Scotia’s incoming police chief isn’t a stranger to the village.
The Village Board of Trustees on Wednesday, Aug. 10, appointed Schenectady Police Capt. Peter Frisoni to police chief following Chief Thomas Rush expressing an interest to return to his previous position as sergeant. The search committee had interviewed six finalists in early July from the pool of 15 applicants. Frisoni will join the village force on Sept. 5 and holds a salary of $90,000, but his health and dental benefits will come from the city.
“He has 23 years and a bunch of different roles in Schenectady with a much larger force,” said Mayor Kris Kastberg. “He seemed to have the kind of vision and attitude we were looking for in a chief.”
In Schenectady, Frisoni rose through the ranks to become captain during his 18 years in the city, with over 23 years of law enforcement under his belt. Frisoni has supervisor experiencein the four aspects of a police department, he said, which include patrol, investigation, administration and communications.
“I’ve had experience in all the areas that I will encounter in the village,” he said. “I think my experience and personality lends itself to be able to do whatever the job requires.”
Frisoni, 47, lives in Glenville with his family and said he does a lot of things in the village. Being able to join a strongly supported village force was also something he welcomed.
“I grew up in the area, so I have always known it to be a nice village and it was something that peaked my interest when it became available,” he said. “It is a police department that has had a lot of support from the community. It is a nice community. I just found it to be a very great opportunity for me.”
Moving from a city with a much larger population than the village will be a big change for him, because he said Schenectady tends to have “a lot of violent crime” but Scotia tends to have “very little violent crime.” A smaller village leads to different issues the police department faces, he said.
“There are great differences between the size and the population and the type of issues the police department encounters,” he said. “This is obviously the opposite end of the spectrum.”
The first couple months, he said, will involve him observing the department and see how things are done. Also, he plans to get out into the community and talk to as many residents and business owners as he can to get a better understanding of the community.
Tackling the issue of police consolidation and sharing services with the Town of Glenville might be something Frisoni will face down the road, but he said he understands the community wanting to have their own identity — their own police.
“The community strongly supports its police department and keeping its own identity,” he said. “Obviously from the public hearing they had a couple of months ago for consolidation the public was not in favor of that … I think that is a testament to the type of police services the village has come to expect and appreciate.”
Frisoni said he knows Glenville Chief Michael D. Ranalli and he will sit down with Ranalli on how the two departments can work together and continue to assist each other from day to day.
“The Village residents want to keep their police department. I want to make sure that we continue to provide the type of services that they have come to expect over the years and improve upon that as well,” said Frisoni.
As far as his ironic starting date, Labor Day, he said it’s okay with him, with a laugh, because he “chose to do that.”