State Police

State Police and members of the regional law enforcement gathered today at the Batavia Barracks of Troop A to honor their brethren who have fallen in the line of duty.

U.S. Attorney for WNY William Hochul was among the speakers. He quoted Matthew 5:9 -- "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God" -- and told the families of those who had fallen that police officers do more than enforce laws, they are the peacemakers who keep communities safe so they are assured of honor in the eyes of God.

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Press release:

If you do go out, be prepared:

1) Is your trunk supplied to help you to be safe in case you are stopped or stranded in an area without assistance readily available?

2) Stock gloves, blankets, warmers, tool kit, first-aid kit, non-perishable foods, water, working flashlight and batteries, cell phone charger, etc.;

3) Have ready a shovel, ice scraper, de-icer, snow brush, rock salt or cat litter, tow chain or cable, jumper cables or battery charger, etc.;

4) If you have an exisiting medical condition, consider having a supply of necessary medication and, if possible, let someone know you are traveling.

Be prepared. Be safe.

Press release:

In preparation for the first real snowfall for this season, the State Police encourage motorists to exercise due care over the next few days. There is expected to be significant snowfall through Saturday that will impact parts of Western New York.

The State Police will be out across the region checking all major routes of travel to ensure that motorists are as safe as possible. The State Police need your assistance to make this possible. Motorists traveling in areas impacted by the snow are asked to consider traveling only if necessary. Take into consideration snow accumulation on the roads, the current snowfall rate, the wind and visibility. Use your best judgment to determine if driving is prudent.

Keep the following tips in mind:
- Get the latest weather forecast before leaving – www.weather.gov , monitor radio or TV stations or contact your nearest State Police station.
- Keep a full tank of gas.
- Make sure your fluid levels are sufficient (windshield washer fluid, anti-freeze).
- Spare tire is sufficient and you have the jack and wheel wrench.
- Use headlights at all times to increase your visibility to others. Remember, if your windshield wipers are in use due to weather then your headlights must be on.
- Drive prudently. If the conditions are adverse you should decrease your speed accordingly.
- Brake early and correctly.
- Be careful, snow and cold temperatures can create icy conditions. Pay particular attention on bridges and overpasses.
- Do NOT use cruise control. This decreases your reaction time to apply braking.
- Look out for events farther down the road. Creating more time to react can make a difference.
- Be aware of snow plows, maintenance vehicles and emergency vehicles. Give them room to work.
- If you do not absolutely have to go out on the roads, then don’t.

Press release:

Major Christopher L. Cummings, Troop “A” commander, announces that the New York State Police in Troop “A” are participating in a national impaired-driving enforcement campaign called the "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over National Crackdown.”

Beginning Friday, Dec. 14, through New Year's Day, more than 20,000 police agencies nationwide are expected to participate.

Around the state, the New York State Police are planning 30 sobriety checkpoints, 10 saturation details, 18 underage drinking details, and 41 additional dedicated local DWI patrols. Saturation details consist of multiple roving units that target a specific area of focus. It is a massive effort supported largely through grants from the governor's Traffic Safety Committee, aimed at preventing tragedies during the holiday season.

There are a number of these concentrated details planned throughout Western New York and they will be conducted for the remainder of December.

“The holiday season is all about the joy of families and friends, but each year the season turns to sorrows for some as a result of traffic crashes resulting from drinking and driving,” said State Police Superintendent Joseph D’Amico. “We are starting our enforcement this weekend with full knowledge there will be numerous office parties and other gatherings in the coming weeks where alcohol may be consumed, and we are asking everyone who drinks to designate a driver or arrange safe transportation in advance to secure the happiness of the season for your loved ones.”

Last year during the holiday enforcement effort, troopers made 526 arrests for DWI, and issued a total of 35,496 tickets.

When I interviewed retired State Police Investigator Leo Hunter for an article on his career and his family, Leo told me a secret and made me promise not to include it in the story: He and his fiancé Dawn Rindel were going to get married at the end of the retirement ceremony.

Judge Robert C. Noonan, who MC'd the retirement party and then officiated the wedding, quipped that Hunter didn't do a very good job at keeping a secret. At least half of the 300 or so people at the party at the Clarion Hotel on Friday night knew what was coming.

With all of Hunter's six children, his sisters and many friends present, Hunter and and Rindel exchanged vows and were pronounced by Noonan husband and wife.

After the service, each of Leo's children spoke briefly and said how proud they were to have Dawn as part of their family now and thanked their father for being a great dad.

