Oneida County looks to increase security at its buildings by hiring 8 special patrol officers

Oneida County soon will increase security at the buildings it owns after the Oneida County Board of Legislators signed off on the hiring of eight full-time special patrol officers (SPO).

The board unanimously supported the request at the behest of Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol.

The $507,142 required for the SPOs will come from the appropriated fund balance, according to board documentation.

“I realized that this is an expensive undertaking, but I believe it will be much cheaper in the long run should someone get shot on county owned property and the county is found negligent for not providing a secure and safe workspace,” Oneida County Board of Legislators Chairman Gerald Fiorini said in a letter addressing the SPOs.

Oneida County currently has 114 part-time SPOs, Maciol said during the board’s Ways and Means Committee meeting.

The Ways and Means Committee noted it was somewhat unordinary to add positions outside of the budget process.

Maciol said the additional manpower was needed to assist with the wanding now taking place at the Oneida County Office Building.

This extra security feature was added earlier this year. It has already caught people trying to bring in brass knuckles, legal handguns (pistol permitting is done in the building), knives and various drug paraphernalia, Maciol said.

Maciol said the deputies at the doors also have made arrests following the wanding.

“As I said, a lot of this is dangerous,” Maciol said. “It just takes a large amount of manpower.”

The new SPOs will work at other Oneida County-owned buildings, including those in Rome and Union Station, Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente Jr. said.

Picente said SPOs give an equal amount of protection for the public.

Deputies at the county office building are pulling double duty, Picente said. This double duty involves keeping the building safe and transporting juvenile offenders to and from secure detention facilities.

Picente said the extra SPOs became a topic of discussion after the various items were discovered recently during wanding at the office building.

“The good news is they found them,” Picente said of the weapons found on some people trying to enter the county office building. “The further good news is nothing happened.”

Ed Harris is the Oneida County reporter for the Observer-Dispatch. Email Ed Harris at EHarris1@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Oneida County hires 8 security officers at its buildings