Armed Guards Hired by TJN After Clarkstown Police Report

Officials at The Journal News have reported threatening communications from the public to both the White Plains and Clarkstown police.

The complaints stem from the Hudson Valley newspaper's publication Dec. 23 of an interactive map and database with names and addresses of all Rockland and Westchester county gun permit-holders. The article was similar to one the Gannett paper published in 2006 but has received far more criticism.

Among other complaints about the article, critics said it endangered either gun-owners or non-gun-owners and violated people's privacy rights. Many critics circulated the home addresses of TJN staffers around the Internet in retaliation. 

The Rockland County Times reported Jan. 1 that after filing a complaint with the Clarkstown Police Department the paper's officials hired "armed security guards from New City-based RGA Investigations" at the company's West Nyack offices on Crosfield Avenue through "at least" Jan. 2. The local police did not find the communications about which TJN complained to be threatening, the Rockland County Times said in its article.

Clarkstown police would not discuss the complaints or the Rockland County Times article with Patch on Jan. 2, citing the absence of their public information officer.

Police in White Plains, where the daily is headquartered, said they are investigating one or two threats that have been sent to them since the article was published.

Those investigations remain open, said Lt. Eric Fisher of the White Plains Police Department. He had no knowledge of whether or not TJN officials have hired armed security for their Westchester Avenue offices.

"We are investigating a couple of complaints that were forwarded by their people," he said. "I don't know how many reports that they've had, but we are looking at a couple."

Fisher said he did not have specifics on what was said in the threats.

According to the New York Times, the publisher of The Journal News confirmed that armed security has been hired for both the Nyack and White Plains offices. 

The Journal News covers Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties. Officials in Putnam County, which was still compiling the data when the article came out on gun permit-holders in Westchester and Rockland, said Jan. 2 they will deny the request the paper filed under the New York state Freedom of Information Law.