As a young man in the late 1970s with a wife and two children, Leo Hunter decided he needed a career, not just a job, to help support his growing family.

At the military recruitment station, Hunter had about an hour wait before he would raise his right hand, swear an oath and become a United States Marine. He asked a captain if he could use a phone and call his wife.

He told her what he was about to do.

"Well, if that’s really what you want to do, we’ll just have to live with that," Hunter recalled his wife saying.

He then asked her if he had received any mail.

Yes, she said, something that looked like it was from the government and a couple of other items. He asked her to open up the letters.

One was from the FBI, offering Hunter a chance to advance in his application to become an agent and the other was from the State Police inviting him to take an agility test as the next step in his application process.

Hunter never became a Marine.

He chose the State Police over the FBI, reasoning that the FBI might move him anywhere in the U.S., but at least as a trooper, he would always be in New York.

On Friday, friends and family will gather to celebrate Hunter's 30-year career as a trooper and criminal investigator. He retired earlier this month.

"I don't think I would have gotten the kind of training I wanted if I had joined the Marines," Hunter said. "In the Marines, they just tell you what you will do, and who knows what that would have been. I'm sure I would have been in public service, but who knows how long I would have been in the military. I always had some idea of doing something as a career."

Hunter's life as a public servant hasn't been confined, though, to just wearing a badge. He also did something right for society by raising six children, from the time they were ages 7 to 13, as a single father.

All of his children are adults now and leading good lives.

Thameena lives in Batavia and is a nurse manager at ECMC. Shabaana works at Dent Sleep Study in Buffalo. Saad (Leo Hunter Jr.) is a staff sergeant in the Army, a combat engineer with the 101st, and will be deployed to Afghanistan next month. Saad has three children.

Yasmeen is a wife and mother living in Batavia with one son and another child on the way. Hunter's twins, Sumiyya and Safiyya, both received track scholarships (North Carolina and SUNY Buffalo). Sumiyya, who was a Division I Big South champion in the 800 meter, now works for the IRS. Safiyya just returned from a two-year Peace Corps mission to Mozambique.

Hunter said he raised his children with the idea that he was there to be a parent, not a friend.

"As teenagers, we were horrible," Thameena said. "In being a cop, he had to do what was right to raise us. Then we didn't like it, but now we understand it. We appreciate it. If he hadn't done it, we probably wouldn't be here."

It's been said that it takes a village to raise a child. To hear Leo tell it, in the case of the Hunter clan, it took all of Batavia.

There were parents, friends, neighbors and family members, along with other cops, who all looked out for the five girls and one boy Leo was trying to raise on his own while working a demanding job after he and his wife divorced.

"They were the other eyes I might need," Hunter said. "They shared the same concerns and my kids knew this. They benefited from that love and caring that we found in this community."

It must have been crazy around the Hunter household on Montclair Avenue. Leo was a soccer coach and Girl Scout leader in a home of children and their friends always coming and going.

Every day Hunter made sure he knew what his children were doing and where they were, Thameena said. As the oldest child, she helped around the house, especially with the younger children, and each night, Hunter made sure the chores were done, homework completed and the whole bunch in bed by bedtime.

As teens, of course, the kids would have social lives that would take them out of the house, but Hunter kept tabs on them.

"We would go out at night and when we came back, he would ask questions," Thameena said. "We always thought he was being nosy, but he was being a dad. He always knew what was going on."

Hunter had that detective's skill and knowledge in interrogations.

Thameena remembered one time when one of the children damaged an item in the house and Hunter wanted to know which one did it. She said they laugh about it now, but Leo placed each child in a different room of the house so they couldn't talk to each other and get some story straight, just like a good detective would do with multiple suspects. He then went from room to room and questioned each one individually.

Hunter figured out who did the deed, got a confession, and there was an appropriate punishment.

"To this day, he still knows what's going on with us," Thameena said. "He can tell when something is going on (in our lives). He doesn't have to ask. He knows it. That's something amazing about him. I'm like, 'wow.' "

Leo is a proud father, he said.

"I remember going through it," Hunter said. "I always wanted them to be happy. I always wanted to be there for them and now they have grown up and they're living successful lives, I look at that, I look back and I say, 'wow.' I wish I could take all the credit, but they had wonderful teachers and a wonderful family."

A Buffalo native, Hunter grew up on Northland Avenue in Buffalo, attended McKinley Vocational School and then Canisius College.

