December 11, 2017
CANISTEO, NY – Canisteo Police Chief Kyle Amidon, and Steuben County Sherriff Jim Allard made an appearance at Monday night’s Canisteo Town meeting to address the topic of the possibility of increasing police presence in the village.
Both were in agreement that times are changing and all types of crimes are increasing locally, with response times taking longer because of lack of manpower. “Steuben County is a huge county,” said Allard, “And at any one time we only have three cars on patrol. Say one is on a DWI call, so he’s out of action for the night, and another car is on a domestic call, that leaves one car to respond to any number of situations that could arise. It’s not an optimal situation.”
Amidon reinforced Allard by saying if they increased the number of hours the village PD was in operation, most calls could be handled locally and in a timely fashion. As it stands now, the village PD only handles around 22% of the calls with the Sherriff and State Police covering the rest. On the financial aspect, Amidon explained, “We would probably only need to hire one extra officer at a cost of roughly $80,000, so the impact on local taxpayers would not be that great.”
Supervisor Steve Weed said he has heard arguments for both sides on the idea, and decided to form an ad hoc committee to get some concrete financial numbers on cost and the effect it would have on local taxes. After that’s completed the Town Board would make a decision on whether the idea is feasible and send it in front of the public for opinions.
