History of the Glenville Police Department

The Glenville police department dates back to the early 1930s when the auxilliary police were formed as a volunteer group. William Groat, who served on the volunteer force since the beginning was named the town's first chief in 1945; albeit part-time. Around this time, the police department was known as the Glenville Civil Defense Police during World War II.

After the war, it briefly became known as the Glenville Special Police until the early 1950s, when it was renamed to the Glenville Deputy Sheriffs Association. These men eventually formed the nucleus of the Glenville Police Department when it was formed in 1968. 

Chief Groat served in the capacity of Police Chief until 1950 when he was summarily dismissed by the Glenville Town Board for "health reasons" that they said prevented him from serving in his capacity. He would die just two years later.

After Groat's dismissal, Howard Pitcher was named chief, and he became the town's only full-time police officer in 1951. During this time, the police department had two patrol cars. In 1968, when the police department was officially formed, they started continuous 24-hour patrols of the town.

When Pitcher retired as chief in 1975, Bill Przybylek was named the department's new head. In 1977, he reported that the GPD responded to 6,000 calls. Burglaries under his watch dropped from 226 reported in 1975 to 169 in 1975 and finally to 150 in 1977. At that time, the police department's budget was only $296,000. Upon Przybylek's retirement in 1992, Jack Purdy was named chief. 

Purdy retired in 2004 after 33 years of service on the town's police force. Following his retirement, Dan Boyle served a brief stint as chief from 2005-2006. Upon his departure, Mike Ranilli was hired in June of 2006 as the department's fifth chief. Ranilli left the department in 2016 and Lt. Steve Janick was appointed chief.

In Scotia, the first regular policing began in 1904, when night watchman Dan Smith started patrol. For some time, constables and volunteer patrolled the more densely populated village. In 1919, the village appointed its first volunteer chief, James Ransom. In 1920, Floyed Parks became the first full-time paid police and had four full-time officers under him.

Today,  the Town of Glenville is served by a 24-member professional police force who responded to 18,000 calls in 2019. The Village of Scotia has an additional 13 police officers. The town budget for the police department is now over $2 million.

Chief Steve Janik has focused the department on quality of life and community enhancement issues. In 2014, the town lost its own dispatch when the county consolidated it into a unified communication  center. This impacted the service that the police department was able to provide since the town lost the dispatcher's 24-hour presence in the building. The window was re-opened in 2017 with enhanced but limited services for our residents. 

Today, the GPD is aggressively pursuing grants to help ensure that our officers have access to the best technology available and has made a commitment to outfit its officers with state of the art computer equipment, new ballistic vests, and updated firearms. The police department remains committed to serving the community and remains a strong partner with the town's school districts and continues to proveide school safety training and the DARE program. 

The Glenville Town Board has continued to invest in the department through purchasing new equipment and adding personnel by boosting staffing levels by 2 in recent years.

Arranged by Supervisor Chris Koetzle and Town Historian Joan Szablewski in February 2020, with materials from the Glenville History Center.