Annual Report

2020

Submitted January 20, 2021

Chief Eric Osganian
Table of Contents

Geneseo Police Department - 2020 .................................................................................. 3

Mission Statement ........................................................................................................... 4

Department Staff ............................................................................................................. 5

Calls for Service .............................................................................................................. 6

Accidents ......................................................................................................................... 7

Traffic Citations .............................................................................................................. 8

Parking Enforcement ....................................................................................................... 9

Criminal Investigations .................................................................................................. 10

Grants/Funding .............................................................................................................. 11

Training ......................................................................................................................... 12

Shop with a Cop ............................................................................................................ 13

Year in Review .............................................................................................................. 14

Goals & Objectives for 2021 ......................................................................................... 16

Geneseo Police Department - 2020

It is my pleasure to present the 2020 annual report for the Geneseo Police

Department. This annual report contains statistics and information about the performance

of the police department to keep the public informed about public safety in the Village. It

is not possible to measure and quantify everything performed by a police department.

Geneseo remains a safe place to live, raise a family or retire.

The Geneseo Police Department is in its fourth year of being an accredited police

agency, per the New York State Accreditation Council. We were accredited in 2016. We

will be participating in our first New York State Division of Criminal Justice (DCJS)

accreditation re-assessment in 2021. Maintaining New York State Accreditation

demonstrates to the public each police officer’s commitment toward professionalism and

acknowledges the implementation of policies and procedures that are conceptually sound
and operationally effective.

I would like to extend my appreciation to the officers of this police department for

their extraordinary work effort and commitment to serving the citizens of our community.

We will continue to strive to meet the present and future needs of the community.

Excellent service continues to remain our focus.

Thank you for all your support as we will continue to provide the best possible law

enforcement services to the Village. I am proud to be your Police Chief and I look

forward to serving our community.

Sincerely,

Eric Osganian, Chief of Police

 Mission Statement

The mission of the Geneseo Police Department is to maximize the quality of life

of the citizens of the Village we serve; to uphold the law fairly and firmly; to prevent

crime; to pursue and bring justice to those who violate the law; to keep the peace in the

Village; to protect and help all people in the Village of Geneseo; to do all of this with

integrity, common sense, and sound judgment.

We will strive to provide the best service we can in meeting the needs of this

growing Village.
 Department Staff
The full-time staffing of the police department was comprised of a police chief, a

sergeant, six patrol officers, and a school resource officer. The department also utilized

two part-time sworn police officers, a part-time investigator, and a part-time training

officer. The department operated without any clerical staff. Our staffing levels are equal

to where they were in 1996, except for not having any clerical staff.

Dog control enforcement responsibilities are now handled by the police

department, with assistance from Livingston County Dog Control. A part-time civilian

meter attendant enforced the metered parking areas, as well as the municipal lot and the

permit parking area on University Drive.

According to the 2019 Census estimate, the Village of Geneseo has approximately

8,120 people in residence, which is an increase in population from the 2010 Census.
 Calls for Service
“Call for Service” is what the police department refers to as a service call or
complaint. Very broad, this work encompasses criminal complaints; disorderly person(s);
lost property of all kinds; assisting a stranded motorist; medical complaints; traffic
complaints; loud noise complaints; property checks and any other instance where citizens
desire the services of the police department.

One of the more frequent occurrences is the ‘welfare check”. A welfare check
complaint can consist of anything from a person calling 911 and hanging up to a neighbor
who has not been seen from in a while. Due to the rising number of apartments in the
Village these types of complaints have increased. Geneseo Police Officers responded to
these complaints 317 times during 2020.

Seemingly a routine call, the call for service is often the most important call to the
police. It provides contact between the public and the Geneseo Police Department. This
contact continues to number in the thousands every year.

As you can see from the graph below, the Geneseo Police Department’s “Calls for
Service” clearly show that Geneseo Police officers are busy every day.

10,000 11,472

8,436
Calls for 8,216
8,000 7,979
Service

6,000
2017 2018 2019 2020
Year
 Accidents
The chart below shows the number of accidents for the past four years. The Covid-
19 pandemic started in 2020, which lowered the number of crashes due to fewer cars
being on our roadways due to shutdowns. The Village of Geneseo has several major
highways that cross its borders (Route 20A, Route 39, Route 942D, and Route 63).

Accidents
145 148
150
129
125
Number of 96
Accidents 100
75

50
2017 2018 2019 2020
Year

A breakdown of the accidents shown in the graph above is as follows:

Accidents 2017 2018 2019 2020

Property Damage 120 102 131 91

Personal Injury 5 6 5 1

Pedestrian Accidents 4 1 1 0

Fatalities 0 0 0 0

Hit and Run Accidents 16 20 11 4

Totals 145 129 148 96

The police department has received $171,477 in grant funding for our Police
Traffic Services program from New York State since 2004. These funds are used for the
enforcement of aggressive driving violations, such as speeding and failure to obey a
traffic control device (stop sign, stop light, yield sign, etc.). These violations have been a
cause of our motor vehicle crashes.
 Traffic Citations

The chart featured below outlines the number of traffic tickets written over the
past four years. The Covid-19 pandemic decreased the number of vehicles on our
roadways, which in turn, lowered the number of traffic tickets written.

