Throughout a typical shift, Deputies Jeff Simpson and John Murphy will cross paths with a few dozen boaters out on Saratoga Lake. Sometimes, as was the case with a small fishing boat they stopped on a quiet Sunday morning in early July, the interaction ends with a ticket for the vessel's operator.

“Out here in the channel, there is a 5 mph no-wake zone, and this boat was creating an obvious wake, so we stopped him,” Deputy Murphy said as Simpson spoke with the boat’s operator.

After a brief rundown of a few basic safety guidelines, the deputies sent the boat and its two occupants on their way. More often than not, Simpson and Murphy say citations aren’t necessary, and that their main goal is to make their presence known and establish a rapport with boaters.

“That’s why we are out here, just so they see us and that way they know and we can inform them of the rules,” said Simpson, who spent more than 20 years in the U.S. Navy before starting his law enforcement career.

“We try to educate over enforce, but at the end of the day, we still have a job to do,” Murphy said.

The two men are part of the marine patrol unit at the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office, which has jurisdiction on every water body in or touching the county, but they spend the bulk of their time at Saratoga Lake.

“It’s a great community,” Murphy said. “Saratoga Lake is not the biggest lake we have in the county, but it’s a good one to be on.”

“People are usually more relaxed in this atmosphere,” Simpson said. “It’s a good community relations tool for them to talk to us like boater-to-boater instead of in different capacities that we sometimes interact with people.”

While activity levels can be hard to quantify, the partners believe the lake has gotten somewhat busier since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I would say last summer and this summer, we’ve seen slightly more traffic due to people being cooped up at home,” Murphy said. “Some people say boat sales have increased; jet skis have increased.”

“Today on a scale of 1-10, it is about a six right now, but it is still early. We are just hitting noon now, so it will pick up as the day goes on,” Simpson said as Murphy steered their boat north on the lake.

In early July, a 20-year-old man was killed in a boating accident on the lake. The deputies could not discuss that case specifically because of the ongoing criminal investigation, but they say incidents of that severity are thankfully out of the ordinary.

“Two boats bumping into each other and having an accident is a little more rare than it is out on the road,” Simpson said. “I would say it is much more rare out here because people are more cognizant about what is going on and paying attention to their surroundings.”

As they checked in with boaters up and down the lake, Murphy and Simpson said while their assignment may look leisurely to the outside observer, it comes with the weight of responsibility.

“I love helping people, and being out here on the water is another way I can serve the community where I live,” Murphy said.

“That’s our goal every day, that everybody who comes out here gets to go home safely. That’s what we’re looking to do every day we’re out here,” Simpson said.