Police to Offer Outreach Program for Scarsdale Seniors

The Scarsdale Police Department will launch The Senior Outreach Academy designed to help Scarsdale's senior citizens deal with crimes that target them, and give them an inside look at how the department functions and equipment and technology are employed. It will also give participants the opportunity to meet the men and women of the Scarsdale Police Department, and give the officers a chance to interact with the community they serve.

The Scarsdale Police began conducting an annual "Citizens Teen Police Academy" several years ago, and they are expanding this concept to Scarsdale senior citizens. The academy is a four-week program that will meet on the following dates in October: 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th at the Scarsdale Police Station from 10:00 to 11:00 am. Light refreshments will be served. To sign up, call Detective Sherri Albano at 722-1204.

We asked Captain Thomas Altizio about how the department assists seniors and what crimes target older residents. Here is what he shared:

How do you locate and reach out to seniors in the community?
The most common way that we locate seniors that may need assistance is when patrol officers respond to a call involving a senior, and the officer feels that the person is in need of some type of assistance. It may be a case where a senior has been victimized, or a situation where a senior is experiencing some sort of medical problem, and the officer feels that they may need additional assistance. Those type of cases are referred to Detective Albano, who is our "Older Adult Advocate." Several times a week. Detective Albano will contact the individuals who have been referred to her, and either meet with them or call them. Depending on the circumstances, she has a number of options available to her. For one, she can notify the person's family in the hope that the family can resolve the problem.

In cases where the senior does not have family that is available or willing to assist them, a referral may be made to Scarsdale Family Counseling, or in some cases, Westchester County Adult Protective Services. If the senior has been the victim of a crime, we work with the Westchester County District Attorney's Office Special Prosecutions Unit, which specifically handles cases involving crimes against children and seniors.

Detective Albano also interacts with the Villages Advisory Council on Senior Citizens and attends their meetings.

Does the Police Department provide special services for seniors?
One of the services we offer is an automated calling system called "RUOK" (Are you okay) which makes a daily telephone call to a subscriber at a specified time. The person must answer the phone and press a number specified by the recording to acknowledge the call. If the subscriber does not answer the phone, and enter the proper number, an alert is generated and a police officer is dispatched to check on the person. If we are not able to make contact with the subscriber, we may force our way in (depending on the circumstances), or we make notification to emergency contacts that have been provided when the person signed up.

What kinds of crimes are likely to involve seniors?
Seniors are often victimized by telephone scams and phony or disreputable home repair contractors. The most common phone scam is known as the "Grandchild In Jail". In this scam, the caller will claim to be a friend or relative that got into trouble or was involved in an accident in another country (often Mexico, Canada or one of the Caribbean Islands) and needs money to get out of jail. In some cases the scammer will tell the victim they are a police officer and their grandchild has been arrested and needs to have money sent to them for bail. The scammer will require that a Western Union MoneyGram be sent or Green Dot Card Money Card be purchased and the card number provided to them. Unfortunately, we have had numerous victims of this scam.

Disreputable contractors frequently victimize senior homeowners. They will alarm the victim that their home is in need of repairs, and warn that if they don't do it right away they will be in danger. The contractor will perform shoddy unnecessary work, or worse, take a deposit and never return. We have had cases where the contractor actually drove the victim to the bank to withdraw the cash, dropped them off near their home and never returned. We have had victims suffer losses of tens of thousands of dollars to these types of scams.

In many cases the victims realize too late, what has happened, and often do not tell anyone because they are embarrassed by it, or are afraid that their family will think they cannot take care of themselves.

We had a case where our detectives went to a home to speak with the victim of a disreputable contractor. After speaking with the detectives, and realizing that they were caring and willing to help, the victim opened up to them to explain that the contractor had fooled the victim into believing that they had been involved in a car accident and hurt someone, which was not true. The scammer went to far as to fake damage to the victim's car to scare them. The scammer told the victim that he had "connections" and if they paid him $30,000 cash, he could make the problem go away. Once the victim told us what happened, we were able to locate and arrest the contractor/scammer, and the District Attorney's Office Special Prosecutions Unit prosecuted that case and the suspect was ultimately jailed.

How can they protect themselves?
That is exactly what we want to teach them in this program. The easy answer is that when in doubt, they should ask a trusted friend, family member or the police before turning over a large sum of money to anyone. We understand that there is a stereotype, and that to some people a uniformed police officer is intimidating to approach or speak to. It is that stereotype that we are trying to break. We want the senior community to meet the men and women of the Scarsdale Police, get to know them, and understand that we are caring and compassionate, and eager to help them with any questions or concerns that they may have. Our officers have parents and grandparents, and they don't want to see them or the community we serve victimized. I can assure you that our officers would much rather stop by someone's home and speak with them to protect them from fraud, than take a crime report from them after they have been victimized.

Will the department provide transportation to and from the outreach academy?
No, unfortunately we are not able to provide transportation to or from the Senior Outreach Program.

The four-week Senior Outreach Academy will meet on October 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th at the Scarsdale Police Station from 10:00 to 11:00 AM. Light refreshments will be served. This free program has limited space. For registration or questions, call Detective Sherri Albano at 914 722-1204.