Press Release

County Sheriff's Road Patrol Division Expected to Receive State Accreditation

Formal Recognition of Agency's Policies & Practices Meeting or Exceeding State Standards

FONDA - The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office Road Patrol/ Law Enforcement Division is expected to become accredited through the New York State Law Enforcement Agency Accreditation Program.

"The accreditation of the law enforcement division of the sheriff's office has long been a goal of mine," Montgomery County Sheriff Michael Amato said. "By achieving this important certification from the state of New York it has proven the commitment of both deputies and administration of the sheriff's office to provide the best service and standardization of law enforcement practices to the public we serve," Amato continued. "I want to thank Undersheriff Thomas for all his hard work over the past year for making this happen." The Division of Criminal Justice Services Office of Public Safety administers the accreditation program. In order to qualify, an agency must comply with 110 different standards. Undersheriff Robert A. Thomas III served as the accreditation manager and began the application process in late 2016. He said Amato already had 75 percent of the policies needed for accreditation in place when he started the process.

"This process would normally take between three to five years, but because Sheriff Amato was advanced at having polices already written, we were able to accomplish this in about 18 to 20 months," Thomas said

Lt. Burt Wilson, Senior Investigator Joseph Kilmartin and Sgt. Michael Lewis assisted Thomas with tightening polices to state standards and implementation. Thomas said Kilmartin and Wilson were in his office daily working on this and helped put the office into "accreditation mode".

"Accreditation is a process whereby the division of an agency presents to the state their policies and procedures and these policies and procedures are based on most common sense, legal and liability proof methods to accomplishing a job," Thomas said. "There's a long process to get into accreditation, but once you have presented these polices, the state comes in and assesses that you have them in place, that you are using them and that you can prove that you are using them."

Thomas said he was required to provide proof in writing that all policies were being followed. Although not required, he had previously accredited agencies give the division a mock assessment to help them prepare for the official state assessment. During the official assessment, a three person assessing team was at the sheriff's office for a week. They looked for proof of compliance in file folders, interviewed agency staff as well as made other observations in relation to their implementation process.

Senior Investigator Kilmartin was required to go over evidence with the assessors and explain how it was being handled and processed. Thomas said evidence was the most entailed accreditation standard. The Department of Public Works even assisted with the process by building a new caged room in the evidence locker.

Thomas said assessors also went over weapons, equipment training and interviewed deputies on the road.

"We were told by the second day that they [the assessing team] were very comfortable with what we were doing," Thomas said.

He mentioned that the team was confident because even if they didn't have an answer to a specific interview question, they knew where they could find the answer and access the policy.

Thomas said out of 62 sheriffs' offices throughout the state, only 28 have received accreditation. Montgomery County will be 29 and also the second smallest sheriff's office in the state to receive this distinction. He said receiving accreditation provides standardization, less opportunity for litigation, better hiring, training, promotion practices and provides a savings on the county liability insurance.

"The sheriff has been here 39 years, he's been the sheriff for 21 and I've been a cop for 25 years and I've never met a guy who is as progressive as he is," Thomas said. "He's very progressive and was all about getting accredited. He's in tune with technology and a lot of the updates that we needed to make. Without the senior administrator wanting to do things right this would have never happened."

Amato's Road Patrol Division is expected to receive their official accreditation award in December. The accreditation needs to be reassessed every five years. The accreditation manager will be expected to continue program maintenance or compliance with all program standards each year.

"The administration is very proud to be able to show that we have achieved accreditation," Thomas said. "It's my hope that the rest of the department will take pride in knowing that they are members of an agency that stands apart from a majority of the others by meeting state standards."