this village board and its predecessors about his proposal for nearly two years, advising them that converting to a chief-led department will improve police service.
“This village should be following the general rules established by NYS law, not simply continue relying on a 40-year-old exception to those rules,” Fisher said in a public statement. In 1985, the state’s laws governing villages were amended to generally require village police departments to have a chief, except for departments such as Wappingers Falls that were grandfathered in. The state comptroller and attorney general have both also suggested that village departments should have a chief.
Fisher says that, as a chief, he could work as a law enforcement officer while continuing to supervise the department. As a civilian commissioner, he cannot participate in law enforcement operations, such as an active shooter situation.
Fisher, who already collects a pension after retiring from his previous department, is limited to earning $35,000 per year. That is his current commissioner salary, and he is offering to change to police chief for the same salary.
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