GLEN, NY (NEWS10) — If you witnessed a heavy police presence on parts of the Mohawk River in Montgomery County on Thursday: It was just a drill.
As the old saying goes (with certain skills): if you don’t use it, you lose it. That’s why multiple law enforcement agencies, from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Police, were on the Mohawk River in the county. Montgomery to hone their water emergency skills.
From dive teams to boats on patrol, learning to handle situations both on the water and below was a key focus of Thursday’s multi-agency training. “It’s about us training, getting to know the equipment, the personnel, our radio communications, so God forbid we need them here in an emergency, we have an understanding,” says the Montgomery County Sheriff Jeff Smith.
For an agency like the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, the Mohawk River is their biggest concern when it comes to water-related emergencies. But, for other agencies like the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office, the lakes are where they focus much of their attention.
Most water training takes place on these lakes, but Sheriff Smith says rivers like the Mohawk are a different element and require different training. “Everyone has the experience of going through a lock, of feeling the current on the river,” the sheriff explains. “We have the Saratoga County Dive Team here going to get in the water. We also have Fulton County here with their sonar equipment to see how it works on the river versus a lake.
While this is the first river training the Sheriff’s Office has done with other agencies, it won’t be the last by the Sheriff. The plan is to return next year for more “scenario-based” training. “We will probably do several things. We would put a boat out of order and which needs to be rescued. We can put a missing person there and then, unfortunately, a drowning type situation where the dive team had to search for something and hopefully have a successful recovery,” Smith says. “This complete process from start to finish is very important for training.”
Sheriff Smith says his office only handles a dozen water-related emergencies a year because much of the Mohawk River boating season happens while the locks are open between May and October. Regardless of the number of calls, the first thing to do is to make sure that all crews from all different agencies know how to navigate in the event of an aquatic emergency.
