New Village of Attica Police Chief Karl Zufall with retired Chief Dean Hendershott on Wednesday May 20th, 2026. Hendershott will be assisting with the transition during the month of June.
Karl E. Zufall has been named the new Village of Attica Police Chief. Zufall was sworn in this past Wednesday morning with his two-year-old son at his side.
“He’s been here for 12 years he knows how the department is run. We’ve talked, he’s got some great ideas, and I’m very comfortable turning the department over to him, because he’s got the department’s heart and soul with him,” says retired Attica Police Chief Dean Hendershott.
Zufall started as a part time officer at Attica PD in 2014.
“I became full time in 2015, sergeant in 2019, and then I went to the City of Batavia as a firefighter in 2023. I got to see all sides of being a first responder, because as a firefighter, you got to be an EMT, which before that, I was a volunteer EMT for the Attica Fire Department,” says Zufall.
Chief Zufall with his two-year-old son during Wednesday morning’s swearing in by Village Board member Chris VanSon.
The North Java resident is an Attica High School graduate and joined the Marines in 2008.
“I went to School of Infantry in North Carolina. Then I went to basic security guard school in Virginia. Then I was stationed in Washington State. I was in security forces; we guarded nuclear weapons and submarines. Then I went to close quarter battle school, and that’s like a, SWAT team for the base in Washington State. So that was back in Virginia. And then after the school, which was a couple months, I went back to Washington, finished out my part of the contract there. Then I went back to North Carolina to Camp Lejeune, and I was in the infantry in Camp Lejeune, and I finished out my time there.”
Zufall finished up in late 2012.
“I was in for about four and a half years, and I pretty much moved right back to Attica. Went through Erie County Police Academy, that’s full-time academy of about six months. While I was going through the academy, I was living in North Java again, and then after I graduated the academy, I got hired here about a week later, and I moved to the village of Attica, and I’ve been in the village ever since.”
Usually, Attica PD has about five full-time officers, and 10 part-timers. One of the first things Zufall says he plans to work on is getting the department fully staffed. “We’re short a guy, and we got to fix our fleet.”
Attica’s new Police cruiser is almost ready for the road, after the department lost one vehicle that was involved in an accident with a drunk driver and one other with a blown engine.
“One car was totaled by a drunk driver. We just replaced that. We’re still down one car that blew an engine, so we’ve got to work on that.”
Zufall is looking to modernize the department with uniform standards and more community outreach.
“Lot of the officers grow beards. Some of the officers are excited about that, because that’s not something you can’t do in some Police Departments, says Zufall. I want to meet with the officers and see what they want and expect out of this department. I had a list when I was interviewing for this position of what the officers wanted and what can I do to make their job easier, so I plan on getting a whiteboard in the office and putting all their requests on the whiteboard, and so we can slowly try to whittle that down and try to make the officers happy with having the right gear.”
Chief Zufall plans to change the design of the Attica PD badge with the help of the community
The department plans on also creating a Facebook page to connect with community members.
“I’m looking to do more events with the community. One of the things I have in mind is patch ideas to have the community try to design patches for us.”
The last time the Attica PD patch was changed was about 15 years ago.
Zufall welcomes the community to stop in at the office any time at 43 Exchange Street. Residents can also contact Cheif Zufall at atticapolicechief@mail.attica.org he says he plans to be in the office Monday through Friday from 8AM-4PM.
“To my guys here, I’m open-door policy, I want to be there for the officers and do whatever I can to make them feel like home here. I’m excited to be a part of this community again. I look forward to meeting all the people that live here now that I might have not met while I was a sergeant here, and working with the businesses and taking care of everyone that’s a part of this village.”
Congats to Chief Zufall… I have a feeling he will make ou community poud!!!