Webster Police Department 2009 Year in Review   1/20/2010

                                                                               Chief Gerald L. Pickering

 It is indeed my continued pleasure to bring you Webster Police Department’s highlights of the past year.  As your Chief of Police, I am honored to lead Webster’s Finest as we strive to make Webster the finest town in New York State.  

It is with your support that we are able to effectively police our town.  Our relentless goal is to make every person feel safe and protected while enjoying our unique freedoms as citizens of the United States of America.

As police officers, we swear to uphold the laws of the State of New York and the Constitution of the United States.  It is an oath that each one of us takes very seriously.  Professional policing sets a very high standard in which to conduct ourselves as we wear the uniform.   It is my distinct honor to report Webster Police Department‘s 2009 Year in Review.

The Statistics

 Webster Police responded to 30,623 calls for service in 2009 which reflects a 13% decrease in overall calls from 2008.  While Part 1 crimes increased 3%, Part 2 Crimes fell 5 %.  The Webster community enjoyed a decrease in overall crime for the third year in a row with total index crimes falling from from1252 in 2008 to 1236 in 2009.  Officers cleared 29% of reported Part 1 Crimes and 52% of reported Part 2 Crimes, placing us way ahead of the nationwide crime clearance rate curve.   

The commercial and residential growth in the community has continued to place increased demands on the services we provide and have caused additional challenges for the men and women of the Webster Police Department. That said, statistics indicate that the Town of Webster is still a very safe community to raise our children.

 The road patrol continues to focus on highway safety. Our road patrol officers actively enforce aggressive driving violations in an attempt to reduce the overall number of motor vehicle accidents.  Our goal is to make our roadways safer. Unfortunately, even with aggressive enforcement efforts we still experienced a tragic motorcycle fatality in 2009. 

We salute and thank… 

One of Webster’s Finest retired in 2009.  On January 31st, Sergeant Steve Small retired after 20 years of dedicated service as a police officer, the last 14 spent with the Town of Webster.  Steve continues his public service as Executive Director of the North East Fire District. The department will miss the diligent, hardworking and successful sergeant.

 New Hires

On 01-04-2009 Officer Brian McCoy, a lateral transfer officer from the Rochester Police Department joined the Webster ranks. Officer McCoy was last assigned to the Traffic Unit of the Rochester Police Department.  Brian, a life long resident of Webster, served the community previously as a volunteer with the Webster Special Police Unit. Officer McCoy is assigned to 1st platoon or night shift. Officer McCoy filled the vacancy created by the retirement of Investigator Storrs in 2008. We are very pleased to welcome Officer McCoy to our police department. 

On March 2nd, Officer Erik Rynders, a 2 year service officer from the New York State Park Police and a life long resident of Williamson, laterally transferred to Webster Police Department. Officer Rynders follows in his father’s footsteps in local municipal police work.  Rynder’s father is a well known and respected veteran Irondequoit Police Officer. Officer Rynders is assigned to the C line afternoon platoon. Officer Rynders fills the position created by the retirement of Sgt. Small. We welcome Officer Rynders to Webster. 

On November 16, 2009, Officer Mark Reed started with Webster. Officer Reed’s hire puts the Police Department roster back to its current allocated strength.   Officer Mark Reed comes to us as a lateral transfer from the City of Oneida Police Department. Reed had two years prior service as a police officer and is a native of Morrisville New York. Officer Reed recently married and has set up residence in the Town of Webster. Officer Reed fills a long term vacancy on the road patrol. We welcome Officer Reed to our patrol unit. 

We wish all three officers a long and safe career serving the citizens of Webster.     

Personnel Promotions 

On February 19th, 2009 Officer Brad Fosdick was promoted to road patrol sergeant to fill the vacancy created by retired Sgt. Small.  Sgt. Fosdick is currently assigned as 1st Platoon shift commander. 

On March 15, 2009 Officer Dennis Kohlmeier was promoted to road patrol sergeant to fill the vacancy in road patrol command created by Sgt. Kevin Hall’s movement to the Administrative Bureau.  Sergeant Kohlmeier is assigned to the 1st platoon as relief commander. 

On June 23rd, 2009 Sergeant Kevin Hall was reassigned from the Operations Bureau as 3rd platoon relief commander to the Administrative Bureau Criminal Investigative Division. Sergeant Hall will now command the criminal investigators and take over departmental case management duties and assignments. 

Officer Gretchen O’Dea was promoted to the position of criminal investigator effective January 13, 2009. Officer O’Dea enjoyed a successful road patrol career last assigned to the uniformed road patrol 3rd platoon. Investigator O’Dea fills the vacancy left by retirement of Investigator Guy Storrs.  

Administration 

The Webster Police Department went through a New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services Accreditation Council assessment in January. On site New York State Assessors scrutinized the department and its members by conducting numerous interviews and a detailed review of department policies, procedures and operations. 

The Accreditation Program is comprised of 132 standards and is divided into three categories. The standards in the Administrative section cover such topics as agency organization, fiscal management, personnel practices, and records. Training standards encompass basic and in-service instruction, as well as training for supervisors and specialized or technical assignments. Operations standards deal with such critical and litigious topics as high-speed pursuits, roadblocks, patrol, and unusual occurrences. 

I am proud to report the department once again achieved reaccredidation and was recognized for this accomplishment in a ceremony in Albany on March 5th 2009.  Lieutenant Joe Rieger and Sergeant Kevin Hall were instrumental in achieving this goal.  

On May 20, 2009, the Webster Police Department was one of three Monroe County Police Agencies singled out to be recognized by the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police and the N.Y.S. Division of Criminal Justice Services for outstanding Sexual Offender Community Tracking and Notification Program. Webster Police were awarded a “Best Practices Certification” which recognized collaboration, vigor and the vigilance in managing sex offenders in the Webster community.  

