A Message from the President Of the New York State Sheriffs’ Association

Montgomery County Sheriff Michael Amato

On a personal side I take the Office of Sheriff very passionately. I was born in Manhattan and spent the early part of my life growing up in Brooklyn. I have many memories of growing up there, some good and some not so good. It was in the late 50’s early 60’s. I can still remember taking walks in Brooklyn on a sunny Easter weekend with my brothers and father while my mother was home cooking a special holiday meal- but I also remember a man getting shot outside our apartment, our home getting burglarized and losing our property and sense of security. There was also the struggle with de-segregation in our schools. Our once safe neighborhood was getting very dangerous. My parents knew they needed to find a safer environment to raise their family so they moved to Montgomery County. But that’s not the end of the story: little did they know, but in my parents’ quest to find a better life for their family, they gave me the opportunity of my lifetime. One day while I was playing on our back road with my brothers, a man stopped his car. He identified himself as an investigator for the Sheriff’s Office and asked us if we had seen any strange people in the area. There was a burglary at an old church just down the road, and he was assigned to investigate it. It upset me that someone would do that here where we felt we were safe. That’s the day that I knew I wanted to do something in my life to help keep our new home safe.

A few years after graduating from high school my dream came true. I became a part-time deputy sheriff. Over the years, I worked my way up through the ranks and my parents never said much to me about my job or that they were proud of what I was doing- but I knew they were. In 1996 my father died just before I went to the FBI National Academy, and a little over a year later I was elected Sheriff: a title that goes back hundreds of years and a position known as the top law-enforcement officer in the county.

My mom was there when I took the oath of office and I could see the pride in her eyes. I just wish my dad could have been there, too. It would have been a great ending to his dream of finding a safe place for his family, and that his son would be playing a part in it. When I took over as Sheriff I introduced the following mission statement for the Sheriff’s Office, and needless to say, my parents unknowingly played a large part in it:

“We are committed to improving the quality of life in Montgomery County by strengthening our neighborhoods, delivering superior services, embracing the diversity of our citizens, and keeping Montgomery County a desirable, safe community in which to live, work, raise a family, shop, study, play and grow old.”

I know that every Sheriff in New York State wants the same for his county, too.