His first assignment as a trooper was with SP Boston, then Falconer. After awhile, Hunter was offered an assignment with Troop T, patrolling the Thruway, but that wasn't a route he wanted to take, so he got himself assigned to communications in Batavia. That gave him time to study for his sergeant's exam.  Over the next few years, his career included Franklinville, Olean, Wellsville, Boston, Clarence and back to Batavia as station commander.

After two more years running the Batavia station, he was offered a slot in the Criminal Bureau of Investigation. He worked as an investigator from 1994 until retirement.

"Being a backroom investigator is probably one of the bigger responsibilities as an investigator in the State Police because they're not just working on one thing," Hunter said. "They're working on a multitude of things."

At any one time, Hunter's caseload might include child sex crimes, burglaries, fraud and other financial crimes, assaults and even homicides.

The most stressful cases, however, according to Hunter, are the hostage situations, a threatened murder or suicide, where the negotiator must talk somebody out of doing something with permanent consequences.

"When someone is at that line of giving up hope and taking the life of themselves or somebody else, I still have to take a deep breath," Hunter said. "You're traveling to a situation and you just don't know how those things are going to turn out."

For the past 12 years, Andre Dunlap has been Hunter's partner in CBI, but more than that, Dunlap said, Hunter has been his mentor.

It was Hunter who pulled Trooper Dunlap aside at a crime scene once and told him he should apply for investigations. 

"I told him I wasn't ready," Dunlap said. "He told me, 'no, you're ready.' "

One of the things that has made Hunter a good investigator, Dunlap said, and something he tries to emulate, is to be sensitive.

"Whether it's a child abuse case, a homicide, a stolen credit card or a rape, handle every case like it was a family member involved," Dunlap said. "Talk to not only victims like they were family members, but suspects, too. Give them respect and they will respect you."

In retirement, Hunter, 55, is staying physically active, he said. He still plays racquet ball (a game Dunlap taught him), though he said injuries have slowed down his basketball game. He's also taken up archery, with the help of a 75-year-old neighbor.

Hunter is also planning on getting married again soon. His fiancé is Dawn Rindel, a clerk in Le Roy Town Court.

As for going back to work, there's usually jobs in insurance investigations and that might be an option, but for now, Hunter wants to keep his free time open for his family, especially his grandchildren.

He looks back on his career and he doesn't talk so much about the cases he handled, but the people he met. He said those are the memories that will stay with him.

"I always felt that even with 30 years on the job, you're always learning something from them, even the new people," Hunter said. "I always felt that if you can learn something from somebody, you learn about yourself."

He pauses and adds, "An older investigator told me once, 'When you have your family and your friends, you’re a wealthy man.' I'm not as wealthy as some, but I'm a wealthy man."

Photo below: Leo Hunter's children (photo submitted by Andre Dunlap).

Photo and info submitted by Rachel Chudoba:

Civilians of the NYS Police Headquarters in Batavia raised money in awareness of October as "Domestic Violence Awareness Month." They worked all year raising money from Dress Down Day, selling purple ribbons, drawings and luncheons.

They raised $500 to donate to Path Stone Corporation's Domestic Violence Services program. A brunch was served and check was presented to Path Stone.

Pictured from left are: Tina Zack, Teresa Ferris, Kelly Peruzzini, Margie from Path Stone, Dianna Bogue and Rachel Chudoba.

Safety is every hunter's responsibility, Capt. Christopher Cummings, commander of Troop A, Batavia, told the press today, asking that the media help spread the message of hunter safety at the start of a new hunting season.

Since the 1960s, the number of hunting-related accidents in New York has decreased steadily, but that's no reason not to be as careful this year as any other year. That was the message of today's press conference.

"The important thing is that every individual hunter must realize that they have to make safety priority one when they go out into the field," Cummings said. "Every individual hunter is responsible for the integrity and reputation of hunting. They need to take the responsibility on themselves that they do carry that weight when they enter the woods with a firearm.

"It should be simple for the safety of hunters," Cummings added. "It should be simple. Every hunting incident that we investigate is preventable."

Capt. Frank Lauricella, Department of Environmental Conservation, offered several safety tips for hunters:

• Always assume a firearm is loaded;
• Make sure the muzzle is always pointed in a safe direction;
• Keep the safety on and your finger off the trigger until you're ready to fire;
• Wear hunter orange.

It's been proven, he said, that hunters wearing orange are seven times safer than those who do not.

He said it's also important to see your target clearly and what's beyond your target.

