Photo: Genesee County Sheriff Joseph Graff, outgoing Undersheriff Brad Mazur and new Undersheriff Ryan DeLong. Photo by Mike Pettinella/For Video News Service.
BY MIKE PETTINELLA
For Video News Service
Genesee County Sheriff Joseph Graff says he has the utmost confidence in his selection as the agency’s new undersheriff and commended the work of the man that he will be replacing.
On Thursday morning, Graff officially announced that Investigator Ryan DeLong, a 10-year veteran on the force, has been chosen to serve as undersheriff, succeeding another lifelong Batavian, Brad Mazur, who is retiring after a 26 ½-year career with the sheriff’s office.
All three men made themselves available to the local media at the agency’s office on Park Road today. The changing of the guard, so to speak, takes effect on Friday.
Graff gave a glowing assessment of DeLong, a 2004 Batavia High School graduate who joined the sheriff’s office in July 2015 after a five-year stint as a contract detention officer at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia.
“Investigator DeLong is an exceptional deputy (and) he’s been an exceptional investigator,” Graff said. “He has been one of the sheriff’s office employees who always goes over and beyond anything that he’s asked to do.
“Having 10 years’ experience, he brings a different perspective to the office of undersheriff than maybe somebody who’s later on in their career. He certainly has proven himself to be a valuable asset here at the sheriff’s office.”
Graff, noting that he has worked with DeLong in both the road patrol and investigative divisions, said he has “all the confidence in the world in him.”
GRAFF: DELONG A PRO AT HEART
“He’s a trustworthy person. He’s a professional at heart and he certainly makes good decisions,” he said.
The sheriff said that DeLong, who was a road patrol deputy for five years before being promoted to investigator in November 2020, won out over other candidates.
Graff explained an appointment process is used to select the undersheriff.
“We put out an application process for interested parties,” he said. “Certainly, I canvassed our office for people who were interested in it and asked for people to submit their interest. And I got interest from both inside the office as well as from folks outside the office. I evaluated everybody’s resumes and conducted interviews, and ultimately, ended up selecting Ryan.”
DeLong said he didn’t have aspirations of becoming an administrator early in his career.
“I just came to work every day, try to use my skills to the best possible – work my cases as an investigator, responding to the calls while I was a road patrol deputy and just try to serve the community as best I could,” he said.
“But when this opportunity came up, I’ve worked very well with Sheriff Graff. He was my chief deputy when I was a road patrol deputy and in criminal investigation division, he was my chief deputy back there. So, it is a jump going from investigator to undersheriff, but the sheriff and I have worked seamlessly together throughout my whole career.”
Married and a father of two, he said he’s ready to accept the challenges presented by the undersheriff position.
“I think you’re joining about 100 different conversations that are already in motion and then coming up to speed on all those conversations that are happening – whether it’s the Child Advocacy Center, Genesee County Jail, Genesee Justice,” he said. “It’s a higher level of policing; working to make sure that everybody in those roles have the tools available to succeed.”
The sheriff’s office employs around 150 people — about 100 of them with “sworn in” status.
DeLong said that he’s prepared to work with Sheriff Graff to “lead this agency into the future.”
“Making sure we’re up to speed with technology, and even on the police side of things, crimes have changed in how they’re prosecuted and investigated,” he mentioned. “A lot of it is very technology-heavy … using UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) to our advantage as well.
MAZUR EXPRESSES GRATITUDE
Mazur, winding down a long career at the sheriff’s office, including the last seven as undersheriff, said he has been “very fortunate and very blessed …”
“I’ve held a lot of different positions (at the sheriff’s office),” he said. “So, I think in law enforcement, they always say that there’s a shelf life for law enforcement and speaking to other people in the past that have retired, you just know when that time is. And that time for me is now.”
The former deputy, investigator and sergeant commended the three “great leaders” he has worked for – Sheriff Gary Maha who hired him, Sheriff William Sheron who appointed him to the undersheriff role and Sheriff Graff.
He also spoke of the cooperation among all law enforcement and human services agencies in Genesee County.
“… one thing that I’ll always remember with my career looking back is the cooperation that we receive from all the agencies in Genesee County. There hasn’t been a time where I’ve picked up the phone and called Genesee County Mental Health, Probation, Social Services, Emergency Management and all the agencies within Genesee County Sheriff’s office, Genesee Justice, the Child Advocacy Center … whenever I’ve called for assistance, everybody’s always been there,” he offered.
“So the interagency cooperation in Genesee County has been fantastic and that makes my job a lot easier and I think that makes everybody’s job a lot easier. So I always tried to reciprocate that. So if anybody ever tried calling me, I always did whatever I could to assist them.”
As far as memories, Mazur, 52, spoke about his time as supervisor of the drug task force.
“That was something that we had a very dedicated team of investigators and detectives. We worked a lot of long hours, but it was great teamwork. We set a record, I think, for the number of cases in 2017. But that’s just a thank you to all of them for their hard work,” he said.
He also mentioned the recently formed Genesee County Threat Assessment Committee and the cooperation that goes along with that initiative.
“We’ve had a lot of great cases where we … truly made a difference and we’ll continue to do that in the future. That team will continue to do that in the future.”
Mazur, the agency’s Officer of the Year in 2002, said he’s not sure what he will do as far as employment, noting that he’s going to take a few weeks off before looking for something part-time. He said he’s moving one son into college this weekend and has another that’s going to be a junior in high school.
“I’d like to watch them in their last couple of years in college and high school,” he said. “And then I’ll probably return to a full time somewhere. What that is or what interests me, I don’t know yet.”
Graff said he worked with Mazur for his entire career and acknowledged his humble demeanor and “calm presence … who brings a lot of knowledge and experience, not only in his current position as undersheriff but I could say that as was one of my field training officers when I started here.”
“I certainly have gleaned a lot of knowledge from him throughout his career and I’m happy for him. I’m glad he is making this next step in his career … and we’re certainly supportive of him.”
DeLong is scheduled to be sworn in at 3 p.m. Monday at the Old County Courthouse, Legislative Chambers.
Enjoy your retirement !