New partnerships

Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol and City of Utica Police Chief Mark Williams were joined today by Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara, Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri, and representatives from the Town of New Hartford Police Department as they announced two new partnerships between the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office and the City of Utica Police Department. The announcement was made this afternoon from the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Complex in Oriskany.

The City of Utica Police Department Narcotics Unit has recently been deputized by Sheriff Maciol so that they can now work together with the Oneida County Sheriff’s Narcotics Unit to conduct investigations both inside and outside of the City of Utica. The sale of illegal drugs have no boundaries and now, as a result of this deputation, neither do the investigators from both agencies. This joining of forces is nothing new to the Sheriff’s Office as both the Oneida County Sheriff’s Narcotics Units and the Madison County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit have recently been cross deputized so that they can work together across county lines to rid our communities from illegal drug sales. The Oneida County Sheriff’s Office also as an active Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Drug Enforcements Agency (DEA) as they deal with illegal drug sales on much wider jurisdictional view.

The second initiative is the Sheriff’s SWAT Team which is now training and operating together with the Utica and New Hartford SWAT teams as a Regional SWAT Team. This approach allows for members from all three agencies to work as one team for incidents that occur throughout the entire county. This endeavor has already shown positive results. This week alone, the Regional SWAT team from all three agencies executed a search warrant that yielded two handguns, two long guns, and illegal narcotics.

“To the credit of the current leadership of the Oneida County Sheriff’s office we’ve enjoyed a great partnership on several initiatives and programs (Gun Involved Violence Elimination Program, Mohawk Valley Crime Analysis Center & Mohawk Valley Police Academy). In order to provide enhanced services to our residents it makes perfect sense to find other ways in which we can work with the OCSO and share resources. I’m excited to have the OCSO as a partner with Metro SWAT. The Metro SWAT is proud to be only one of nine SWAT teams that is certified in NYS. Additionally we are grateful to the OCSO for cross-designating several of our investigators. In many of our drug investigations we find that crime does not have borders. It’s imperative that our narcotics investigations share information and work together”, according to Utica Police Chief Mark Williams.

According to Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, “The sale of illegal drugs knows no boundaries and this constant fight needs to be equipped with every weapon in our arsenal. I applaud Sheriff Maciol and Chief Williams for joining the forces of their Narcotics Units to strengthen that attack. I also commend them and Chief Inserra for solidifying our SWAT Team forces by training together to respond to incidents throughout our county. This cooperation between Oneida County, Utica and New Hartford is a great example of how sharing services can benefit our community”.

“This is another example of everybody working together for the betterment of our community. This initiative strengthens partnerships and expands law enforcement resources to help combat the drug epidemic which is negatively impacting families throughout Oneida County. After meeting with Sheriff Maciol and the Utica Police Department, I strongly support this effort, and I commend all stakeholders who are working diligently to improve the quality of life for our residents”, according to Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri.

According to Sheriff Maciol and Chief Williams, their agencies will continue to develop further programs together in order to provide the highest quality and most effective services for the people they are sworn to protect.