"It's very important to remember that once you discharge you cannot call back that projectile," Lauricella said.

Students at Oakfield-Alabama High School got a little firsthand experience today at trying to drive while distracted and State Police and Nationwide Insurance hope they get the message: Don't do it.

The insurance company, in conjunction with the State Police, brought in a computer simulator that allows students to put their hands on a steering wheel and drive through a neighborhood while dealing with multiple distractions.

There's the friend they're giving a ride home who won't wear her seat belt, talks incessantly and wants them to drive faster so she can get home sooner.

She also asks them to try phoning her brother and then sending him a text message. The phone pops up on the screen allowing them to finger-tap in numbers while keeping one hand on the steering wheel.

Meanwhile, deer and skateboarders cross their path, they must stop for a stop sign in front of a cop, pull on a freeway and merge into traffic.

"Distractions take away the focus of being in that car and driving, and when you take away that focus, that's when accidents happen," said Trooper Jeffrey Bebak.

Bebak said for teens, distracted driving can be a particularly deadly combination.

"They all feel they’re invincible," Bebak said. "In a general health perspective, they’re young, they feel great, they feel like they can do multiple things at once, including driving.

"You couple that with just their basic inexperience behind the wheel and you add the texting or use of a mobile device, it’s a bad combination. Too often that’s when accidents happen because of that feeling that I’m invincible."

Michael Granica, a financial specialist with Nationwide, said he's been involved in the simulation presentation before and he believes the simulator is making a difference.

"We had several students come back to us after the program and tell us that they thought about putting their phones down and they haven’t used them since," Granica said. "So if we’re able to change the habits of one person while they’re driving, everything we’ve done to promote safe driving has been worth it."

A trooper assigned to the State Police barracks in Batavia suffered non-life-threatening injuries Thursday morning after a mechanical failure on the helicopter he was flying forced it down in a wooded area in the Town of Bath.

Trooper Thomas A. Shultz, 41, was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital.

The Aviation Bell 407 helicopter was based at the Genesee County Airport.

Shultz, an experienced Army combat pilot, according to State Police, was returning to Batavia following a search for a missing person.

According to the press release, Shultz "took appropriate action and made a controlled but powerless descent, which resulted in a hard landing."

The cause of the incident is under investigation, as required, by the NTSB, FAA, and New York State Police.

Press release:

New York State Police Troop A will now accept unused and expired prescription drugs as part of new legislation enacted by Governor Cuomo to help fight prescription drug abuse.

Effective immediately, citizens can go to the Troop A Headquarters, SP Batavia, to dispose unwanted prescription drugs as a result of the governor's initiative.

This self-service medication drop box will allow the public to safely and anonymously dispose of unused or unwanted prescription medications, keeping it out of the hands of those who may choose to abuse it.

Items that can be dropped off include: prescription medications, medicated ointments, over-the-counter medications and inhalers. Hazardous materials and needles are NOT accepted.

The Medication Drop Box is located in the front lobby at SP Batavia, located at 4525 W. Saile Drive.

The abuse of prescription medications continues to be an issue facing the citizens and law enforcement agencies of New York State. Governor Cuomo recently signed legislation to help fight prescription drug abuse.

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State Police, joined by law enforcement representatives from throughout the region, gathered at the Batavia Barracks on West Saile Drive in Batavia this morning to honor the men and women of Troop A who gave their lives in the line of duty.

In the 40 years since the first service, six more names have been added to the granite monument outside the barracks, including Kevin P. Dobson, a 14-year veteran struck and killed during a routine traffic stop in Tonawanda in 2011.

The names of the fallen are:

Trooper James B. Losco, 1925
Trooper Robert Roy, 1927
Trooper Arnold T. Rasmussen, 1927
Trooper Thomas L. Corbett, 1931
Sergeant Homer Harrison, 1933
Trooper Jerome B. Nugent, 1933
Sergeant Harry Adams, 1951
Trooper James D. Conrad, 1966
Trooper Richard Weltz, 1970
Investigator Thomas L. Buck, 1981
Trooper Gary E. Kubasiak, 1982
Trooper Joseph A. Longobardo, 2006
Trooper David C. Brinkerhoff, 2007
Trooper Jill E. Mattice, 2010
Trooper Kevin P. Dobson, 2011

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Press release:

Major Christopher L. Cummings, Troop “A” commander, today announced that during the Thanksgiving Holiday, the New York State Police will continue with a specialized traffic enforcement campaign called OPERATION HANG UP, targeting motorists who use their cell phone and other electronic devices while driving in the Troop “A” area.

