Spa City revisits police reform
City Council to debate resolution that adopts some task force ideas
City leaders have revised a resolution proposed last week that dismissed many of the recommendations of the city’s Police Reform Task Force.
Commissioner of Accounts John Franck said that the resolution, which was unveiled March 16 during a City Council meeting, prompted complaints because it disregarded the 12member task force’s recommendations, including bias training, demilitarization of the police force, banning no-knock warrants and collaborating with social workers. The earlier resolution also pushed back on plans to create a civilian review board.
“I wouldn’t have voted for the resolution,” Franck said. “I’m with the task force. We picked the people on the task force. They gave their recommendations. The resolution did not reflect their recommendations.”
The new resolution, which was expected to be discussed by the council Tuesday night, gives more credence to the task force that has been meeting since August. City officials now agree to consider hiring an external consultant to address the tension between the community and the department, revising the use of force policy “to prioritize deescalation and protection of life” and revising policy on limiting cooperation with federal immigration agents. It also agrees to evaluate and develop a pilot program with social workers and terminate paramilitary training.
Racial justice advocate Lexis Figuereo said city officials made the changes to try to defend themselves from public rebuke by the task force’s co-chairs and racial justice activists, who were expected to gather at City Hall on Monday.
“If they did it in the beginning, then it would actually be real,” Figuereo said. “They are just now doing this because we have a press conference planned. It’s not enough.” He said he is also disappointed that the new resolution says nothing about Darryl Mount, Jr., the 21-year-old biracial man who died from injuries after being pursued by police in 2013. What happened to Mount was never made public nor was there any investigation, internal or external, into the actions of Saratoga
Springs police after Mount was found unresponsive in an alley following a pursuit. The mystery of Mount’s death remains a point of contention with activists and city police.
Figuereo also is upset that the new resolution won’t ban noknock warrants and only calls for considering a civilian review board.
Camille Daniels, co-chair of the task force, noted in a press release that the revised resolution on police reform “still does not adequately address the demands of the community.”
In addition to Mount, she mentioned the “refusal to adopt” a civilian review board and accountability over the July 30, 2020, counter-protest to a rally in support of police that ended when the Saratoga County Sheriff ’s Office showed up with a tank-like vehicle and shot pepper spray pellets at protesters.
“The council’s resolution also rejects and undermines the measures in the task force’s 50-point plan that aim to ensure that this never happens again,” a press release from the task force noted. “For an allwhite city council to release a resolution that did not acknowledge the majority of the plan created by a majority-black volunteer body, and in many cases modified or weakened the recommendations of the task force, is exemplary of institutional racism at work. The city council’s conduct over the past year — appointing a majorityblack volunteer body to the task force, providing no support throughout the process, quibbling with its research-based recommendations, and producing its own uninformed, watered-down resolution — validates the fears of racial justice supporters: our local elected officials, who were forced into symbolic actions by the 2020 protests, will do all they can to block or slow-walk, meaningful policy action.”
Mayor Meg Kelly, whose nephew, Franck confirmed, is president of the Saratoga Springs Police Benevolent Association, did not return a Times Union phone call for comment about the resolutions. On Monday morning, the city’s Commissioner of Public Safety Robin Dalton also did not comment on the public response, nor did Commissioner of Public Works Anthony “Skip” Scirocco, who during last week’s City Council meeting called the original resolution “a work in progress.”
Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan said the second resolution “is a good second draft.”
“It works toward getting the council together to accept the recommendations of the task force, subject to state laws, local laws (modifying local laws if necessary), and certain rules and regulations,” Madigan said. “My thinking continues to evolve on the task force’s recommendations and I have no issues with banning no-knock warrants at the local level. This will likely come up for discussion tomorrow evening, but I also understand the police department having an issue with banning these outright. The resolution states they should be used rarely, if ever, and I will likely inquire as to how often our department has had to utilize them in the past.”
City officials plan to adopt a police reform resolution on the evening of March 31, just hours before the state’s April 1 deadline on police reform, as required by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203.
Franck said that reforms, as recommended by the task force, need to be adopted.“i remember the 1960s,” Franck said. “Seems to me it’s being cycled around again. When are we going to fix it? How long are we going to wait?”