When it comes to combating crime, Ken Lansing is a seasoned pro.
The Tompkins County Sheriff candidate's experience starts in 1973 as a security officer at the State University of New York in Cortland and included a nine-year tenure as chief of Cayuga Heights Police Department.
As challenger to incumbent Peter Meskill in the Democratic primary Sept. 14 -- and as the Independence Party candidate in the Nov. 2 general election should he lose that vote -- Lansing is relying on his 37 years of experience in law enforcement to entice voters.
It includes a laundry list of trainings Lansing has attended, such as a set of national seminars on domestic abuse. Lansing said that background will be crucial when formulating crime prevention strategies, especially at a time when violent crime is on the rise.
"When times are bad and people are frustrated because they don't have jobs, the incidents of domestic violence, of armed robberies and assaults, will rise and that's what we're seeing now," Lansing said. "People will do what they need to do to survive."
According to state-compiled crime statistics, last updated in April, the number of crimes handled each year by the Sheriff's Department between 2005 and 2009 is actually down, from 515 to 484. Of those, property crimes, burglary and larcenies dropped the most, but aggravated assault more than tripled from 2008 to 2009, rising from 19 incidents to 72.
Meskill said it's one of the reasons he introduced "verbal judo" training to equip deputy sheriffs with nonviolent means to diffuse difficult situations and electroshock weapons, such as Tasers, to reduce injuries to both suspects and staff.
Meskill said he has definitely learned a thing or two about policing in his 12 years at the helm of the county's lead law enforcement agency.
For him, the most important part of community policing is community. Much of his focus has been cooperation, both among county police and emergency response agencies and the people they serve.
He helped form interagency accident investigation and SWAT teams, as well as mutual aid and closest car response agreements.
By supporting neighborhood watch groups and encouraging the education outreach efforts of his staff, Meskill said his department has been able to reduce burglaries this year in several key communities.
"A lot of our job is about service. It's not just about public safety," Meskill added.
Lansing wants to take community policing a step further. He said he is investigating the possibility of assigning deputies to certain communities -- preferably the ones in which they live -- to become the face of the Sheriff's Department in those areas. They would take part in community activities, monitor emerging local issues and act as the primary point of contact for both residents and municipal leaders.
"It's worked in other counties, and it really is a program that I think we could implement here that could give that little extra personal service that I'm used to giving, coming from a small department," Lansing said.
Recent limited resources have resulted in limited services, leading Meskill to eliminate the snowmobile patrol last winter and drastically reduce water patrols this summer.
Meskill said he has done his best with what he has been given.
One of his strategies has been targeted traffic enforcement, which Meskill believes has been successful in reducing accidents in those areas.
He also advocated strongly for the county's purchase of a new dispatch and incident management system, which he believes will be a great time-, cost- and crime-reduction tool for all emergency response agencies in the county.
He warned that further reductions will make the department unsustainable, however, and said his experience thus far in navigating the budget quagmire will be crucial to sustaining the department's policing capabilities.
"We respond to about 80 percent of the calls outside of the city and villages. We are at the core of county services," Meskill said. "If our core service budget is cut, unfortunately people will feel that. They will experience longer waits; we will have to prioritize calls. We are not going to have any choice; we don't have the staff now. We have managed to do some with less, but we've gotten to the point where we can't anymore."
Lansing said sometimes you have to improvise, like placing unmanned patrol cars in strategic areas for traffic control.
"There are certain things you can do to address problems, even when you don't have the staff resources," he said.
The DARE and personal safety instructor said educational outreach is also key -- and inexpensive.
"You can't be every place at every time, but you can help the community understand what they need to be looking out for and how to be safe," Lansing added.
