TOP COP UNDER CRIMINAL A.G. INVESTIGATION
New York's newly announced 2026 Police Officer of the Year is under criminal investigation by the state attorney general.
Not because Rochester police Officer Nicole Amatore did anything wrong, but because Attorney General Tish James hates cops.
At least that's the message that's sent to law enforcement as the attorney general subjects the state's best officers to months- and years-long, career-endangering investigations after they engage in sometimes-heroic actions.
Like those of Officer Amatore.
It was last December, on a dark and dangerous night, in response to the 911 call of a frightened mother, in her home with her children while an angry man with a gun outside struggled to get in.
Two officers arrived almost simultaneously. One ran down the left side of the house; the other ran down the right side of the house. Finding nothing, the officer on the left side returned to the front door, spoke with the mother, and then heard that the officer on the right side had found the subject.
That's what the body cam shows.
Both officers walk toward the subject, in a narrow passage between the house and a fence. And then he starts firing. Both officers are hit. One runs wounded across the street for cover. The other drops, with wounds from which he will suffer for months.
The subject leaves on foot, walking down the sidewalk, when a third officer arrives.
A third officer who steps out and hails the subject. A subject who turns and fires and strikes the officer, the third he has shot in a couple of minutes.
That's what the body cam shows.
It also shows the wounded third officer, hit in the strong arm, briefly unable to defend himself, quickly transferring his gun to his off hand while the man who shot him stands mere feet away.
Then the camera shows something else.
From the left, at a dead sprint, slightly hunched, her gun in hand, Officer Nicole Amatore. Running directly at the gunman, angling to keep a tree between them.
He fires at her. She fires at him.
And he was dead where he stood.
And that's why Officer Nicole Amatore is the New York state Police Officer of the Year. And under criminal investigation by Tish James.
What the governor calls heroism, the attorney general thinks might be a crime.
Under New York law, all instances in which civilians are shot or killed by police officers are investigated by the attorney general. But, under Tish James, this process has been dragged out, sometimes taking two years to complete, leaving the community uncertain and without answers, and good officers under potentially career-damaging clouds of uncertainty.
And when the investigation is done, and the results finally released, no shooting is called justified, no officer is exonerated. Instead, the boilerplate phrase, investigation after investigation, is: "Under these circumstances, given the law and the evidence, a prosecutor would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that the officer committed a crime, and (the Office of Special Investigations) determined that criminal charges could not be pursued in this matter."
That's where the Police Officer of the Year is, twisting in the wind, waiting for 10 months now to find out whether or not the attorney general is going to bring criminal charges against her.
And that's where we are, years into Tish James' tenure, wondering why simple, straight-forward investigations take so long and slander so many. A man shot three cops and tried to kill a fourth, and it's all on camera, and almost a year later the attorney general still can't decide whether or not she is going to charge the officer who the governor said brought the spree to an end.
This isn't being thorough, this is being vindictive. This is using the power of the state to dispirit and defame the men and women of law enforcement. This is a politician whose power base rests in part on hostility toward the police waging a war against the people who keep our families and communities safe.
The governor named Nicole Amatore Police Officer of the Year, and the attorney general has her under criminal investigation.
That's how effed up New York is.