Darlene M. Donohue
Ken-Ton Bee
KENMORE, N.Y. — After more than four decades of protecting and serving the Village of Kenmore, Chief Carl LaCorte is ready for a break.
The 66-year-old Williamsville resident has announced his retirement after six years in his current position and 44 with the department.
“I’ve never lived in the village, but with the amount of time I spent here, I felt like I did and I cared about it as if I did live here,” said LaCorte, who resided in the Town of Tonawanda, Amherst and the City of Buffalo during his time on the force.
LaCorte first became interested in law enforcement when his brother accepted a patrol job in Amherst.
At 21 years old and a top-scoring candidate on the civil service list, LaCorte found his services wanted by two communities: the villages of Depew and Kenmore.
He said one of the reasons he chose Kenmore was because of its close proximity to the city, where he was living at the time. Another reason was because he liked the people.
LaCorte recalled the mayor saying, “Kid, I’m giving you a break. Don’t let me down,” during his appointment to the department. From that moment on, the chief said he did what he could to make the area proud.
LaCorte has held every rank since joining the force on Dec. 8, 1968. He was promoted to detective in 1972, during which he was partners with Emil Palombo, the father of current Town of Tonawanda Police Chief Anthony Palombo.
During his time as detective, LaCorte said he had a murder case that changed how the 911 calling system operated.
LaCorte said that it was during the ’70s that all 911 calls went directly to the City of Buffalo, and the dispatchers were supposed to be trained to ask for the township when they received a complaint.
He then told the story of a woman who called 911 to report that there was a burglar in her Victoria Boulevard home. Unfortunately, LaCorte said, the dispatcher thought the call had come from Victoria Avenue in the City of Buffalo, so a patrol car was sent to the wrong home.
By the time patrols had made it to the Kenmore home, the victim was found dead outside her residence, having been stabbed in the neck by an 18-year-old male who was later arrested and confessed to LaCorte that he had committed the crime.
“It was one of the most interesting cases I worked on. It was a very tragic situation, but it was also the catalyst for the new 911 system,” said LaCorte.
To this day, he said, dispatchers are trained to get a specific location even though technology provides caller locations.
The reason, LaCorte said, is because callers might not be calling from the scene and because sometimes calls from cellphones go to the wrong jurisdiction. Still, it’s a far better calling system than what was available when LaCorte was new to the department.
LaCorte became a lieutenant in 1977, followed by captain in 1984 and then assistant chief in 1999.
During those years, LaCorte recalled there being a shootout on Military Road involving the Kingsmen, a biker gang, after which more than 200 bullet holes were located in a home. He said that incident resolved in the arrest of 12 Kingsmen, who were charged with rioting.
The chief also noted a November 1993 case in which a man murdered both his mother and father at their home in Kansas and then wrapped the mother in a carpet, placed her body in the trunk of his vehicle and then drove to the home of his ex-wife, who lived on West Girard Boulevard in Kenmore.
“That was one of the worse cases. The man showed no remorse for murdering his parents, and we had to bring in the FBI to handle the mother’s body,” said the chief.
He said it was cases like that that pained him to be in law enforcement. He said he never developed a tough skin from it but found that even though it hurt him to see these types of crimes, he learned to get through it.
LaCorte then discussed a case that he said helped him with educating his officers about domestic violence.
He said there was a woman, 28 years old and so gorgeous she should have been a model, who was murdered by her boyfriend in a home on East Hazeltine Avenue in 1997.
LaCorte said it was this murder and many cases of domestic violence that had been reported before and after it that were the driving force for him to make sure that every officer in his department was properly trained to handle domestic violence complaints to prevent these types of homicides.
He had also demanded that a domestic violence victim advocate be placed in his department so that victims had a person whom they could directly turn to for help.
“I had seen over the years that the only help we could offer was to send the victim to an advocate in the city. I felt it better to have one here, and it became my goal to have a strong domestic violence program,” said LaCorte.
The chief said he sees a big difference in how those types of cases are handled.
Other changes LaCorte has witnessed during his time in the department included the introduction of computer crimes, social media harassment and the increase in identify theft as a result of technological advances.
The chief also mentioned how technology has helped his department stay competitive with larger forces. He noted that his department has the means to issue electronic tickets, obtain blood alcohol content levels via DataMaster and get information about vehicles using a license plate reader.
“I’m proud to say we’ve got almost as much technology as a large police department,” said LaCorte.
He also talked about the alterations at police headquarters, which included new computers, surveillance cameras and the addition of a handicap ramp at the entrance of the Elmwood Avenue facility.
“When I took over, I wanted this place to have a community feeling. We offer tours of the building, provide a citizens academy, and I have an open door policy,” LaCorte said.
Upon leaving the department and removing his badge at the end of the day on Monday, Nov. 19, LaCorte wants the residents to know that he enjoyed being a part of the community and that he did everything in his power to make sure his 25-member staff did everything it could to make the residents feel safe.
“I’ve gone as high as I can go in the department and done what I’ve wanted to accomplish to protect people. I will miss this job and the people here every day for the rest of my life,” said the chief.
Copyright 2012 Ken-Ton Bee