Paul Szmal: It is 8.39 on FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio. The temperature is still holding at 66 for the moment. And it's Lawman Thursday. Our lawman is Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Skank joining us on the line. Good morning, Brian. How are you, sir?
Brian Schenck, Justin Lasinski: Good morning, Paul. Doing great. Good morning to everybody listening today. And we also have a second guest joining us, and that is Identification Officer Justin Lisinski. Justin, how are you this morning?
Justin Lasinski: Good today, sir. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Excellent. Excellent. Justin, why don't you explain what exactly an identification officer does?
Justin Lasinski: So there's two of us at the Sheriff's Office right now. My side of it is I handle background investigations for employment with the Sheriff's Office, pistol permit investigations, and also amendments for pistol permits. The other identification officer handles more of the evidence side of things in the department.
Paul Szmal: So when you talk about amending a permit, what exactly does that mean?
Justin Lasinski: People need to update their address, update employment on their pistol permit. If they purchase a handgun or if they decide to sell one, we assist them with that.
Paul Szmal: Ah, okay. How long have you been doing this work?
Justin Lasinski: This position, I've been in for about three years.
Paul Szmal: Okay. What got you onto the police force to begin with? What made you want to be a member of law enforcement?
Justin Lasinski: I was just always a career I was interested in since about high school, and I went to the Academy in 2005 and then started here at the Sheriff's Office in 2008.
Paul Szmal: Wow. Congratulations to you on the advancement to the position that you're in here so far. Brian, this is a pretty important and a pretty busy arm of the Sheriff's Office.
Brian Schenck, Justin Lasinski: It's extremely busy. In fact, I asked Justin just a few days ago, I like to pop into his office once in a while and kind of see where things are at, but I asked him how busy our pistol permit window was that day, and he had had 13 people come in just for amendments. So that was 13 people that had come in with either purchasing a firearm or needing to take one off of their permit that they had disposed of, but that's just people buying and or selling or giving away a pistol that need to amend the permits. But the process of people applying for permits, I know he's doing anywhere between two and 300 applications for new permits a year. So it's a very, very busy office and Justin does a great job there, but really, really busy. Our pistol permit window at times literally will have lines out in our lobby of people just waiting to get access to Justin, so a very busy area of our department.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, because so much of this is a detail-oriented process.
Brian Schenck, Justin Lasinski: Absolutely. We definitely have to make sure that we're getting it right. We can't have any mistakes there, but we want to certainly make sure that we're serving the public to the best of our ability in this area and getting people in and out as quick as we can. There have been times over the last few years where we sometimes get a little behind just due to the volume, but we actually created a new identification officer position a few years ago because of the backlog with pistol permit applications and Justin was gracious enough to take on that role and he's done a great job with that.
Paul Szmal: Justin, do you have any tips for people when they come in for, say, an amendment or something, paperwork that they should have in the right order, items they should have that'll help expedite the process?
Justin Lasinski: On our website, there are a lot of frequently asked questions that if people have questions, just due to the volume of being at the window doing amendments, I'm not always able to answer my phone, so if they could reference our website first, then obviously if they can't find an answer then to give us a call.
Paul Szmal: Okay. Thank you and I appreciate that information. Brian, I know you are in the heart of recruitment season here because you've got a couple of recruiting events coming up.
Brian Schenck, Justin Lasinski: We do. We've got an open house this coming Tuesday night, the 19th, here at our Sheriff's Office from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. So if anyone is interested in a career in law enforcement, whether it be with our correctional division in the jail or if they're interested in a road patrol position or with really any law enforcement agency, if they just want to find out a little bit more information, we welcome them to come next week on Tuesday between 5 and 7 and we are giving both entry level exams coming soon. The registration deadline for both is next week, so anyone interested can visit our website and learn a little bit more, actually the Human Resources website and register for those exams and I would like to mention that I know your listening area covers a lot more than just Cuyahoga County, but really most Sheriff's Offices and Police Departments throughout our region will be offering these exams as well in the fall. So I would encourage anybody in your listening area with interest to look into their local police agencies and even beyond and take those exams. We're looking for good folks and there's a lot of good job opportunities right now.
Paul Szmal: And while we're talking about that website, why don't we give out that information right now?
Brian Schenck, Justin Lasinski: So if you go to CuyahogaCounty.us, that will get you to our homepage where you can look up from their departments and you can always visit the Human Resources site from there, that department, or our Sheriff's Office has a tab for our site right on the county's homepage as well. So CuyahogaCounty.us or certainly just Google your local area Human Resources Department with your county and you'll find the same information if you're outside Cuyahoga County.