Records Division 

On January 5th of 2009, Rick Gallatin joined the police department in a newly developed civilian staff position of Coordinator of Police Staff Services. With the advance of the many computerized systems inherent in records keeping and in the police department overall, the need for a civilian supervisor with a strong I.T. (Information Technology) background became evident.     

Gallatin comes to Webster Police Department from the private sector where he held a position as an electronics support specialist. Gallatin resides in the Town of Webster with his wife and family.  Gallatin will play a critical part as the police department transitions to the new countywide records management system scheduled for 2011. We welcome Rick to the department and wish him great success.  

The police records department continued efforts on records maintenance and purging of records while moving forward with a digital scanning and uploading of written reports into the county wide records management system. This allows for quick and easy access to criminal reports and allows for investigators countywide to access information needed in the pursuit of justice.  

Grants 

Like many public service organizations, the Webster Police Department is heavily dependant on state and federal grants to enhance efficiency.  We applied for and were awarded several important grants in 2009. 

With the acquisition of a grant funded automatic license plate reader in 2009, officers have been able to more quickly identify chronic traffic violators and remove illegal vehicles and operators from our highways. This high tech tool is one of many at our officers’ disposal to assist us in improving highway safety. 

Studies have shown time and time again serious motor vehicle accidents are frequently caused by motorists who have accrued numerous vehicle and traffic violations which result in the suspension and or revocation of both their driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations.  Our local experience most certainly supports these nationwide studies. 

The deprivation of the uninsured motor vehicle from the unlicensed operator can undoubtedly create a safer driving environment for the majority of our citizens who are law abiding.  These studies are also what prompted the Governors Traffic Safety Council to fund the purchase of this technology.  

The Webster Police Department was awarded $10,000 on a Federal Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) to purchase weapon lights and new security holsters for duty weapons which will be completed in the current year. 

We once again participated in the N.Y.S. STEP (Select Traffic Enforcement Program) grant which afforded us the opportunity to deploy dedicated traffic enforcement officers to the identified traffic corridors.  The officers were deployed during identified peak aggressive driving timeframes.  The enforcement timeframes include the hours of 0700 hrs through 2100 hrs, every day of the week.   

The officers utilized both marked patrol vehicles and unmarked and low profile traffic enforcement vehicles equipped with handheld and two piece radar units, along with LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging).  Officers focused on aggressive driving behaviors including speeding in excess of the posted limit, disregarding traffic control devices and signals, failure to signal turns and lane changes, following too closely and distracted driving.   

The Webster Police Department also actively participated in several statewide Speed Enforcement Mobilization campaigns. 

In 2009, Webster Police Department once again participated in the N.Y.S. Governors Traffic Safety Sponsored Buckle Up New York campaign (BUNY) – called “Click it or Ticket”.    The state wide campaign was heavily advertised and a fully grant reimbursed traffic safety initiative.   

The Webster Police have participated in seat belt use campaigns for at least the past 15 years to remind our citizens that buckling up saves lives.  When we started the program we had only 60% compliance for seat belt and appropriate child restraint usage and the campaign has produced tremendous results locally as well as state wide.  

The last tally in Webster showed our usage had increased to better than 94%. The Statewide usage increased from 83 % in 2007 to 89% in 2008. Statistics are not yet available for the 2009 N.Y.S. seatbelt compliance rates. 

Webster Police once again participated in the very effective N.Y.S. STOP DWI grant reimbursed enforcement campaigns utilizing both roving individual patrols and stationary random DWI sobriety check points with multiple officers.

Community Outreach 

In essence, we know that we can no longer be the sole guardians of law and order.  Collaboration between the police and the community is required to identify and solve community problems. The Webster Police continued with this model in 2009 by sponsoring three citizen police academies in which we promote and empower citizens to become active allies in the effort to enhance the safety and quality of our neighborhoods.  

We also continue to sponsor a police explorer group and provide police instructors to present the DARE program to all 5th graders in our district as well as offering several valuable school presentations to our Senior High Schools. The ability to positively interact with our community youth yields remarkable results.  

The benefit of getting officers out of their patrol cars and interacting with youth, citizens and business owners on Main Street once again led us to providing a foot patrol in the Village business district during the past year as staffing allowed.

In an effort to properly collect and dispose of expired and no longer used pharmaceutical drugs, our property clerk, in voluntary cooperation with Webster Waste Water Treatment,  ran two pharmaceutical collections during the past year along with subsequent destructions.  The first destruction of collected drugs was over 250 lbs worth and the second collection removed over 400 lbs of expired and unused prescription drugs from the waste stream. These destructions have become increasingly important in order to ensure the safety of our community water. We will provide this much needed service once again in 2010. The events are scheduled for May 8th and October 2nd. Please check the newspaper for locations and times for the collections. 

Looking ahead… 

Updating the 20+year-old Monroe County radio system to a new generation voice and data communication system was essentially completed by years end and was put into service shortly after the New Year started. In another important consolidation measure, Webster and Irondequoit police departments welcome the Town of Brighton Police Department onto their dispatch channel.  All three police agencies will now share one dispatch channel. 

Consolidation of important emergency services is a continual process of research and evaluation and the Webster Police Department will continue to seek out ways to share costs without losing the important value added policing services that only a local department can provide. 

 To Serve, Guide and Protect  

We, the members of the Webster Police Department, affirm our pledge to providing you a safe community. Our goal is to control the crime rate and help keep Webster a place worth living.  Working together we can make Webster a safe place to work and live.