Sheriff’s Office adjusts to times
Officers receiving equipment, education to keep residents safe
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. >> Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office personnel recently went through intensive active-shooter training, so officers know how to respond if a real-life incident occurs.
The two-day session, held at a Mechanicville warehouse, involved other area law enforcement agencies as well.
“We need to get everybody on the same page,”
Sheriff Michael Zurlo said. “We’re going to do this annually. It was taught by our people, who took this training elsewhere and then came back to teach it here.”
It’s one of several ways the Sheriff’s Office is preparing officers, with equipment and education, to keep up with changing times in upstate New York’s fastest-growing county.
“It’s about keeping both them and the residents of Saratoga County safe,” Zurlo said.
Recently, all deputies were equipped with Narcan, a medication that reverses the effects of heroin and opioid overdoses. It’s already saved one man’s life.
“The guy was out, down, blue in a fast-food restaurant bathroom,” Zurlo said. “Hopefully, it’s a wakeup call to him.”
The influx of heroin and opioids, primarily from Vermont and New York City, is one of local law enforcement’s biggest challenges.
“My drug team is out constantly trying to reduce this problem,” Zurlo said. “I don’t think it will ever be eliminated.”
The Board of Supervisors approved the addition of 10 new deputies for 2017. Some are still going through training and won’t be available until mid-summer.
Zurlo said his 122-member road patrol division responds to more than 80,000 emergency calls annually. In addition to Ballston Spa headquarters, substations are in Northumberland, Corinth and Wilton Mall along with Clifton Park and Halfmoon.
To increase community presence, the department bought two bikes and established a fourmember bicycle patrol to cover places such as the Zim Smith Trail, which stretches from Ballston Spa to Halfmoon.
“If a neighborhood is having a problem with larcenies, we can use these patrols that way, too,” Zurlo said. “It’s about getting out there to make sure we’re doing the right things for people.”
The department’s $28 million budget includes Saratoga County Jail, which has 85 employees, plus another 50 administrative personnel.
The 30-year-old jail, which can hold up to 205 inmates, is currently at about 75 percent of capacity, but nearly reached its limit last summer, when the seasonal population swelled and there was more overall activity, Zurlo said.
Two new upgrades were recently made to the facility. One is a new records management system that connects Saratoga County Jail to every other one in the state. When a prisoner arrives, local officials can almost immediately access the person’s background and criminal history.
The jail has also been outfitted with new, more sophisticated security cameras.
There have been no formal discussions about expanding or replacing the facility, but such steps might be on the horizon as the local population and number of calls rises.
“At some point in the next couple of years we’ll have to look at it,” Zurlo said.