Chief Woods to retire in January, Daniel Belles to become deputy chief
COLONIE – The Colonie Town Board voted unanimously on Thursday, Dec. 21, to appoint Deputy Police Chief James Gerace to replace Chief Michael Woods upon his retirement in January.
Woods has served as chief since August 2021 and has worked in the department for over 32 years. The town announced his retirement and the nomination of Gerace on Monday, Dec. 18, in a press release.
“In January, I notified [the Town] Supervisor my intention to retire and it was my plan to leave this year, but I wanted to finish up some things and decided to stay until January,” said Woods.
During 2023, the department rolled out the use of body cameras for officers, implemented an enhanced officer wellness program and updated the department’s policy and procedure manual.
“I really wanted to take these areas to the next level,” Woods said. “It is about us and not me. We needed it to be not just for the police department, but also for the best of the town.”
The Colonie Police Department will hold a walk out ceremony for Woods on Friday, Jan. 19.
“I am honored and blessed to do this job,” Woods said. “I am a Latham kid, and I always wanted to be a Colonie police officer and I went from junior officer to police chief here.”
“Chief Woods has led a career of excellence,” Colonie Town Supervisor Peter Crummey said. “As chief, he has maintained the Colonie Police Department’s status as a premiere law enforcement agency in our nation.”
After the retirement date was set, the Town formed a search committee for a new police chief and interviewed both deputy chiefs from the department, Robert Winn and Gerace.
The chief’s and deputy chief exams were in March of 2021 and were good for a year from the day the town got the scores. It can be extended until a new one could be held in March.
Three members of the department took that test: Deputy Chiefs Robert Winn and Gerace and also Lt. Todd Weiss. Weiss, however, just left the department to take a state job with the Capital Region Crime Analysis Center.
Crummey said that because the two applicants for police chief were both deputy chiefs currently, the town posted the deputy chief position and did interviews for that as well. Lt.s Dan Belles and Tom Breslin applied for the positions.
The hiring committee consisted of Woods, Crummey, Civil Services Director Victor Oberting and Town Board Member Melissa Jeffers.
“We really focus on officer development. We are in a good position because when people are eligible [to retire] we have a lot of talented officers,” Woods said. “The downside to having a deep pool of candidates is that you can only give [the promotion] to one candidate.”
After the interview process, Crummey said in a statement on Monday, Dec. 18, that he would be recommending Gerace to the post and also elevate Belles to deputy chief. Belles is currently overseeing the investigation division and serves as the department’s public information officer. He is a 18-year veteran of the department.
“I took the responsibility of serving on the interview panel for the next police chief very seriously, as I understand how important public safety is to our residents,” Jeffers said on Thursday afternoon. “I have the utmost confidence in future Chief Gerace. He will lead our town police in a manner that will serve as a successful model for other departments.”
The chief of police salary is $149,737.
About the new Police Chief
Gerace is not a stranger to the department, however, with all but one year of his policing career with the Town of Colonie.
He started his 24-year career as a deputy with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office in July 1999 and was appointed to Colonie in July 2000. He was familiar with Colonie because his father was in the department.
“It has always been part of my life. My father is still an investigator here. He is in his 53rd year,” Gerace said.
He was part of the Police Explorer program when he was 14, and after college, a career was inevitable. He worked his way up through the ranks and was appointed deputy chief in December 2020. His role as a deputy chief, according to Woods, was to oversee the administration function of the department, including training.
“Jay is up to speed on all the new requirements of law enforcement that are mandated from the state and federal governments,” Woods said. “He has had a part in the process of keeping us in a good position.”
Gerace graduated from the FBI National Academy held at Quantico, Va., in 2022. The three-month program is to develop executive leadership skills for state and local law enforcement.
“I never thought I could influence ‘the profession,’ but we found that we had something to offer and have the duty to share it,” he said.
Woods said that in addition to the training for and deployment of body-worn cameras and deployment of ballistic shields, Gerace was instrumental in focusing on mental health.
“We have been incorporating mental health into all of our training. Let’s be honest, most of the crisis interactions we have are related to mental health in some way,” Woods said. “It is not just the health of the people we serve, but also the officers themselves. They have to deal with some very hard and traumatic things as well.”
Gerace said that training is the key to a successful strategy.
“We want to make sure we are delivering the material to our officers so it is retained,” he said. “I have spent two and a half years doing many of these things and I think we have put down a good foundation to build upon.”
In 2023, the department launched the “Handle with Care” initiative for families of people with mental illness and other special needs who are worried about potential interactions between their loved ones and police.
The system gives Colonie police information that was provided by families in real time when responding to a call involving someone in the registry. The “Handle with Care” program is a partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Gerace said that better outcomes start with good information and what things to avoid. He said that finding the source of problems is a much better approach than just dealing with the results those problems cause.
“I would like to continue to move the process upstream,” Gerace said. “By moving upstream we can address things before they become problems in our community.”
Gerace said that policing is harder now than in the past and having a wider view is key.
“In general, police have lost a lot of their pro-activity after the George Floyd incident. …The question we have to ask is, ‘Did I just respond or did I go upstream and solve the problem?’”
All of these initiatives help the relationship between the police and the community, Gerace said. Even something as simple as an officer smiling when getting a cup of coffee at Stewart’s can make a small impact.
“We have to focus on how we talk and how we do business at the ‘Bank of Community Trust,’” he said. “It is important that everyday we ask ourselves one question: Did we make a deposit or a withdrawal today?”
