Last week Lloyd Supervisor Dave Plavchak, on behalf or the Town Board, presented a Certificate of Appreciation to Police Chief James Janso for is 35 year career serving the town.

Janso started his career in law enforcement with the Ulster County Sheriff’s Department in 1988 at 18 as a corrections officer.

“I worked at the county jail for a year and then I got hired as a Deputy Sheriff for the Road Patrol in 1989, but I wanted to come back to the Town of Lloyd because they became a Police Department in 1986,” he said. “They were three years into re-doing the whole department, hiring guys and being a real professional organization and I wanted to come work in the town I grew up in.”

Janso transferred from the Sheriff’s department and started in Lloyd in March 1990.

“I think there is nothing better than waking up in your hometown and going to work in your town,” he said. “It’s a small community and knowing you live here and can make an impact where you live.”

Looking back, Janso recalled the challenges when he started.

“When we worked we were on our own; there were no dispatchers at our station and we got dispatched from Kingston and you’d get your call over the radio,” he said. “We had two cars and when one broke down, we had two guys in a car and sometime three. There were a lot of bar fights in town and we had more bars then than we do now. There were also domestics back then. You had to rely on your training, your partner and outside agencies to back you up and you had to learn quickly or you didn’t survive.”

When he joined the department there were four full time officers and a few part-timers.

“When I came onboard most of the guys I stated with left and went to the City of Kingston or the Poughkeepsie Police,” he said. “Up to 1986 they were Constables and not Police.”

Janso pointed out that Constables are peace officers and cannot serve warrants and can only make certain kinds of arrests because they are not certified Police Officers.

“A Constable had only a two week training course but in 1986 officers had to go to the Police Academy,” he said.

Janso said his first night on the job he did not have a holster for his gun and used his waistband until he was issued one. He said in the early days the department operated out of trailer for about a year in the parking lot behind the Town Hall as a second floor was being built at the town hall. After 20 years the department moved to their present location next to the Fire Department.
“As the years went by technology and training became paramount to keep up with advancements and back then we used a typewriter to do all the paperwork or it was handwritten; there were no computers in the police cars, no flashlights and no nothing, it was bare-bones,” he said. “I think our annual budget back than was $300,000 as opposed to $2million now.”

Janso said the legal system has changed, with additional burdens doming from the state, especially with recent new rules and bail and on the amount and deadline of required paperwork. He said his department is very mindful of the rights of individuals who have been arrested. In addition, the department has body-cams and in-car cameras to document any incident involving its officers.

Janso believes the community should know what his officers are doing and to that end they run a Civilian Police Academy and host a weekly Cops & Coffee event.

“It’s kind of a one-on-one interaction when they can sit and talk to us and it has really worked out great. People look forward to it and we enjoy it,” he said.

The department runs a Youth Recreation League on Tuesday evenings at the St. Augustine gym, “playing kickball, baseball or basketball with the kids and there is always a good turnout. We want the kids to know us and not be afraid when they see us.”

Janso said they also run Project Care for seniors who are either home-bound or live alone. In several instances his officers have saved the lives of seniors who have fallen in their home and needed medical attention but were unable to call 911.

A few days before the award the Town Board took Janso to lunch, “under false pretenses,” and County Legislator Gina Hansut presented him with a Pride of Ulster County Award.

“I was very surprised and honored and humbled. We don’t do it for the accolades or for the awards; we do it because it’s our job and we want to do it to make our community better. We have a great and caring community and that’s why I’ve stayed here so long.”

Janso concluded by recalling the early years.

“I look back and I kind of laugh. Today, 35 years later, there are stricter guidelines, policies and training, which is great because we are always evolving, trying to do better and learn and train. We’ve come a long, long way and I’m very proud of where the department is today.”