Sheriff Seeks 1% Budget Hike for Drones, Radios, Cams

By Holly Crocco

Putnam Sheriff Brian Hess is asking the County Legislature to approve a less than 1 percent increase in his department’s budget for next year.

“The sheriff’s department had a great year in 2026 and continues to have a great year,” he said at the Oct. 8 Protective Services Committee meeting. “I think that’s because of the deputies, the corrections officers… all the civilian staff has really stepped up.”

He said arrests have doubled, traffic stops are up 18 percent, and DWI arrests are up 25 percent. In addition, “response times are down 13 percent, which was one of our goals for this year,” said the sheriff.

Combined, the sheriff’s office and correctional facility proposed budget is $44.4 million, an increase of $4.35 million, or 10 percent. Hess claims that a majority of the increase – $3.67 million – is made up of salary increases, and fringe and health benefits, which the department has no control over.

That leaves a $676,000 difference which – once you take out $332,000 in chargebacks, such as phones, fleet, fuel, postage, copiers – leaves an increase of $334,000. “So that’s a less than 1 percent increase in spending,” said Hess.

That 0.86 percent would allow the department to lease new radios from Motorola at a cost of $350,000, participate in a drone program to reduce response times at a cost of $276,000, purchase new body cameras, and add special patrol officers to the dispatch center and other locations, among other things.

To balance spending, Hess said $172,000 was cut from last year’s budget, with the retirement of two service dogs, the ending of software contracts, and consolidation of cleaning and office supplies and other administrative tasks.

Legislator Nancy Montgomery, D-Philipstown, who sits on the Protective Services Committee, said she analyzed the budget “a bit differently.”

Separating the sheriff’s department from the jail, she said there’s a $3 million increase for the former. After personnel costs, there’s $640,000 left – a 21 percent increase “for the things you need or the things you want,” she said.

One of those things is the Drone as a First Responder program.

“You’re asking us to fund a new program in this budget that hasn’t been vetted in committee, it hasn’t been vetted in front of the public,” said Montgomery, noting that, when the license plate readers were put in use as a new program, residents were upset that they weren’t notified. “I felt like it was my responsibility to inform the public.”

While Montgomery said she likes the drone program, she’s disappointed and concerned that more information hasn’t been provided for it.

“Now we have this issue that we’re funding another program, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, without any input from anybody – not us, not the public,” she said.

Hess, however, said law enforcement make plenty of decisions without the public’s input.

“We don’t ask everyone’s opinion for everything we do,” he said. “I find programs I think are good for the people – Drone as a First Responder, Quick Intelligence for police… I have a drone on-scene in 30 seconds, when our average response time is 10 minutes.”

Further, Hess said the cost is well worth the service being provided.

“I have not added one police officer, so I don’t think the cost is that extreme,” he said. “That’s six drones that cover the entire county … I don’t think it is a crazy cost.”

Also part of the sheriff’s budget increase is funding to lease new radios, which Finance Commissioner Alexandra Gordon vouched for.

She said radios were purchased two years ago to replace the old ones, but those “new” radios don’t have the latest technology. “This is a brand new technology,” she said, likening the ever-updating technology to new iPhones that are released every year. “It didn’t exist two years ago.”

Montgomery proposed moving appropriations in the sheriff’s department budget that are intended for drones, license plate readers, and the use of technology or related surveillance be separate from the sheriff’s operating budget and transferred to subcontingency, with the release of funds subject to legislative approval.

“I want to preserve the funding for this, but I also want to hold policy-sensitive spending,” she said.

The motion failed, with Regan and fellow committee member, Legislator Toni Adonizzio, R-Kent, voting “no.”