All of our deputies and officers performed in an outstanding fashion
February 2025 Newsletter from Steuben County Sheriff James Allard,
It’s a beautiful day in Steuben County. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so all scientists agree, it will be six more weeks of winter! The end of January and beginning of February were incredibly busy with both the state and national Sheriff’s conferences. At the state conference, we received reports from the Customs and Border Patrol from the Buffalo and Swanton (east of Lake Ontario) Sectors, detailing the incredible increase in illegal crossings on our northern border. We also received a report from the NYC DEA and an update on their efforts against the Cartels. The Assistant Superintendent of the State Police presented on the status of the NYSP and the Deputy Commissioner of DCJS provided current crime statistics. On January 31st I attended the National Sheriff’s Conference in Washington DC, specifically attending the two committees I am honored to be part of, School Safety and Public Outreach. We were fortunate enough to receive a presentation from Tom Homan, the “Border Czar”, detailing the efforts of ICE and the Border Patrol in securing both our southern and northern borders as it relates to human trafficking and fentanyl trafficking. I was also honored to be part of a delegation which met with our elected officials in Washington, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, and Congressmen Langworthy, Lawler and Ryan. We discussed many of the issues we face in NYS public safety.
January brought another busy month for our agency. One item is bittersweet for us. Investigator Don Lewis, a twenty-seven-year veteran of our agency, was chosen as Chief of Police for the Village of Bath Police Department. Don has become the “go to” in the county for phone data extraction and is also currently serving as the Assistant SWAT Commander for our team. He has a distinguished career in which he has been named Deputy Sheriff of the Year by the New York State Sheriff’s Association, has received the Career Achievement Award from our Office and countless commendations along the way. Although Don is luckily not going far, we will miss him all the same. He and K9 Jack will still be responding to Arson Investigations, but he will be missed. We wish him good luck in his next chapter and thank him for his service to our county and his continued service to the Village of Bath.
Sergeant Sorge and Deputy Butler taught another NYS Boater’s Safety Course, continuing our monthly presentation of this course. We hosted the NYS DCJS Course in Corrections Supervision and Sergeant Branden Erskine completed the Course with other supervisors from Allegany, Chemung, Schuyler and Tompkins Counties. Lieutenant Ryan Thompson, Sergeants Kevin Ames and Kristopher Kester completed the Disability Awareness Training for Law Enforcement train the trainer course (16 hours)
Sergeant Angelo Sciotti and Officer Jacob Eighmey completed ALERRT 1 Train the Trainer. Deputy Henry completed interview and interrogation training and overdose death investigation training.
Sheriff Allard welcomed several new Correction Officers in January, swearing in Officers Gilman, Vansickles, Hawley, Brown, Crooker, Baker Jr., and Clifford, as well as swearing in Correction Officer Erskine in the position of Correction Sergeant. Congratulations on your promotion Sergeant Erskine!
January was another busy and challenging month in the Sheriff’s Office. Our investigators and deputies were tasked with one criminal possession of stolen property investigation, two burglary investigations, one stalking investigation, one endangering a child investigation, seven assault investigations, two jail contraband investigations, one criminal possession of a weapon investigation, two sex offense investigations, one unauthorized use of a vehicle investigation, five death investigations, one criminal impersonation investigation, two menacing investigations, nine criminal contempt investigations, two filing a false instrument investigations, four fire investigations, six larceny investigations, one grand larceny investigation, six harassment investigations, twelve criminal mischief investigations and four narcotics investigations. Our Patrol Division was tasked with multiple domestic incident investigations along with mental health detainments, emergency medical aid, assisting other agencies, serving of warrants, and three intoxicated or impaired driving arrests.
All of our deputies and officers performed in an outstanding fashion, and we received multiple commendations from the public regarding their outstanding performance.
We continue to pray for our first responder colleagues and deployed military across the globe, as well as their families. We also pray for the victims of mass casualty events and state sponsored aggression.
Thank you for supporting the Steuben County Sheriff’s Office in these challenging times and stay safe!
Steuben County Sheriff Jim Allard
