NEW YORK MILLS, N.Y. -- Police boundaries between New York Mills and Yorkville are no more. On Wednesday the two villages signed an agreement allowing the police departments to patrol in each other's villages. Meaning the departments can make arrests, write tickets, and provide assistance.
"This gives us the ability to make arrests write traffic tickets. Say we're on our way from assisting Yorkville on Oriskany Blvd. We can then write a traffic ticket if we see a violation in the village of Yorkville. If Yorkville sees a violation they now have the ability to write a traffic ticket in New York Mills," said New York Mills Police Chief Robert Frankland.
Officials from both municipalities said it would also increase response times by at least three minutes. Normally when one of the villages calls for assistance on a call, they have to wait for state or county law enforcement to arrive. The agreement now allows village police to respond to help out their neighbors.
"The mayor's got together and discussed it back in December. The proposal was given to myself and the village board. As we looked it over they asked for my opinion and to me, it was a no-brainer. When someone is asking for help, would you rather have the neighbor help you or someone who's over a block away," said Patrick Collea, officer in charge, Yorkville Police Department.
This agreement also comes at no cost taxpayers.
New York Mills Mayor Ernie Talerico hopes this agreement will save money, saying "There's not going to be anymore incurred costs. We're hoping in the future that this will reduce costs because there will be more of a police presence. And hopefully, with a more police presence there will be less crime which will be reduced costs."