Lieutenant Jake Young retired from the Ithaca Police Department on January 5th, 2024, after 20 years of police service. The walkout ceremony took place at Ithaca Police Headquarters on Clinton Street at 3 PM. Young was joined at the event by his family.
Young began his career at the Oswego police department before transferring to the Ithaca Police Department in 2007. Young spent a total of 17 years at the Ithaca Police Department, the bulk of his law enforcement career.
Part of the retirement ceremony includes a ‘Last Call’ sendoff from the dispatcher and a farewell transmission.
“A big thank you to all first responders in Tompkins County and beyond and everyone that has been by my side during my 20 years. You’ve been appreciated, and thank you. Shield Four is out of service,” Young said in his final radio call.
During his career, Lieutenant Young held various roles, including Sergeant, Lieutenant, Acting Captain, Acting Deputy Chief, Administrative Sergeant, Operations Sergeant, and Training Coordinator. He also commanded the Traffic Crash Reconstruction Team and the Ithaca-Tompkins Specialized Response (SWAT) Team. Additionally, Lieutenant Young played a role in updating the police training curriculum, making it among the best regarded in New York State.
The event marking the end of Lieutenant Young’s career was attended by dozens of law enforcement and community members as well as Mayor Robert Cantelmo, City Manager Deb Molenhoff, County Legislator Mike Sigler, Councilperson Patrick Keuhl and former Councilperson George McGonigal.
Young’s skills have been vital to the department’s success. When announcing Young’s planned retirement at the November meeting of the Ithaca Community Police Board, then Acting Chief Ted Schwartz described Young as “a key person in the department, very knowledgeable, huge part of our training program.” Schwartz went on to say Young was an “instrumental, long time mentor” to other officers.
“That one (Young) probably counts for a couple ones,” Police Board Member Richard Onyejuruwa said upon hearing about Young’s retirement.
“There’s no way to replace the institutional knowledge and experience that Lieutenant Young will be taking with him,” Ithaca Police Benevolent Association President Tom Condzella said in a statement announcing the event.
Young’s retirement comes after he and fellow Lieutenant David Amaro, along with then acting Ithaca Police Chief John Joly were cleared of wrongdoing in alleged overtime fraud.
These allegations were originally brought forth by Ithaca Tenants Union organizer Genevieve Rand in an open letter to the department.
The allegations were found to be baseless. “Political pressure was used to run a wild goose chase investigation, causing undue stress to those involved and wasting taxpayers money,” Young said in a May 2023 Ithaca Times article.
Former Acting Chief Joly left the department last year and is currently suing the city of Ithaca alleging a hostile work environment and discrimination on the basis of his race.
Young’s departure also underscores staffing challenges faced by the department. “We’re so critically understaffed now, that we can’t really do anything,” Schwartz remarked at the November meeting of the Police Board.
“We anticipate more retirements in 2024,” Condzella said. “(We) can only hope that recruitment efforts are able to keep up.”
Ithaca Police currently have 46 officers on their roster. Fully staffed, the department would have over 80.
