Steuben County Sheriff Jim Allard / July 8 2025
It’s a beautiful day in Steuben County. Everything is green and growing with sunshine in abundance! The other night, driving from Caton to Lindley, at sunset, with the sky on fire and the hills greener than Ireland, I was struck with just how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful county. I tried to capture the beauty on my phone (after pulling over, of course!), but photos never do it justice.
The Fourth of July came and went with weather more like Florida than New York. A great weekend to be on the water and our navigable waterways were definitely busy! Unfortunately our county experienced two shooting incidents over the weekend, a continuation of deadly encounters experienced this year. Please be patient and safe this summer, as it is gearing up to be a dangerous summer judging by the incidents in our county thus far.
In June, we swore in three new Correction Officers, Officers T. Murphy, R. Frisk, and D. Deming have now joined our family. The Inmate Garden is doing well with the addition of Apple and Pear trees! Sergeant Sorge and Deputy Butler taught another NYS Boater’s Safety Course, continuing our monthly presentation of this course. Officers Donald Strittmatter and Travis Waight attended the NYS DCJS Firearms Instructor Workshop, Officer Jacob Eighmey attended ALERRT 1 and Sergeant Angelo Sciotti assisted with Reality Based Training at the Southern Tier Law Enforcement Academy. Our Corrections Officers completed their annual firearms training with transition to the reticule optics. Sergeant Sciotti, Officer Audinwood and Sheriff Allard represented the Sheriff’s Office by marching in both the Dairy Festival and the Colonial Days Parades. Deputy Butler completed the DRE Courtroom Training Course. Undersheriff McNelis presented at the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals Joint Threat Assessment Training Conference. He presented a Case Study on the value of BTAM Teams with the New York State Domestic Terrorism Prevention Unit. Sheriff Allard presented at the Wellness Roundtable in Oriskany, New York and attended the National Sheriff’s Conference, as part of the National School Safety Committee and the Public Outreach Committees. At that conference attendees received presentations from Tom Homan of ICE, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Sheriff Allard also appeared on “Frankly Speaking”.
June was another busy and challenging month in the Sheriff’s Office. Our investigators and deputies were tasked with two burglary investigations, three assault investigations, three trespass investigations, three animal cruelty investigations, one obstructing governmental administration investigation, two endangering a child investigations, one sexual assault investigation, one forcible touching investigation, one unauthorized use of a computer investigation, one terroristic threat investigation, one sex offense investigation, two welfare fraud investigations, two misuse of food stamps investigations, two death investigations, two falsifying business records investigations, two filing a false instrument investigations, two criminal contempt investigations, two fire investigations, four larceny investigations, three grand larceny investigations, three harassment investigations, seven criminal mischief investigations, one drug investigation and one filing a bad check investigation. Our Patrol Division was tasked with multiple domestic incident investigations along with mental health detainments, emergency medical aid, assisting other agencies, serving of warrants, and three intoxicated or impaired driving arrests.
All of our deputies and officers performed in an outstanding fashion, and we received multiple commendations from the public regarding their outstanding performance.
We continue to pray for our first responder colleagues and deployed military across the globe, as well as their families. We also pray for the victims of mass casualty events and state sponsored aggression.
Thank you for supporting the Steuben County Sheriff’s Office in these challenging times and stay safe!
