GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Police Department now has 41 officers, and almost half of them are new since January 2020, Chief Daniel McNally told town board members at their Jan. 3 meeting.

“So you can see the reason why I’m restructuring with more supervision, more training, and pulling some of my experienced officers up into those command positions so that we can better support our officers,” he said.

Since January 2020, Guilderland has had 12 experienced officers retire and long-time telecommunicators have left as well.

Asked about the high turnover, McNally told The Enterprise this week that police officers leaving their jobs is a state and national trend.

He attributed it to the “negative view of police” held by the public because of initiatives like defund police, raise the age, and cashless bail.

Among Guilderland’s new hires are two African Americans, the department’s first Black officers.

After George Floyd’s murder, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order requiring police departments across the state to reform and reinvent themselves. Among the goals developed by Guilderland’s committee was to increase diversity in the police force, which was then entirely white.

“Based solely upon the Town’s demographic population of 3.5 percent black, the Police Department would meet racial metrics by having one black police officer,” says Guilderland’s committee report. “But the Town’s goal is more than satisfying a statistic, and making the police force more diverse consistent with the community’s growing diversity.

Guilderland, a suburban town with a population of about 37,000, according to the United States Census Bureau, is now about 78 percent white, 9 percent Asian, 5 percent Black, 5 percent Hispanic, and 4 percent mixed race.

McNally told The Enterprise this week that, in selecting new officers, he was not aware of race.

“These gentlemen were the best of the group,” he said of David Grant and Grayson Heyward.

The annual starting salary for a new officer is $58,965, McNally said. He stressed that only one new position has been created — for a fifth sergeant because, with so many new hires, supervision and training of the recruits is needed.

In the three years he has been chief, McNally has hired 18 officers, he said. The majority were to fill the posts of retired officers. 

“We lost some really good officers with experience in the police department and the community,” he said. “So training and supervision is huge.”

McNally described the hiring process as “pretty extensive,” recruiting from other offices throughout the Capital District.

“We have an interviewing board that’s comprised of many different stakeholders,” McNally told the town board on Jan. 3.

Both Supervisor Peter Barber and Deputy Supervisor Rosemary Centi are on the interviewing board; and they both praised the current selections.

“I know you do a fine job of picking the best,” said Barber. “I think we have the best police department, you know, in upstate New York.”

Centi said that, in interviewing candidates, “It was interesting to see so many lateral moves,” indicating the Guilderland department is “renowned around here” for its leadership. Centi called the new appointees an “extraordinary group.”

“We do an extensive background investigation, which includes a national police-decertification check,” said McNally.

New at the federal level, McNally told The Enterprise that there is now a system where local police departments report the reasons for an officer leaving, which feeds into a national database. By consulting the database, McNally said, “You make sure you’re not picking up a bad officer.”

The selection process also includes a psychological examination, he said.

Hires and promotions

With the new year, the changes in the department, approved by the town board, are:

— Joseph DeVoe has been promoted from sergeant to lieutenant and will fill the command post left vacant with the retirement of Deputy Chief Curtis Cox.

“Joe will now become the third member of our command staff,” said McNally, explaining that DeVoe currently trains a team that responds to “situations like at the mall or in a school.” McNally went on, “He’s also in charge of our field training program and our accident reconstruction team”;

— Todd Roberts was promoted from officer to sergeant, filling the role left vacant by DeVoe. Roberts, who works in traffic safety, was recently appointed as chairman of the town’s traffic-safety committee;

— Officer David Grant, a lateral transfer from the Troy Police, has been hired as a patrolman, filling the role left vacant by Roberts’s promotion;

— Deputy Grayson Heyward, a lateral transfer from the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, has been hired as a patrolman, filling the vacancy left by the retirement of Nicholas Ingle;

— Officer Justin Farrenkopf, a lateral transfer from the Wallkill Police, has been hired as a patrolman to fill the vacancy left by Kasey Straus, who became a New York State Trooper; and

— Phillip DeNovo, a lateral transfer from Albany Police, has been hired as patrolman — a position created by the addition of a fifth sergeant. A fifth sergeant will be promoted in April, allowing time for the new officer to be fully trained.

“With so many new officers, training and supervision are key to our success,” said McNally.

A fifth sergeant will allow the department to have two sergeants on duty on the first day shift, two on duty on the afternoon shift, and one on at midnight, said McNally, calling it “a significant increase to what we currently have.”

He went on, “We continue to train and support our officers because obviously our job is very challenging. And, with the new officers, it makes it even more challenging.”

At the same time, Stephen Witham, who has worked in telecommunications for Guilderland for 22 years, was promoted to senior telecommunicator.

“He’s kind of the go-to guy in communications right now,” said McNally. “And he will be on the afternoon shift to provide supervision and training on that shift. And again, just like in the police department, we continue to add new telecommunicators that are brand new so that supervision on the evening shift is key.”

Two new telecommunicators have been hired — David DeBacco and Catrini Caringi — to replace two who left: Katlain Cullpepper and Jordan Alburger.

SRO

Separate from any new-year appointments, the Guilderland Central School District now has a second school resource officer.

School board members, at their December meeting, approved, as a pilot program to be funded by the town until the end of the school year, stationing an officer at Farnsworth Middle School.

An officer was already stationed at the high school and traveled to the middle school and five elementary schools as needed.

Christopher Scarano started as the Farnsworth SRO on Tuesday, Jan. 3, and has been well received, said McNally.

He described Scarano as “one of our newer officers … young and outgoing.” Scarano had been working at Crossgates Mall in retail interdiction, said McNally.

The committee that selected Scarano included Marie Wiles, the school district’s superintendent; Michael Laster, the middle school principal; student Rachael Dwyer; and school board member Nathan Sabourin.

“Things are going very well,” said McNally of Scarano’s start at Farnsworth.

He concluded of his department overall, “We’re excited to keep moving our police department forward with growth.”