Traffic Tickets
3,000
2,746
2,128
2,000
Number of
1,362
Tickets
1,000
540
0
2017 2018 2019 2020

Year

A breakdown of some of the traffic tickets shown in the graph above are as follows:

Charge 2017 2018 2019 2020

Driving While Intoxicated 41 36 22 13
Speeding 591 286 214 51
Equipment Violations 482 334 142 36
Fail to Obey a Traffic Device 425 591 457 171
Fail to Yield to Pedestrians 35 10 5 4
Driver’s License Violations 310 237 126 88
Stop Sign Violations 54 27 26 20
Passed School Bus Violations 10 14 17 5
Registration Violations 126 168 102 22
Insurance Violations 11 17 10 8
Seat Belt Violations 76 38 20 6
Inspection Violations 89 87 46 23
Cell Phone Violations 186 60 16 6
Total Traffic Tickets Issued 2,746 2,128 1,362 540
 Parking Enforcement

A total of 2,084 parking tickets were issued in the Village in 2020. The Village’s
part-time parking attendant handles the responsibility for the parking tickets in the
metered areas of the business district of the Village, as well as permit only parking in the
Municipal Lot and University Drive.
During 2020, this position issued 1,557 parking tickets and police personnel issued
527 tickets during their patrols. The graph below shows the past several years of parking
tickets that were issued in the Village. During the Covid-19 pandemic the part-time
parking attendant was not working for approximately half the year.

Parking Tickets
6,500 6,675

4,868
4,500 4,477
Number of
Tickets
2,500
2,084

500
2017 2018 2019 2020
Year

Fines from parking tickets help pay for the replacement and maintenance of the
meters on Main Street and Center Street, the computerized parking software, and costs to
the company to manage the program, the portable parking ticket devices, the salary costs
of the parking attendant, as well as the part of the salary costs for a clerk to administrate
the parking program.
 Criminal Investigations

Under the provisions of the New York State Executive Law, the Division of

Criminal Services (DCJS) is the agency which is authorized to direct and operate the

Uniform Crime Reporting program. All New York State Village, Town, City, County and

State law enforcement agencies are required to send monthly crime statistics to DCJS.

The chart below represents some of the types of crimes that were investigated by

the Geneseo Police Department over the past four years.

Category 2017 2018 2019 2020

Murder/Manslaughter 0 0 0 0
Arson 1 1 1 0
Robbery 0 0 0 0
Assault 9 7 6 5
Burglary/Trespass 31 20 16 19
Criminal Mischief 38 23 28 45
Larceny 153 78 80 68
Motor Vehicle Theft 1 4 0 0
Disorderly Conduct 12 13 9 8
Harassment 32 38 34 45
Drug Violations 118 70 37 17
Alcohol Violations 31 34 24 12
Sex Offenses 6 9 9 5
Family Offenses 25 51 59 80
DWI Offenses 41 36 22 13
Unattended Deaths 2 6 8 5
Total Cases Investigated 838 639 483 400
 Grants/Funding

The Geneseo Police Department was able to apply for several Federal, State and
Local grants, totaling $22,735.87 in 2020. Some of the funding will carry over into 2021.

A breakdown of the funding is as follows:

· Police Traffic Services (PTS) program grant for $10,150. This grant pays for
overtime costs for traffic enforcement. The goal of this grant is to reduce the
number of accidents we have during the year. This grant targets aggressive driving
violations and seat belt violations.

· STOP-DWI funding in the amount of $5,400 to pay for wages associated with
DWI enforcement and assisted with the purchase of new dash camera for a patrol
car.

· A grant in the amount of $400 from the US Department of Justice to purchase new
bullet-proof vests for the officers.

· Specialized STOP-DWI Holiday Crackdown from Livingston County in the

amount of $1,785.87. This funding was used for wages associated with DWI
enforcement around the holidays.

· A Wal-Mart community grant in the amount of $5,000 for the “Shop with a Cop”
program which was held on December 12 and December 13.

