Profiles in policing: On the day shift with Officer Elliott Cave

by Margay Blackman,
Brockport Village Mayor

A few summers ago, Officer Elliott Cave rang my front doorbell bearing a large orange-striped cat. “This your cat?” he asked, gesturing to the middle of Park Avenue, where he had scooped up the cat, which had been sunning itself on the warm asphalt. “Belongs to the next-door neighbor.” I pointed to their house, and he and the cat headed in that direction. Officer Cave, aka “Caveman” to his BPD colleagues, didn’t remember the incident when I reminded him of it, but he smiled and responded, “I’m a cat guy.” He is also a “law and order guy,” as he noted when we met for a recent ride-along.

Officer Cave and Officer Lucas Vandervort work the day shift – second platoon – 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. I had done ride-alongs with the third platoon officers (2 to 10 p.m.) whom I featured in earlier articles, and my introduction to the work of the BPD, when I became mayor 12 years ago, was a series of night ride-alongs (first platoon – 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.). The day shift was new territory.

February 12, 9:15 a.m.: Officer Cave picked me up at home and we headed to Oliver Middle School, the one public school that lies within Village limits. Officer Cave tries to pop in every day, and also chats with the crossing guard. Steve Mesiti, a retired Lieutenant from the BPD, now works at the Middle School as one of several peer support people hired by the school system. All are retired law enforcement, but none are police uniformed, which sends an entirely different and positive vibe. We walked the hallways, upstairs and down, peeking into the vice principal’s office and chatting with Steve on the way out.

Earlier that morning, before I joined him, Officer Cave had responded to a welfare call from Walgreens. A shirtless, homeless man was sleeping outside the store, wrapped in a blanket. When Officer Cave arrived at the scene, the man had already left. Brockport’s homeless are known to the police, who will assess their need for medical attention and whether they are having a mental health crisis. The officers provide information about the local warming center (First Baptist Church), local food pantries, and services offered by the Monroe County Department of Human Services.

Daily house checks (a service BPD offers to Village of Brockport residents out of town for a period of time) are part of the day shift’s assignments. The day shift is currently checking five houses on the village’s east side. The afternoon shift does the west side. Officers look for signs of burglary and other crimes, suspicious vehicles and activity, or natural disasters (such as a tree falling and damaging a home) and report to the homeowner while they are out of town.

Officer Cave has worked all shifts but likes the day shift best. The village is alive during the day. Even though the working public is at work, businesses and schools are open, and the kids are in school. People stop by the police office, the chief is at his desk, and the day shift meshes nicely with off-duty life.

Officer Cave tries to drive each street of the village at least twice on his shift, varying the route each time. As we toured the village, a Tesla with an expired inspection caught Officer Cave’s attention. Inspection stickers have a border color indicating their inspection year (2025 stickers are blue). The Tesla had a red sticker, the 2024 color. It had expired at the end of July. The driver argued that she was originally from California, and though she is now a New York resident, she does not agree with the NYS inspection law and doesn’t intend to get the car inspected. Officer Cave could have had the car towed, but instead gave the driver a traffic ticket and recommended that she get the car inspected and bring proof of inspection to her court date.

A bit later, we pulled up to the electronic speed sign on East Avenue at the village line, where the speed changes from 40 to 30. “I’m big on traffic,” Officer Cave said, parking by the sign. “Tickets get attention and deter individuals from driving recklessly.” Sure enough, a few moments later, lights flashing, we chased a car a short distance on East Avenue. The driver was headed to Strong West Hospital, doing 45mph in a 30 zone. He got a warning.

On a two-hour ride along, there are opportunities to discuss many topics related to Brockport, village government, and police work. We discussed the delivery trucks that frequently park for extended periods, without using flashers, outside the diner, blocking the view of the stoplight at Erie and Main. We talked about safety issues with the Park Avenue railroad crossing and the importance of police being able to lawfully identify individuals suspected of a crime or offense. We also discussed Officer Cave’s earlier work with US Customs and Border Protection.