Paul Szmal: Cuyahoga County Sheriff Brian Skank joining us here on FLX Morning. You and your department coming off another successful National Night Out that happened back at the beginning of the month.
Brian Schenck, Justin Lasinski: It did. So we, on August 5th, we were invited by the Auburn Police Department to participate in their National Night Out in the City of Auburn. It's a national event that occurs every year on the first Tuesday in August and it's an event designed for law enforcement and anybody in any department related to law enforcement to come together with the community that they serve and I'm glad that we get to participate in that each year. It was a great event here in Auburn with a lot of law enforcement agencies and another large group of service providers that were there and we were able to showcase some of the equipment we use and interact with the public and kids and it's just a really good community building event that I'm, you know, I'm glad that we get to participate in each year and I'm glad that the Auburn Police Department includes us in their event.
Paul Szmal: Yes, absolutely. And also last week you sponsored some area youth for a summer camp.
Brian Schenck, Justin Lasinski: We did. So our New York State Sheriffs Institute and our New York State Sheriffs Association maintains a summer camp on Keuka Lake in Yates County and each summer we're able to provide a camping experience for very deserving youth from throughout the entire state of New York to be able to go down there for a week and have a really great camping experience. And some of your listeners may remember if they were listening last year about this time, but I actually, I believe I was on with Ted last year, Ted Baker, and we reported from camp last year. I'm really proud that we get to do this, that we get to send youth from our community to go. And one of the really neat things is a lot of the counselors that are at camp are sheriff's deputies or people that work at sheriff's offices and they wear plain clothes all week and they don't let the campers know that they are police officers or deputy sheriffs. And at the end, one of the last days they come out in their uniform and they surprise the kids. And I think a lot of the kids are just surprised to see that, hey, you know, these are real people that are, that are police officers and deputy sheriffs. They're not, uh, you know, they're, they're not what some may think. Maybe they've had bad experiences with law enforcement, but it's a very positive thing. And we, we appreciate the sponsors and people that donate to our sheriff's association, make this possible free of charge each year.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. That sounds like a neat program, especially the idea of everybody being in plain clothes for most of the week, right up until the end.
Brian Schenck, Justin Lasinski: It really is. And I've heard that it's not uncommon for tears to be shed that last day. So I think it's really cool to have that powerful experience for the kids to, you know, really, really see that we're, that we're real people that we really care. And, um, you know, we try to bring some positivity to, to some that may not have such a, such a positive situation prior to getting to camp.
Paul Szmal: Uh, you know, there are some, always some issues that, uh, sheriff's department members face, especially those that are out on patrol and having to deal with, uh, sometimes traumatic situations, whether it be, you know, automobile accidents, domestic, uh, domestic incidents, uh, crimes being committed, things of that nature. You have a special guest that's actually coming to visit the department this week. That's going to address that.
Brian Schenck, Justin Lasinski: Sure. On Monday and Tuesday next week, we are hosting two different training sessions, um, for our road patrol division members. We're going to have retired Cattaraugus County Sheriff Tim Whitcomb join us again. He's been here before, but he has quite an incredible story, uh, of some things that, uh, were difficult for him during the course of his career, um, surrounding PTSD and some very, uh, very difficult and traumatic situations that he faced, but he, he does speak nationally about his, his, uh, ability to overcome some of those things and some of the resources and things that he's utilized to overcome those challenges with PTSD. And he's going to join us to speak to our law enforcement members again about the history of PTSD and stress management and some of the things that, that can be done to maintain officer wellness and keep our people in a, in a good place. And as you said, all, all law enforcement members, whether you work in a jail or you work in a patrol division out on the road, um, very difficult and traumatic things that we deal with on a daily basis. You know, it takes its toll on you. And sometimes if you deal with certain situations or you deal with enough of them, you know, your cup gets a little bit full and you, you, you might need some help. And we want to let our folks know, and I'd like to let, you know, any law enforcement member listening out there that, you know, there's no, there's no shame in getting help and we need to break down those barriers when it comes to stigma and make sure that people get the help that they need because the work we do is challenging and difficult and we want, we want healthy, we want healthy people out there doing these jobs.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely. And, uh, well put and a good way to wrap up the conversation here today. So first off, uh, Justin, uh, best of luck to you as you continue on with your law enforcement career. And thank you for being here with us today, sir.
Justin Lasinski: Thank you.
Paul Szmal: And, um, Sheriff Skank, a pleasure as always, and we'll chat with you again in a month.
Brian Schenck, Justin Lasinski: Sounds good. Thank you, Paul. And thank you to everyone for listening. It is 8 51 on FLX morning.
