City Marshal's Office?

[Paranoia_Agent]

What exactly is this agency and what do they do? I had never heard of them outside of NYC, but apparently they exist in upstate.

Their title suggests some sort of LE function, but a glance at Utica City Marshal's Office website suggests they are a private business. Anyone know what the deal is?

[NYCTNT]

In NYC they are private citizens who are contracted by the city(Mayor appointed), and they basically sieze property from individuals due to judgements against them. They mostly tow cars off the street known as scofflaw vehicles that have a few summonses on them.

[ChrisF202]

I think they also evict people, I remember about a decade ago a NYC city marshal was killed by some lunatic lady he was trying to evict ... I think she got off too :(

[NYCAPO]

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doi/html/marshals/marshal_main.html
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mccm/html/about_marshals/about_marshals.shtml
You can read more about them at those links.

[AvalancheZ71]

The City of New York never applied to have peace officer status for the City Marshals.

[Jim1648]

I have never heard of this before, but then I don't live in the area either. I wonder if any other areas of the country have a similar arrangement? Also, are the City Marshal's armed? I sort of had mixed emotions when I read about this. One random thought I had was that this might make a nice retirement job. I gather from reading about this that perhaps retirees from other city jobs are doing this. Now I am wondering what the sheriff's offices there do in the civil areas? Also, I suspect that there are still private process servers doing some of this type of work, but who knows.

[NYCTNT]

I have yet to meet a Marshal that WAS armed. Although they may be armed if they were trained at an FBI facility or through the NYPD Firearms Section. I dont know how outdated that specific training ruling is, but they are private citizens with no peace officer status as mentioned.

There are not many marshals, so no it wont make a good retirement gig as you need your own office and some hooks to make for the appointment position.

NYC Sheriffs are armed and are peace officers. You must take a civil service exam and have either experience or a BA degree. They are also armed and wear a uniform and drive a marked patrol car. They do court orders or fortification as well but are a little more indepth that marshals(who mostly do car towing on unpaid tickets).

[NYCAPO]

Also, Marshal's dont collect a salary. Their income comes from the fees they collect.

[Dinosaur32]

CPL Sect 2.10 (33) City Marshall of the City of New York is a Peace Officer. No firearm unless trained by a law enforcement agency and granted a carry permit by the NYPD.

[Dinosaur32]

Large political hooks needed to get an appointment by the Mayor. I believe operations are overseen by the Department of Investigations. They are indepebdent contractors and take a percentage of any recovery.

[NYSJAILER2008]

I have yet to meet a Marshal that WAS armed. Although they may be armed if they were trained at an FBI facility or through the NYPD Firearms Section. I dont know how outdated that specific training ruling is, but they are private citizens with no peace officer status as mentioned.

There are not many marshals, so no it wont make a good retirement gig as you need your own office and some hooks to make for the appointment position.

NYC Sheriffs are armed and are peace officers. You must take a civil service exam and have either experience or a BA degree. They are also armed and wear a uniform and drive a marked patrol car. They do court orders or fortification as well but are a little more indepth that marshals(who mostly do car towing on unpaid tickets).
There are plenty of NYC marshalls that are armed especially the ones I seen padlocking apartment and towing away cars in the hoods(ghettos) of NYC. They wear badges and wear bullet-proof vests and drive around in un-marked impalas and crown vics with light and computers checking plates and running info. and since they need a political mayorial hook,,,then they can get a CCW form PP1 with ease.

[AvalancheZ71]

The position of city marshal is full-time; marshals may not actively participate in other employment or business activities or have interests in certain kinds of businesses that are deemed to involve conflicts of interest. City pension benefits are suspended for those beneficiaries who hold the office of city marshal. This suspension of City pension benefits does not apply to retired New York City police officers, correction officers, fire marshals, and deputy sheriffs. New York City retirees from other job titles may apply for waivers.

A marshal who opens an office faces significant start-up costs, including rent, utilities, salaries, benefits, computer and telephone service, stationery, business supplies, and accounting, advertising, and legal expenses, which are likely to outpace his income, at least initially. Every marshal must also purchase a badge and a public officer's surety bond and pay taxes and an annual fee to the City of New York. Additionally, most marshals need cars for official business. To meet such expenses, a marshal should have sufficient liquid assets that can be readily converted to cash.

[AvalancheZ71]

CHAPTER VIII
Marshal's Authority Restricted



Section 1: CIVIL ARREST AS PROVISIONAL REMEDY PROHIBITED
Section 2: MARSHALS NOT PEACE OFFICERS
Section 3: RESTRICTIONS ON FIREARMS
Section 3-1: Firearm Permits
Section 3-2: DoI Notification Upon Display or Discharge of Weapon


Section 1: CIVIL ARREST AS PROVISIONAL REMEDY PROHIBITED

City marshals are not authorized to use civil arrest as a provisional remedy in the exercise of their official duties.

