NYCLU wants Schenectady to table expanding presence
A leading civil rights group is calling on the City Council to spike its pending vote on expanding the presence of police in city schools.
The New York Civil Liberties Union has called Monday’s vote to formally approve the expansion “ill-advised and hasty” and is asking lawmakers to table the decision until the plan can be further researched.
“We do not believe that police are a necessary part of a healthy and safe school environment and there are many excellent schools and districts throughout the country that prove this every day,” wrote Melanie Trimble, regional director for the NYCLU Capital Region, in a letter sent to City Council President Marion Porterfield. “Where school districts decide that police are needed in schools, it is absolutely incumbent upon educators to protect kids from unnecessary and harmful contact with the criminal legal system.”
The plan to assign more police officers to city schools has been contentious in the school district and city government.
The civil rights group cited what it called two glaring areas it contends require further consideration. The memorandum ofuunderstanding between the school district and the police is faulty because it gives disciplinary authority to the police, the organization contends. It also flagged racial disparities in arrests as problematic.
Police Chief Eric Clifford declined comment.
City police have had a contentious relationship with the civil rights group since 2019, when the organization issued a scathing report knocking city police for racial disparities in marijuana arrests. The NYCLU later partially retracted its findings, citing errors when crunching data.
Porterfield and Carl Williams, the chairman of the council’s public safety committee, said they will issue formal responses Monday.
The number of social workers and counselors at the district already significantly exceeds the number of police officers, Porterfield said, and there will be training to ensure the school resource officers are a good fit.
Under the plan by the city school board and City Council’s Public Safety Committee, police will boost the numbers of resource officers from two to six.
The $600,000 cost will be split between the school district and police department over the next three academic years.
The City Council is scheduled to vote on the measure Monday.
The proposal, first floated by
city school district Superintendent Anibal Soler Jr. earlier this winter, has been divisive and has focused on whether armed police bolster school safety or cause more trauma to Black and brown students who already fear them. Students staged a walkout against the plan earlier this spring.
Dozens have also spoken out at forums, with advocates and police contending an expanded law enforcement presence will provide role models and better student protection.
Clifford has said the program will give officers the ability to better build relationships with students and is not designed to police their behavior.
Trimble cycled through numerous concerns over the program and contends disciplinary authority belongs with school officials — not with police.
Additionally, nationwide data gathered by the American Civil Liberties Union shows that increased policing often “criminalizes” acts that formerly would have been viewed simply as poor adolescent behavior, Trimble said.
When it comes to a racial breakdown of arrests made by Schenectady police, the most recent figures reveal white people, who represent nearly 57 percent of the city’s population, account for 26 percent of all arrests.
Black people, who are 19 percent of the city’s population, account for 33 percent of arrests, the NYCLU reported, citing data in the city’s state-mandated plan to reform police operations to be more responsive to the public.
The NYCLU said mental health professionals are better able to reduce disruptive behavior.