Cell phone use and texting while driving continue to proliferate despite widespread public concern and acknowledgement that the behaviors are dangerous. They support widespread increased enforcement.

Research by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety indicates that drivers who use hand-held devices (phones, Blackberries, etc.) are four times more likely to be involved in crashes that are serious enough to cause injuries. At average highway speeds, in three seconds you will travel the length of a football field. The State Police will be utilizing a new resource to enforce these types of violations.

A Concealed Identity Traffic Enforcement (CITE) vehicle will be deployed throughout this holiday weekend and the near future. This unmarked police vehicle is fully equipped with emergency lighting and other traffic enforcement resources. The primary mission of this vehicle is to easily blend in with traffic and to cite dangerous behaviors such as distracted driving. Major Cummings encourages all motorists to “Keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel.”

Thanksgiving signifies the start of the holiday travel season and traffic volumes are expected to be heavy during this holiday weekend. This increases the risk of highway crashes for everyone. Major Cummings noted that State Troopers in Western New York will be stepping up traffic enforcement during this holiday period to prevent needless highway tragedies.

Troopers throughout the Western New York region will be deployed in various enforcement capacities such as DWI saturations, roving patrols and stationary checkpoints. Troopers will be cognizant for drivers using cell phones as well as other electronic devices. Of course, speeders, impaired drivers, vehicle occupants who are not properly buckled up, and other traffic violators will also be cited, where appropriate.

Violators who are ticketed for distracted driving violations face a maximum fine of $100, along with a mandatory $60 surcharge and possibly points on their driver's record depending on the violation.

Two drivers from Holley, Orleans County, collided on Oak Orchard Road/Route 98 in Batavia this afternoon.

Doris Lusk, 78, was operating her Subaru Forester northbound on Route 98 when she slowed to allow another driver to make a left-hand turn into a driveway. Robert Blosenhauer, 63, was also northbound in a Jeep Wrangler and failed to stop. He rammed into the rear of Lusk's vehicle.

Both were able to exit the roadway safely. No serious injuries were reported.

Blosenhauer was charged with failure to yield following too closely.

Trooper Mark Catenzaro responded along with Town of Batavia fire and Mercy EMS.

Patricia Hardesty appeared in Genesee County Court today, disputing her signed statements to police from the night she was accused of shooting her husband in the leg.

Today's proceedings were a Huntley Hearing, a type of hearing which determines the admissibility of statements to police at a trial.

The 52-year-old Hardesty faces three counts of felony assault. State Police allege that on the evening of Aug. 1, 2010, Hardesty walked onto the deck at her County Line Road home in Corfu armed with a .22-caliber rifle, and shot her husband, Robert, in the knee.

Robert Hardesty was seriously injured in the incident. He was transported to ECMC that evening. Patricia was taken to the State Police barracks in Batavia, where Senior Investigator Kenneth Dubrinski questioned her.

Dubrinski testified in court today that Patricia did not seem hesitant to speak with him, and that he took two statements from her. A second was taken, he says, because the first was found to be incorrect or inconsistent after he spoke with officers at the scene via telephone.

Dubrinski told Assistant District Attorney Robert Zickl that he collected Hardesty's statements by "typing them as she talked." Those two statements were entered as evidence in today's hearing.

But Patricia Hardesty says that's not at all how it happened. She says Dubrinski collected "a trash can full" of statements from her, each time printing one out, finding errors or inconsistencies, and tossing it in the garbage. She says she signed as many as five different statements, each one varying slightly from the last in detail.

What's worse, says Hardesty, is that she could not read any of the typed statements being handed to her.

"I was not given Miranda Rights," she said, alleging that the standard rights were not read to her. "(Investigator Dubrinski) said they were at the top of the page there, but I could not read them without my glasses."

She allegedly told Dubrinski as much, so he ordered the glasses brought from the scene. But Hardesty says the glasses delivered were the wrong ones, a 10-year old pair that were too weak for her to use.

"I can't see out of them at all," she said today.

She did, however, sign each statement placed before her, and initialed each printed set of Miranda Rights to confirm that she'd been advised of them.

Hardesty says bits and pieces of her first statement were correct, but altogether it was not correct. She says she told Dubrinski this – and that's when the deluge of statements began.

