Hood wants stronger sheriff’s department

ONEIDA, N.Y. » Todd Hood is looking to put his 24 years of law enforcement experience into a new role.

Running for Madison County Sheriff under the Republican ticket, Hood said he’s looking to use his experience to make the sheriff’s department a better place to work and a better department for Madison County.

“I feel very strongly about this,” he said. “I want to improve upon the teamwork in Madison County between the police agencies. I want to work well with federal, state and local agencies, and I feel task-force policing is the way to do this.”

Task-force policing takes officers from different departments and places them in a single unit with a clear objective. “Heroin control, criminal investigations, homicide investigations, just specific things that come up. I want us to be able to work together as a team on different incidents,” he said.

In the case of drug abuse, Hood wants to educate people on dangerous drugs and how quickly they can take people over. “The only way to get off heroin is to go to the hospital,” he said. “The only drugs I’ve seen in my career that kill people from stopping taking them is alcohol and heroin. You have to get medical help to get off those drugs

and that’s why it’s so dangerous.”

Hood said health teachers are covering the issue, but was open to getting officers in schools to help.

“This is personal to me, when I see drugs that come in here and I see some of the ways the city has gone over the years,” he said. “I know everything changes, but I’ve lived through them in Oneida and Madison County.”

Hood’s background in law enforcement stretches over two decades and covers a number of different departments. He’s worn several hats over the years: detective in a gang task force, a S.W. A.T. supervisor, firearms instructor, a deputized U. S. Marshall and a patrolman.

“I am a S.W. A.T. team leader, I worked for the past eight years of my ca- reer. It was a huge honor for me,” Hood said. “That’s a position that gets appointed by the men you are working for and the administration.”

While a S.W. A.T. team leader, Hood lead his team into barricaded gunman situations, high-risk search warrants and was responsible for planning almost everything.

The position of sheriff requires a lot of administrative work and budget balancing.

“I had almost two decades of experience with budgeting for police departments, buying gear and supplies for the S.W. A.T. team, hundreds of thousands of dollars in armored vehicle purchases and weaponry,” Hood said.

When it comes to what makes a good sheriff, Hood says it’s “someone who’s strong, who’s caring and compassionate towards the people who work for them and the citizens. People want someone in law en- forcement who is responsible, they want to look up to them, feel comfortable with them and have trust in that person. That’s what people want out of the police. They want you to enforce the laws, but they want to know that you’re a human being and that you care.”

Hood will face of f against Democrat and current acting sheriff John Ball in the Tuesday, Nov. 7 General Election.

Todd Hood