While appearing in Western New York Friday, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul urged the public to remain vigilant and offer tips to police as they search for escaped convicts Richard Matt and David Sweat, even if those tips prove unsuccessful.
On Thursday night, officers visited a house in Amherst, acting on a tip. The fugitives were nowhere to be found and officers soon cleared the scene.
Hochul was asked about Thursday's local police search while attending an event in Hamburg.
"The public should be assured that every lead that comes in to law enforcement is going to be taken very seriously," she said. "They may end up resulting in no outcome, but the point is we take everything seriously enough to presume that this could actually be the one lead that makes the difference."
Hochul pointed to the search for suspected mass killer Dylann Roof, accused of killing nine people in a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Public vigilance, she said, helped bring the suspect into police custody not long after the shootings.
"That's the kind of help we're looking for from the public, to be ever vigilant" she said. "Do not think that any idea or tip is too small. If you see something, please step forward and let the law enforcement take it in their hands and pursue it."
Matt and Sweat, both convicted killers, broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York two weeks ago.
