Glascott: Leadership, Respect and Accountability

If you ask people what Captain John Glascott’s best quality is, many would say it’s that “he’s not Tim Howard.”

Much of the debate surrounding this year’s Erie County Sheriff election has revolved around the struggles of Howard’s current administration, and as election day nears Glascott wants voters to not only know what changes need to be made within the department, but why he’s the right man to make them.

“What people need to know about me personally is that I consider myself a law enforcement professional,” Captain Glascott said in an interview on Wednesday. “I believe in holding myself up to a high standard of professionalism.”

Glascott career in law enforcement began when he was 20 years old at the New York State Corrections Academy. Upon graduating he became a corrections officer at Attica from 1973-78 before leaving to become an officer in the Cheektowaga Police Department.

Glascott worked the midnight shift in the accident investigation and traffic departments. He did DWI enforcement, radar, and accident investigation at what was a busy time for the city.

“At the time the drinking age was 18, It was a really interesting time to be a policeman in the town of Cheektowaga,” he said.

From there Glascott became an FTO officer, then Sargent. As he worked his way up the department hierarchy, Glascott began to take a bigger role in leadership. He was in charge of officer training for four years, during a time where 33 new officers were hired in the department.

When Glascott became lieutenant he continued to teach in a variety of ways. Not only did he develop a biased policing class, he taught classes on pepper spray and instructor development, eventually becoming a New York State Master Instructor. He was then sent to the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Described as a “master’s course in policing,” the Academy selects the top 250 law enforcement officers in the world for extensive training. Glascott said the training was invaluable in grasping the finer points of policing. Glascott’s current role, Captain of Administraton for the Cheektowaga Police Department, has also given him a good understanding of leadership within an organization.

When Captain Glascott spoke of the Erie County Sheriff’s Department, transparency was what often came to mind. Glascott said an important aspect of an orginization is openess and a willingness to communicate, something he says has been missing from the department for some time.

Glascott says he two biggest roles the department has in the county are the jails and road patrols, both areas of concern for the Howard-led Sheriff’s office.

“What’s 80 percent of your budget?” Glascott asks. “It’s those jails.” He says the biggest concern about the jails, most notably the Erie County Holding Center in Buffalo, is that people don’t want to openly discuss the problems they have.

“It’s not the sexy part of policing,” he continues. “It’s not the sexy part of the criminal justice system. Jails are kind of like the ugly stepsister in the criminal justice system. Once people are there nobody wants to know anything. Well, if you wanna keep up that attitude, you’re going to pay the price.”

Glascott’s critics argue his call for transparency amounts to rolling over for officials who have been unable to investigate the situation in the Holding Center, but Glascott stressed an overhaul in the system is clearly necessary.

“I’m not a politician,” Glascott said when asked of his motives. “I’ve never run for office before, and I can count on one hand the number of political fundraisers I’ve ever attended. What they need to know is that I want to go in there and professionalize the orginzation and move it in the right direction.”

Another notable area for the department is their road patrols throughout the county. The department recently lost their road patrol accreditation, something the Captain views as a telling sign of atrophy in the department.

“You also need to address things that the county has felt it needs to provide,” he said. “Things such as the helecopters, the bomb squads, the marine patrols… and the road patrols out in Clarence and Gowanda and Elma.” Glascott noted that the county’s narcotics unit “used to be the best” and he’d like to take strides to improve that as well.

One thing Glascott noted was that public funding is necessary to fix these problems, even with a tight budget.

“If we’re going to provide these things the public has to be willing to provide those resources to do it right,” he said.

Glascott said those resources would be used to reshape the department for the better, something that hasn’t happened under the Department’s previous leadership.

“Sheriff Howard has been there for 12 years, he said. “Nothing, nothing has improved. There has not been notable improvement anywhere in those twelve years. There’s been notable slippage. We need to turn that around, and I plan on doing that.