Section 2: MARSHALS NOT PEACE OFFICERS

The Criminal Procedure Law classifies a city marshal as a peace officer if he or she has received training in firearms handling from the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the New York City Police Academy and has received a firearms permit from the License Division of the Police Department at One Police Plaza. However, the City of New York has not applied for state certification of marshals, as required by the Criminal Procedure Law, and, accordingly, marshals will not be considered peace officers.

Section 3: RESTRICTIONS ON FIREARMS

Section 3-1: Firearm Permits

The Appellate Division of the First Department has ruled that marshals are not peace officers, and therefore, marshals may not carry a firearm without a valid permit issued by the Police Department. A marshal may apply for a license through the New York City Police Department, One Police Plaza, New York, New York 10038.

Section 3-2: DoI Notification Upon Display or Discharge of Weapon

City marshals must notify the Department of Investigation within two hours on a business day, or, if the occurrence is on a weekend or holiday, by 11:00 a.m. the next business day, after the marshal learns of the display or discharge of any firearm at anytime by a marshal or his employees or agents. Excluded from this requirement are use of a firearm for training or recreational purposes. In enforcing this section the Department of Investigation shall consider whether a marshal's failure to notify the Department of Investigation within the applicable time limits was due to a circumstance beyond his control.

[NYCTNT]

Sheriffs and Marshals are completely seperate.

Jailer, what you saw was probably the SHERIFFS. NOT Marshals.

[ChrisF202]

Yeah but NYC Sheriff's deputies have marked vehicles and wear uniforms unless they also have some unmarked units and plainclothes details.

http://members.fortunecity.com/nypolicecars/nyc112.jpg
new vehicle graphics

http://members.fortunecity.com/nypolicecars/nyc100.jpg
old vehicle graphics

Deputies wear the usual NY sheriff uniform of black pants and shirt with dark gray stetson hat.

[NYSJAILER2008]

Sheriffs and Marshals are completely seperate.

Jailer, what you saw was probably the SHERIFFS. NOT Marshals.
yeah but these guys were plainclothes and their windbreaker jackets said city marshall..with city marchall badges around neck....could have been retired cops, CO's now marshalls and have a pistol permit and have peace officer status because of past or current training becasue. they can still have their pistols on CCW premit form 1pp after retirement......The NYPD rolled up on them to see what they were doing,because the scene was getting hectic,,,The officers had to id them because they were in plainclothes with vests on..and firearms ,and then had to asssist becasue the guy was not happpy about he car getting taken,,and the neighborhood friends started to crowd around the scene,,they were towing the car not for parking tickets or moving violations. ,,,but for car note repossesion....and the nyc marshall had his hand on his gun and the police verified the court order and the car owner backed down. Trust me dangerous job because somebody was going to get hurt that day if NYPD didnt show up. They are repo men for nyc court orders on vehicles and apts and things of that nature. NYC Sheriff are uniformed patrol in marked city RPP's with light and sirens and on board computers, when they tow your car for tickets and you get in their way they will arrest and book you themselves at the local precint and transport you to central booking and go to the boro ADA or ECAB to discuss your charges and case as they PO status

[NYCDep]

Marshals can collect judgments from the lower courts and do evictions. They do not get paid by the city but collect fees to collect judgments plus get to keep 5% of whatever they collect. It is a politically connected position and a lot of them make BIG money(think millions.)

They usually only take in judgments that makes them money and will refer smaller or more difficult jobs to the Sheriff's Civil (LEB) county offices. For example, a Marshal will take an eviction to clear out a building because they get money for each apartment, but they usually try to push single house evictions to the Sheriff.

The Sheriff's Office has many plain clothes, unmarked car divisions depending on the work being performed. Units like the cigerette tax enforcement (buy and bust), warrants unit and ATU usually work in plain clothes. Our uniforms are the same as NYPD's but with different patches and shields (ours are detective style, see my avatar). We only wear the stetsons with our Class A's, otherwise most units have the 8-point hat.

Marshals can't carry firearms based solely on their position(as they are private citizens), but can go to peace officer training. Many of them hire off duty P.O.s to work with them, particularly the ones seizing vehicles for unpaid parking ticket judgments.

[NYCTNT]

marshals do NOT do private repo's for companies. Any OFF DUTY NYPD cop is a dope for doing that OFF DUTY as that is definantly against policy and the city will surely never ever indemnify them if kaka hits the fan.