Before joining the BPD in 2014, Officer Cave worked for US Customs and Border Protection for over two-and-a-half years, first in Arizona and then in the north, in Massena, NY (St. Lawrence County). The agency, known as CBP, is a federal law enforcement agency under the US Department of Homeland Security, charged with securing our land and sea borders and ports of entry. Preventing terrorism, illegal entry, human smuggling, narcotics trafficking, and other contraband is a large part of its mission, but it also protects agricultural and economic interests from harmful pests and diseases. Its jurisdiction lies within 100 miles of the border. People today may be more familiar with the activities of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), whose jurisdiction extends throughout the United States. In January, the NYS Attorney General’s Office issued guidelines for local law enforcement in relation to immigration violations: Being in the US illegally, Attorney Letitia James noted, is not in and of itself a crime and is not probable cause for detention or arrest by local police. Only federal law enforcement agencies charged with enforcing federal immigration laws, such as CBP and ICE, have the lawful authority to detain or arrest individuals for violating civil immigration laws. In NYS, a local or state law enforcement agency can hold someone as an illegal immigrant only if there is a judicial criminal warrant (signed by a federal judge or magistrate) for their arrest. “We don’t enforce immigration laws, but we will execute judicial warrants,” Officer Cave explained.

My curiosity lay with the skills Officer Cave acquired from his work with Customs and Border Protection and how those impacted his police work in Brockport. He readily itemized them – Spanish language skills, interaction with diverse people, developing interviewing skills, behavior analysis, doing investigations, detecting fraudulent documents and identifications, and knowledge of hard drugs.

Officer Cave graduated from SUNY Brockport with an undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice. He later completed his Master’s Degree following his employment as a Brockport Police Officer. Brockport must have seemed pretty tame after working the borders. Still, when I asked him about policing in a small community, his views were very similar to those of his colleagues I’d previously interviewed.

“A unique aspect about working here is that in one moment you’re writing a parking ticket, and then next there’s the murder of a Lowe’s employee. Early in my shift, I might help someone dig their car out of the snow, and the next thing, I’m on a felony. You get to do a little bit of everything, start to finish. In a small community, you know people and their date of birth; you know villagers by name.”

One ride-along grew into two when I realized I had more questions. We set off on the very cold, very snowy morning of Presidents’ Day, February 17, skidding around a corner on Brook Terrace en route to the intersection of Redman Road and New Campus Drive at the entrance to SUNY Brockport.

University police were present, investigating a two-car accident. Although this intersection is in the Town of Sweden at one of the entrances to SUNY Brockport, we came to deliver mutual aid, assisting in a call with significant hazards. Officer Cave slipped on a bright neon yellow vest, exited the car, and directed traffic in the snowstorm around the accident as we awaited the tow truck.

Officer Cave is the accreditation manager in the police department, having learned from Lt. Mesiti, who gave him the job of digitizing the department’s hard copy records into an electronic file maintenance system when he was on workman’s comp following an injury in 2015.

The NYS Law Enforcement Accreditation Program is a voluntary program in which agencies can participate. It has over 100 standards involving administration, training, and operations. In 2004, BPD attained initial accreditation under Chief Daniel Varrenti and has since been reaccredited every five years, most recently in December 2024.

Accreditation wasn’t something that initially interested Officer Cave, but he proved very effective in preparing the BPD for this periodic recertification. Recalling Middle States Academic accreditation from my years as a SUNY Brockport professor, accreditation can seem pretty mundane and ho-hum. In actuality, it’s a guarantee of adhering to professional standards and being accountable to the public.

Subsequently, in 2022, Officer Cave became an Accreditation Assessor for other departments (outside his county, as required by law). An Assessor contracts with the State and is not paid by the Village. He reeled off the departments he has assessed: Seneca Falls, Tonawanda, Hamburg, SUNY Canton, Lockport, Gloversville, Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, and Crawford. All the police departments in Monroe County are accredited, and Monroe County is the only county in NYS that holds that distinction.

2024 marked Officer Cave’s tenth year with the Brockport Police Department. In the coming years, his accreditation list will grow, and you’ll find him teaching the occasional criminal justice course at SUNY Brockport. But there’s more. His future policing wish list includes being a primary Field Training Officer (FTO) for new hires, designing a “Citizen’s Police Academy” to teach residents and those interested in a job in law enforcement about BPD operations, and taking training related to technology advancements in Law Enforcement, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it can help in investigations and operations.