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POLICE: Running the Niagara River

State Park Police patrol the waterways with a brand new boat

By Rick Pfeiffer/pfeifferr@gnnewspaper.com
Niagara Gazette

State Park Police Lt. Patrick Moriarty and his partner, Sgt. Clyde Doty, had just finished a rescue in the Niagara Gorge before heading out to patrol the west Niagara River.

Just an average Friday night for the State Park Police.

“It was late when we got out there,” Moriarty recalled, “and instead of taking the boat back to Big 6 Marina, I said to Clyde, ‘Why don’t we take a check of the danger zone.’ ”

Heading up to the restricted waters, just above the rapids and the falls, Moriarty spotted trouble.

“Lo and behold, there’s a boat heading toward Goat Island,” Moriarty said.

Doty and Moriarty intercepted the wayward boater before his craft got into trouble and avoided the need for a life-threatening rescue.

“They said they were heading to the (Canadian casino) fireworks,” Moriarty said. “I asked them, ‘Do you know where the fireworks come from?’ ”

It’s preventing similar near tragedies that brings Moriarty, Doty and other park police officers out on patrol on the Niagara River throughout the boating season.

While the boats they use for patrol have been good in the past, the park police got a big boost in August with the delivery of a brand new 25-foot Pro-Line “police boat.” Equipped with twin 150-horsepower Mercury outboard motors, the craft based at the Big 6 Marina on Grand Island can exceed 50 mph out on the water.

It will serve as a companion patrol boat to a 21-foot, inboard, Sea Squirrel.

“This boat was built to be a working police boat,” Moriarty said. “Our other boat is really a ‘family boat’ that we just converted. In fact, you can still see the outriggers (for fishing) on the back.”

The boat looks almost identical to the one featured in a Coast Guard television commercial, chasing down drug smugglers off the coast of Florida.

“The (new) boat is excellent,” said Major Vince Iacovitti, the local Park Police commander. “Because it’s bigger, it can handle rough water better and it’s safer for our personnel.”

On a Friday night patrol with Moriarty and Doty, choppy water on the river kept most pleasure boaters at the docks, but Marine 5, the radio designation for the new boat, handled smoothly. Even at high speed, the boat cut through the rough water without bouncing.

The new boat, built in 2006, replaces a 23-foot Stratus outboard built in 1992.

“That boat is pretty beat up,” Moriarty said with a smile. “We need this.”

The Park Police marine patrols usually start around Memorial Day and continue until the end of September. Officers are in the water from 4 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

“We try to be in the water by Memorial Day because of the activity in the parks on the holiday weekend,” Moriarty said. “And we’re out for special events as well.”

Moriarty said the ultimate purpose of the water patrols is to keep people safe.

“We know there are a lot of boaters out there who have been on the river for a long time,” he said. “And they don’t like to be told when they’re doing something wrong. But we’re trying to keep their passengers — and them — safe.”