Progress being made on Schenectady police reform efforts
City residents distrust officers, want to see them on foot patrol
Many city residents just don’t trust the police and want to see more officers on foot patrolling neighborhoods and getting to know the places and people they are supposed to be serving and protecting.
Police Chief Eric Clifford said Saturday that harsh reality was made abundantly clear during a recently concluded series of virtual meetings with everyone from business owners to clergy to non-profit groups.
“I don’t know if we can necessarily change that (lack of trust) all on our own, and I want engage the community more to find out how we can do that, so I’m going to have to continue conversations outside of these (meetings),” he said.“While we had thought that our level of engagement was actually really good, some of the feedback that we got was that it wasn’t sufficient so we have to work harder and get more creative.”
The sessions over the past few weeks are part of Schenectady’s ongoing state-mandated police reform initiative.
One possible way to build trust that was discussed is to provide more oversight authority to the Civilian Police Review Board, which would require resources at a time when money is tight in the city.
A meeting to talk about expanding the CPRB’S powers, which could include empowering the agency to conduct investigations, is planned soon.
Dick Shave, chair of the review board, said Saturday that the panel still needs to have internal discussions about how to move forward.
“There’s a disconnect between what’s in our bylaws, which says we can independently investigate, and reality, which is ‘we don’t,’ partially because there’s no money to that,” Shave said. “The work we do now could be expanded in many other directions leaving the investigation thing out.”
Clifford also said some other recurring themes included better transparency and how best to handle calls involving people in crisis with mental illness or who are emotionally disturbed.
The chief also acknowledged the department needs to find ways to improve its relationship with people in their teens to early 30s.
He said the key to effective foot patrols is that the officer has to be trained properly and engage in meaningful interactions with people they encounter on their beat.
“It’s a whole other level that we have to take it to, and we will, we just have to figure out how we’re going to get there,” he added.
Clifford said he would like to hold a moderated meeting Wednesday with the steering committee to get their reaction to what was said during the sessions with the stakeholders.
He said he’s hoping that conversation will be more geared toward solutions to some of the problems that have been identified.
After that, a survey that will be largely based on the community conversations will go to the public in December.
The survey results will be combined with community feedback to forge a draft report that the steering committee will review before coming up with recommended reforms that will be submitted to the City Council for consideration.