The Civil Bureau of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office performs the constitutionally mandated and statutorily authorized civil enforcement functions of the Sheriff. The Civil Bureau, under the Sheriff’s ultimate direction, enforces a myriad of provisions of the New York State Civil Practice Law and Rules and constitutes the exclusive enforcement arm within the county for local, county, state, and federal courts. The Civil Bureau members carry out a wide spectrum of judicial mandates, judgments, and orders. Legal process is received and served on behalf of courts, members of the bar, and private citizens.
The Captain of the Civil Bureau is responsible for the overall management of all operations of the Bureau, developing and implementing Bureau policy, providing legal expertise, and supervising and assisting the members under his command. The Captain reviews the various documents received and generated to insure legality or process and compliance with law.
In addition to overseeing the Civil Bureau operations, the Captain assumes the duties as the Records Access Officer for the Sheriff’s Office, as well as, manager of the offender registration and community notification functions pursuant to the New York State Sex Offender Registration Act, and Public Information Officer.
The Civil Bureau processes civil process for the department. Process include civil summonses, Family Court papers, District Attorney subpoenas, court orders, petitions, warrants to remove, notices to tenants, commitment orders, replevin orders, real property executions, personal property executions, income executions, orders of attachment, and Surrogate Court citations. Additionally, the Civil Bureau fulfills requests for assistance from the County Commissioner of Jurors and serves jury summonses. Pursuant to a contract between the Sheriff and the Department of Social Services, the Civil Bureau effects service of legal process for that agency.
Aside from their primary functions, uniformed deputy sheriffs assigned to the Civil Bureau patrol areas of Putnam County. They support the efforts of the Patrol Division in that they issue traffic tickets, investigate motor vehicle crashes and respond to criminal complaints and requests for service.