Sheriff

Colleen M. O'Neill (Democrat) was elected sheriff of Jefferson County, New York on 4 November 2014, defeating Republican challenger John Bocciolatt by a 670-vote margin with all districts reporting. She took office on 1 January 2015 and became the first woman elected sheriff in the history of the State of New York. She served one term and chose not to seek re-election in 2018.

New York's sheriff system

New York has 62 counties; 57 have an elected sheriff (the five New York City boroughs share a single city-level sheriff appointed by the mayor). O'Neill's 2014 win is the earliest documented event of a woman winning election to any of the state's elected sheriff offices. Jefferson County is in the state's North Country region, on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, with a population of approximately 116,000.

Background

O'Neill joined the New York State Police in 1984, one of ten women in her academy class. She rose to Senior Investigator and retired from State Police in 2012 after a 28-year career, taking the Jefferson County sheriff's race two years later as her first elected office. Her father Al O'Neill had been elected Jefferson County sheriff in 1977 — an unusual generational sheriff family arrangement that is part of the dossier record for her tenure.

Subsequent NY first-woman events

The next NY first-woman event in the dataset is Jacqueline Salvatore's January 2026 swearing-in as Columbia County sheriff — New York's first Black woman elected to a county sheriff's office, eleven years after O'Neill's state-first event.

Sources

• North Country Public Radio — Colleen O'Neill projected winner in Jefferson County Sheriff race (2014-11-05)
• Watertown Daily Times — Former trooper Colleen O'Neill could become first female sheriff in the state (2014-01-21)
• NNY360 / Watertown Daily Times — Jefferson County Sheriff Colleen M. O'Neill will not seek reelection