OWASCO -- Cayuga County Sheriff David Gould and members of his office met with Owasco residents Monday evening to discuss the recent increase of crime and any possible solutions to rebuild the community's sense of security.

The meeting came three days after deputies arrested at least five young men after they allegedly broke into an Owasco home around 3:30 a.m. and assaulted one of the residents with a baseball bat.

In the past two months, deputies had arrested 40 Owasco residents with 12 arrests pending, Gould said. Most of those arrests were young adults.

"Owasco has more complaints than any other township in the county," Gould said. "We need to find out why is that. Other townships are not having problems to this extent."

With the increase in crime, many residents voiced their concern about a lack of safety and a slower response time by state police and sheriff deputies.

But with both law agencies short staffed, Gould said each organization usually only had one or two cars on the road at night to cover an entire county.

Owasco Town Supervisor John Klink said the town did have a special agreement with the sheriff's office to pay for a deputy to work only in Owasco at night, but the program was strictly voluntary and the deputies worked on overtime pay.

One proposed solution was the creation of a police department.

Board member Gino Alberici researched the feasibility of creating a police department four years ago, but said the town rejected the idea after they decided it would cost too much.

The cost could exceed more than $150,000 with the purchase of a vehicle and equipment, training an officer and the costs for liability, insurance and workman's compensation, Alberici said.

Another possible option Klink wants to explore next Tuesday with Gould, is the sheriff's office training a deputy who would work only in the Owasco. Owasco would pay the deputy's salary.

In the meantime, Gould said it was time for parents to step up and assume responsibility for their children.

"Everyone is trying to blame someone else, but a lot of the incidents involve our own kids," Gould said. "Parents have got to take care of their own kids and assume some responsibility."