PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office has stepped up patrols along the Erie Canal path to ease concerns after several women have reported being harassed while running or biking along the canal this summer.
Lindsay Fass Graham, who lives along the canal in Pittsford, says a man followed her while she was walking her dog earlier this summer. She asked a few bikers passing by to stop and escort her home, which they did. She mentioned her experience in a local Facebook group page and quickly realized she wasn’t alone. “On the mom’s group, you wouldn’t believe, we have just all these reports of spotting this guy,” she tells News10NBC.
Two different men have been charged with exposing themselves in public parks near the canal in recent months and 29-year-old Oleksandr Levytskyy was charged in July with harassing women on the canal. “I’m on the path every single day, I stopped. After I heard he was arrested and I heard he was released, I was going on the main roads cause I was too frightened to go on the canal path,” says Fass Graham.
That’s the exact reason why the Sheriff’s Office has stepped up patrols. Sgt. Casey Burns of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office leads the unit that is tasked with monitoring the areas along the canal. “With the pathway we have bicycles, we have our UTVs in addition to our mounted units, all of which conduct either foot patrols or otherwise along the canal area,” Sgt. Burns explains.
The whole point is to be as visible as possible, “we hit all the parks, the crossings, I’ll kinda start in Greece and go all the way past the line and work my way back,” Sgt. Burns says. Road patrol deputies help out when they are available too. “The Erie Canal, running the entire length of our county, we spread out our patrols so that we make sure we’re covering the length of it,” says Sgt. Burns.
There are some remote areas of the canal path that are far less traveled but if deputies notice overgrown areas or what they think could be a safety issue, they work with the canal corporation to address it. “We’re in close contact with the canal corporation so, they give us a shout if they have issues that need to be addressed or vice versa if we see something that needs to be addressed along the canal,” says Sgt. Burns.
While they can’t cover the whole path at any given time, Sgt. Burns noted, “We have partner agencies that have camera feeds that we may be able to gain access to if there were to be such an incident but obviously some parts of the canal are very remote, especially when you get outside of the townships.”
For Fass Graham, the stepped up enforcement has provided some peace of mind. “I can go on the canal path again and I feel safe, I feel like they’re going to be there and I don’t have to worry,” she says.
The increased patrols will last at least for the next few weeks.
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From bicycles to UTVs: How Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is increasing presence on Erie Canal path WHEC.com.
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