"He made me so upset, my insides were shaking," she says of Dubrinski. "At the end of it all, I said, 'Just put whatever you want and I'll sign it.' I was tired, I hadn't slept for 24 hours, and I hadn't eaten. There were so many statements, I got confused. I started crying."

Hardesty also accused Dubrinski of improperly recording her statement by trying to make it match other statements from the scene, such as the one from her husband. She says each new draft of the statement included details that more closely matched others' statements – details that she had not necessarily consented to or mentioned.

Hardesty admitted that she'd consumed three or four beers between 3 and 7 p.m. on the evening the incident occurred. She also drank another one after the incident, as she waited for an ambulance to arrive for her husband.

"I was on the deck, and saw that my husband had left a beer there, and I downed it," she said.

Of the original police report, which stated that she and her husband had been fighting all weekend prior to the incident, Hardesty said that was false. She says her husband had not abused her, neither physically nor verbally, and they had not fought.

Judge Robert Noonan did not make a decision in today's hearing. He has taken it under advisement. Defense attorney Mehmet Okay requested a printed transcript of today's proceedings.

The case will resume later this month, 10 days after Okay receives that transcript.

Members of the State Police and Park Rangers were at the County Airport today practicing open water rescue, taking advantage of the cold weather to get some practice in winter conditions.

The practice involves a trooper and ranger taking off in the chopper and then coming back to the practice zone to pick up a practice rescuee. The purpose is to work on communication among rescuers to ensure all elements of the rescue are coordinated.

A complete sequence of pictures after the jump:

Buckle up -- that's the message from local law enforcement.

The State Police announced increased seatbelt enforcement and the Genesee County Sheriff's Office will join the effort, according to Chief Deputy Gordon Dibble.

"There have been a number of deaths recently that would not have occurred had the victims been wearing their seat belt and shoulder harness," Dibble said in a press release.

The law requires all occupants in a moving vehicle to be wearing a restraint system that includes lap belts and shoulder harnesses.

From Dibble:

It is also important to understand that both the seat belt and shoulder harness make up the occupant restraint system that is designed to keep a crash victim from leaving their seat. The use of just the seat belt without the shoulder harness is illegal, and greatly decreases the effectiveness of the system. The law requires the proper use of both the seat belt and the shoulder harness. Those that buckle their seat belt, but slide the shoulder harness behind their shoulder, are in violation of the law and will be ticketed.  Unfortunately, too many people believe that wearing just the lap belt is legal. 

Anyone who has a medical excuse for not wearing the restraint system must have a doctor's note with them to show a police officer.

Seat belts and shoulder harnesses reduce injuries and save lives. Put them on and make sure everyone in your car does the same.

They used to hang horse thieves, but what about people who heist classic ponies?

State Police are looking for help in locating a 1965 Ford Mustang that was stolen from a commercial lot in Newstead.

The car was being repainted and had the front bumper, front grill and headlights removed.

Anyone who may have seen this vehicle or with information on this investigation is asked to contact the New York State Police in Clarence at 716-759-6831.

UPDATE, Friday, 10:30 a.m.: Just received this message from the State Police:

Reference the attached press release sent on 09/10/09, this stolen vehicle was recovered at 9:15am in the Town of Newstead after someone read the artice in the Buffalo News and noticed the vehicle sitting unattended.  No arrests have been made at this time.

File photo of a similar car supplied by State Police.

A few people had a question for us yesterday: Why was a State Police helicopter circling over the City of Batavia?

Answer: Marijuana eradication.

Rebecca Gibbons, spokeswoman for the State Police, just provided the answer.

"This is the time of year that it is very visible," Gibbons said.

The helicopter is in the air again today, but Gibbon's doesn't have information what areas it would be covering during its marijuana eradication mission.

Apparently, Dannie Sims didn't want to pass through a State Police road check on Route 63 in Oakfield today.

Troopers spotted a Chevy Lumina making an alleged illegal u-turn after it started to approach the road check, so a trooper initiated a traffic stop.

It turns out that Sims may have had good reason for avoiding the road check -- a felony warrant in Monroe County. He is also a suspect in several alleged larcenies of purses, wallets and other items at several retail store locations. Sims is a "person of interest" for the Genesee County Sheriff's Office in several alleged larcenies in the Batavia area.

Sims, 53, is a resident of Alabama.

After his apprehension, Sims was turned over to the Monroe County Sheriff's Department. The investigation is ongoing in Genesee County.

The purpose of the road checks is to check all safety related equipment that is required by the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Laws as well as ensuring that all vehicles are properly registered, insured and inspected.