BUFFALO, NY - Erie County lawmakers are beginning to look at the idea of making deputies assigned to SWAT full-time members of the team. It's not in this year's budget plan, but may be in the future.
They train hard at a sophisticated facility in Alden, but the deputies on the Erie County Sherriff's SWAT Team are only part time members of that unit. They are pulled from road patrol and other duties when the call comes - and it's coming more often, according to Legislator Lynne Dixon.
"They're at just about every Sabres game and every other function that happens at the Keybank Center," Dixon says. "They are of course out at the stadium not only for Bills games but for concerts...all the outdoor concerts that happen in the summer. They are really called upon on a regular basis."
So now the county Legislature's Public Safety Committee may review full time status. The exact number of 18 deputies or so fluctuating with the type of call and could include K-9 units or members of the bomb squad as well. Spokesman Scott Zylka of the Erie County Sheriff's Office emphasized that this discussion of a full time SWAT unit is very much in the preliminary stages. But he did stress there are significant overtime costs for training for the deputies who are in the unit.
Dixon points out, "The overtime costs are so much now that we're incurring, that if perhaps they were to go full time that would help cut down on some of those costs."
But some may question whether they have to hire other replacement road patrol deputies. Back in 2016, Erie County posted the 2016 starting salaries for deputy sheriff's listed between 51 and 70 thousand dollars.
Legislator Dixon acknowledged that potential need for hiring but adds, "There's always that financial toll that it could take...but what is the equation...how does that look? And again it was mentioned that perhaps it wouldn't cost that much more because the costs right now that we're paying these SWAT team members in overtime."
Legislator Chairman Peter Savage says there is nothing official in terms of a request from Sheriff Tim Howard or his office. "We always wanna make sure that we're giving the tools to do the job to protect the public but at the same time we also need to have a real proposal."
But Legislator Thomas Loughran says while there are several other SWAT teams in the county, the Sheriff's Office unit is the best trained and equipped. He feels the lawmakers should look at a full time unit.
Loughran says, "If crisis happens in our community, we wanna be prepared for it."