Public safety reform bill split
Concerns, including cost, prompt revised approach
The Common Council is splitting an expansive proposal that would have overhauled the city’s approach to public safety into two pieces.
Legislation was introduced earlier this year that would create a nine-member public safety commission along with a Department of Public Safety.
The commission, appointed by the council and mayor, would’ve overseen the city’s police department and its policies, while the public safety department would have undertaken responses to certain calls in the city, such as individuals struggling with mental illness and homelessness.
But with questions raised about the cost, the duties of the two bodies and other concerns, the council is stripping the creation of that department from the original proposal and putting it into separate legislation.
Council President Corey Ellis, who has pushed the initial legislation, Local Law C, said he requested that the public safety department be separated from the commission in order to let the council figure out how each should work.
The revised local law would still create the commission and charge it with overseeing law enforcement in the city.
In a recent interview, Ellis said he wants to let that commission determine whether the city needs to have unarmed Department of Public Safety employees be the primary responders for certain issues while also overseeing the reforms proposed by the city’s Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative last year.
“The part that is more important is how do we deal with public safety when it’s not a police issue,” he said.
Fifteenth Ward Councilman Tom Hoey introduced separate legislation on May 16 that would re-create a department of public safety, which the city previously had.
Hoey’s legislation as it is written now does not include the expansive duties previously mentioned for a department of public safety. Instead, it only creates the department, headed by a public safety commission“i er.
Mayor Kathy Sheehan created a part-time public safety commissioner position in her 2022 budget but has not hired anyone to fill it. That move did not create a new department or add any other employees to the city’s payroll.
The $50,000 job would handle disciplinary matters involving city police and firefighters. The city has grown frustrated with the state’s arbitration process, in which police and firefighters can turn to the state’s Public Employee Relations Board to handle their disciplinary matters. The city has repeatedly attempted to fire police officers only to see them win their jobs back in arbitration.
Under Hoey’s legislation, the commissioner would oversee public safety disciplinary matters and, as well, would have any other powers or duties granted under a local law approved by the council.
During a public safety committee meeting on Wednesday, council members expressed various concerns about the two pieces of legislation and the timeline for passing either of them.
Ninth Ward Councilwoman Meghan Keegan said she supports an independent body to oversee the implementation of reforms that the city’s Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative put forth last year, but stopped short of endorsing a body with more expansive powers.
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I do not believe that we can legally give this commission authority to direct policy over the department. I think it’s disingenuous to tell the public that’s something we can provide.”
— Ninth Ward Councilwoman
Meghan Keegan
think if we can focus on that, that is something that is very doable for us to get up and running,” she said.
Keegan questioned whether a public safety commission could or should go further than that.
“I do not believe that we can legally give this commission authority to direct policy over the department,” she said. “I think it’s disingenuous to tell the public that’s something we can provide.”