Panel seeks to expand powers

Albany’s police review board asks for ability to discipline officers

The city’s Community Police Review Board is recommending the Common Council grant it the power to independently investigate and discipline police officers accused of wrongdoing.

The recommendation was one of six the board made to the council last week as part of a third set of requests for expanded powers and responsibilities as the council considers a package of three police reform bills. If the board is granted that power, it would be among the few in the nation with the ability to discipline — a plan that would likely run into stiff resistance from the city ’s police union.

While the measure does have support among some council members, it faces a questionable legal future. Earlier this year, a state Supreme Court judge ruled that Rochester could not pass a similar discipline policy through a public referendum.

But the review board wanted to ensure the council had a broad set of proposals to consider, said Ivy Morris, the review board’s chairwoman.

“We figured it’s time to go bold,” she said. “We’re going to stop tiptoeing; the window is open ... and we’re going to request things we’ve been discussing for years.”

Among the other recommendations would be an annual survey on policecommunity relations and regular audits examining possible racial bias in the department, as well as the ability for the board to express judgment on police discipline before the department imposed it.

The first two pieces of legislation are expected to pass at next week’s council meeting. One requires the department to gather more demographic data on traffic stops and arrests, and the other makes department policy on wearing body cameras a law.

During a public safety committee meeting on Monday, Kelly Kimbrough, a former city police officer, emphasized that the reforms are not meant to be punitive toward police.

“These reforms have been a long time in the making and have been needed long before the incident with Mr. Floyd,” he said, referencing the death of George Floyd earlier this year at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests and calls for reform, including in Albany.

The Community Police Reform Board then recommends a third piece of legislation that would expand and enhance the board’s powers. The current form of the proposed bill would give the board the ability to conduct its own outside investigations into incidents of police misconduct and increase its budget, among other changes.

Several council members, including Derek Johnson, urged their fellow members to move with urgency, noting that the council had originally proposed the reforms in early June.

“We can’t say we’re rushing through something when this has sat around for months,” he said. “The people spoke and its time for change.”

Council President Corey Ellis said the council would move to include some of the recommendations. “It’s clear the public would like an independent CPRB,” he said.

Greg Mcgee, president of the police officers union, said any changes to the police discipline process would have to be negotiated as part of the union’s contract. The union has been without a new contract since 2016. In 2018 a group of officers tried to break away from Council 82 and form an independent union, which means the union can’t negotiate with the city until that question is settled.

In May, a state Supreme Court judge stripped Rochester’s Police Accountability Board of its disciplinary powers, ruling that giving the board disciplinary powers through a referendum, rather than negotiations with the police union, violated state and civil service laws. The city has appealed.