While serving a dangerous arrest warrant in November 2004 in the village of Ilion, Herkimer Police Capt. Scott Scherer came within a single layer of taking a bullet to the heart.
A suspect shot at Scherer and the round passed through a ballistic shield, his arm, and 12 of 13 layers of a bullet-proof vest.
“If I didn’t have the ballistic shield with me and the vest with the plate...I wouldn’t be talking to you today,” he explained. 
Fortunately, he did have the added equipment as a member of Herkimer Police Department Special Response Team formed the year before the shooting.
Sgt. Jeff Pianka, who had also been in the line of fire that day, said it served “as a good example of why we put this team together.”
The team began with four Herkimer Police officers going through training and receiving equipment as a result of funds provided by the New York State Byrne grant.
One of the main motivations behind the grant is to make sure police are safer. It is ultimately a memorial tribute to Edward Byrne, an officer killed in the line of duty in New York City.
In the case of Capt. Scherer the funds more than fulfilled their designed goal.
The Herkimer response team has since become a police service dependent solely on donations from the community, and it remains committed to ensuring the safety of both officers and the public, according to Scherer.
Serving warrants, dealing with violent felons, participating in searches, and conducting rescues are a few of the tasks performed by the team, he said.
In order to successfully carry out these specialized police actions a basic formula has been devised.
“Basically, two cops for every suspect,” said Scherer, “for officer safety.”
“And the ratio increases the safety of the public,” added Pianka.
Thanks to recent donations totaling $2,375, the ratio is set to get even better.
Three new members will be added to the team, bringing the total to seven, following six-days of training with the Utica Police Department, said Scherer.
He added, as the Herkimer team is the only of its kind in the Valley, the addition will make it possible to join the Utica team in assisting surrounding municipalities.
Yet another shared service made possible by the unit is an involvement in area schools.
Scherer said twice a year teams train in the local schools, including the colleges, for “active shooter” scenarios.
A similar attempt at familiarity training is set to begin in Brookwood Park, mostly for cases of search and rescue or suspect pursuits, to “get to know the woods,” he explained.
On average the unit is utilized on four or five responses, but in the first year it was deployed 20 times.
Scherer said a goal for the region is to consolidate officers by getting the rest of the police departments in Herkimer County involved “with one or two guys from each department.”
There is already a push at the state level to establish standard training and procedures, along with combined inventory databases of equipment, among response units, he added.
As long as local individuals, organizations and businesses continue making donations, officers serving on response teams “will be able to handle all the needs of the public,” said Scherer.