Coll launches Public Safety re-election bid
He filled a room. Find out what he said.
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Tim Coll, Saratoga Springs’ commissioner of public safety, highlighted three major accomplishments that he says have defined his first term — the safe handling of major events such as the Belmont Stakes horse race; a new focus on traffic safety especially regarding commercial trucks in the city; and homelessness — to a standing-room-only crowd that came for his official launch of a second term.
Endorsed by the Democrats, Republicans and One Saratoga parties, Coll filled the room with about 70 people, a smorgasbord of Spa City politicians, in the mezzanine bar room of Mittler’s cafe in downtown Saratoga Springs. The event was held at 5 p.m. July 7, 2025.
“We did accomplish an awful lot in all these 18 months,” thus far in his first term, he told the crowd.
On the Belmont he thanked many of the local, county, state, and federal law enforcement partners that he worked with, some of whom were in the room.
“That is a very significant, very difficult special event for the size of our city, and it's national in scope,” he said.
“Thank you for your collaboration. I know you don't want to be recognized, but thank you,” he said to some of the law enforcement people in the room.
He said he reinstituted the traffic safety unit in the city.
“We started that this year. It was cut because of budget cuts several years ago,” he said, adding, “We are focusing on commercial truck traffic every day. We're taking trucks that should not be on the road off the road, and that is really, really important for our city.”
He added in an interview that he hopes to move forward with a change of the speed limit to 25 mph in most of the “inner district” downtown and in some other traffic hotspots in the city.
He ended on the issue that has become a political sore spot for the city: homelessness, saying that the city needs a comprehensive plan to address the issue, an issue he says is being needlessly politicized.
“I wanted to approach it in a comprehensive, systematic way,” he said of the changes made regarding homelessness during his first term. “And the first thing we did is we installed the 200 new donation boxes downtown with the message that no one should be giving money directly to panhandlers.”
The lockboxes, originally installed during a previous administration, collect money to be delivered to the city’s nonprofits aimed at homelessness — Shelters of Saratoga and RISE. They also have messaging on them to avoid giving directly to individual homeless people, which some leaders fear just adds to the panhandling problem.
He said that under his watch, the city embedded peer-to-peer counselors with the police department.
“We were going out to our community and addressing those who are mentally ill and have substance abuse issues,” he said.
And he highlighted the “no camping” ordinance that passed during a contentious Saratoga Springs City Council meeting last week, “so we could have safe and accessible sidewalks and public spaces for all.”
“That is the balance that we need, I believe, as a community,” he said, and received a healthy applause from the room.
Asked in an interview if he feared that the new law would expose the city to lawsuits, a concern for some members of the public who spoke against the law at the recent city council meeting.
He said he did not think so, that he drew up the "Camping prohibited on certain public property" law with the help of a Constitutional attorney practice Hinman Straub. They delivered “legal work on Constitutional issues,” the city’s invoice says. The cost was $7,925.
He said that the police department is putting together new policies and procedures to best implement the new law, and they should be available in the next two weeks.
He contends that the city will be targeting the hardest to reach people who need homeless services the most.
In an interview he said that he will continue to push for a new police station. He said the old one, in the basement of City Hall and originally built in the 1800s has run out of space.
The station is another hot button issue. The City Council is sharply divided on whether the station is needed, especially at the cost of tens of millions of dollars.
“It's just really, really out of date,” Coll said.
As well, he said that a newer police station would have a “sally port” or entryway for police vehicles to bring prisoners directly into the building. An upper floor bridge would connect the new station to City Hall across the street so that prisoners do not go out onto Lake Avenue when arrested or going to court in the City Hall building, adding that the city’s insurance company said that might be needed.
“You know, Saratoga Springs is a beautiful place. It's a great place to live. It's a great place to work, and it's my job to keep it that way to keep it, the gem, that it is,” Coll told the audience at the end of his launch speech.
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