The police department has been able to obtain a total of approximately $883,825
in funding since January of 2004.
 Training
The Geneseo Police Department continued to keep its police force trained and
knowledgeable. This training has assisted the department in accommodating the growing
needs and requirements of the Village community. Below is a breakdown of some of the
training courses officers attended in 2020:
· Use of Force training
· Anti-Bias police training
· De-Escalation and Communication training
· Airborne and Blood borne Pathogens training
· Discrimination & Harassment for Employees and Supervisors
· COVID-19: A Pandemic Response
· Words Matter: How to Safely Communicate about Suicide
· Policing Reforms: Considerations for Police Agencies/Local Governments
· Law Enforcement Duty to Intercede training
· Mental Health and COVID-19: Caring for Others and Yourself
· Highway Safety & Survival training
· Child Safety Seat training
· Sexual Offense Trauma-Informed Victim Response training
· Range Qualification and Article 35 training
· TASER training
· STOP-DWI Interdiction training
· High in Plain Sight, course on the latest alcohol and drug use trends
· Reducing Risks on the Road
· Updated Ignition Interlock Device training
· Officer Use of Force Statements training
· Magnetometer training
· Incident Command training (IS-100 to IS-800)
· First Responders, Stress Management and Coronavirus training
· Workplace Violence Prevention training
· Survival Skills for Law Enforcement Drivers training
· Privacy Awareness training
· Complying with HIPAA training
· Managing the Multigenerational Workforce training
· Fundamentals of Crime Prevention through Environment Design training
· Records retention management training
· New York State Legislative Update training
· New York State Criminal Justice Reforms and Amendments training
· Serving in Law Enforcement during Times of Unrest and Uncertainty
 Shop with a Cop
We organized the Shop with a Cop event, which was scheduled for December 12
and 13 at the Walmart supercenter. We applied for a $5,000 grant from Walmart to
purchase gift cards to provide young children to shop for Christmas. The children are
picked by area school districts that may have had a traumatic event during the year or are
in need and their families may have a hard time buying Christmas presents.
The children shop with a law enforcement officer in the store. This year’s program
helped more than 100 children. All public schools in Livingston County have a school
resource officer.
Normally the event is held on a Saturday in December for a 4-hour period,
however due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the concerns for overcrowding the store, we
had to spread the event out over two days. This was our 7th year leading this program
with Walmart. Below is a group picture of some of the law enforcement and Walmart
personnel that helped with the event.
 Year in Review
The Covid-19 pandemic dominated the year throughout the world and the Village
of Geneseo was no exception. Our general complaints increased; however other areas of
activity decreased. Our complaints, mostly to the numerous Village apartment
complexes, increased with more people staying home during the pandemic. More people
requested services from the police department. In contrast, our traffic tickets and motor
vehicle crashes decreased due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Businesses were ordered to
close during 2020 due to the pandemic, which resulted in fewer vehicles on our
roadways. Our arrests also continued to decrease.

Consistent with the year before, the police department was called upon to respond
to numerous medical calls. Officers responded to 596 calls for medical services in 2020.
On these calls our officers are normally the first
responders on the scene to assist the person in

need. Officers were also tasked with doing

lifesaving CPR or administering Narcan/Naloxone,
which reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. In
2020, officers and emergency medical personnel
were called to respond to a total of six drug
overdoses in the Village. These are incidents where
the individual is unconscious and not breathing due to a drug overdose. Officers and
medical professionals successfully administered Narcan/Naloxone to everyone who had
overdosed. This resulted in all six lives being saved by the actions of our officers and
medical professions that arrived on scene. Unfortunately, in 2019, the Village saw three
overdose deaths due to a drug overdose; however, in 2020 we did not have any overdose
deaths.
 The Village complied with Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 203 and organized
a stakeholder’s group to work on police reform. The order mandates the Village Board
adopt a resolution complying with the order or the municipality will not be able to obtain

any funding from New York State. The stakeholder’s group developed a public survey
and had several meetings in development of a police reform plan. The discussions were
very productive, and we hope that a police reform plan will be adopted by the Village
Board in 2021.
 Goals & Objectives for 2021
Maintaining our accreditation status has been a primary goal for us. We received
our law enforcement accreditation certification in 2016. The department undergoes
compliance checks every year and then there is a physical re-assessment every five years.
We are due to receive our re-accreditation compliance examination in the spring of 2021.
We will be devoting time to prepare for this assessment.

To follow through on our police reform discussions, the reform plan will be given
to the Village Board to adopt in 2021 after a public meeting. If adopted, the plan will be
sent to New York State, complying with the governor’s executive order. However,
adjusting to the needs of the community is never ending and we will continue to have
discussions and make improvements as needed.

We have several aging video/audio cameras in our patrol cars. We were able to
replace a camera last year and our goal is to replace another camera in 2021. The older
cameras have grainy video, and the new cameras are high definition.

Another goal is getting on a routine car replacement cycle for our aging fleet of
patrol cars. The cars are not being replaced in a timely fashion, which is resulting in
much higher repair costs. The last two patrol cars needed a street sign to be wielded to the
floor on the driver’s side, since the floor was rotting out. We currently have only one
patrol car that is covered by a factory warranty.

Our record management system is transitioning over to an incident-based reporting

system to meet the requirements of New York State. The incident-based system is more
comprehensive in reporting certain data, than our current system. In combination with the
new requirements on the bail reform legislation, which was started in 2020, both
requirements have placed an additional burden on our staff as it requires more clerical
duties of our officers.