Board seeks volunteers for police panel
Town Board members are seeking volunteers for a committee that will review police policy and operations to determine if changes are needed during interactions with the public.
The call for candidates was made during a Town Board meeting last week, with Supervisor James Quigley saying that the number of people appointed to the panel will be based on the expertise of applicants.
However, Quigley added that the state has been lagging in provided details of how panels should move forward.
“Here’s the primary problem to this entire process: The executive order says in the second paragraph the Department of Budget in conjunction with the (state Division of Criminal Justice Services) will promulgate guidance as to how this process is to proceed,” he said.
“I’m seeing everybody scramble to put a committee together,” he said. “It’s like (saying) ‘let’s go on a road trip’ but we don’t have a map and we don’t know where we’re going.”
Cuomo issued the order on June 12 in response to protests over high-profile police actions that resulted in the deaths of eight state residents and another 12 people in the nation. He wrote that deaths of unarmed “predominately Black and African-American” civilians requires evaluating police policies.
Under the executive order, the panels will be required to consist of the “head of the local police agency and stakeholders in the community” to evaluate the use of force policies, procedural justice any studies addressing systemic racial bias or racial justice in policing, implicit bias awareness training, de-escalation training and practices and conflict resolution. A report on the findings and recommendations in each municipality will be required to be either adopted or ratified by April 1, 2021.
Municipalities will be required to file the recommendations with the state Division of Budget or risk being turned down for aid.
Quigley said the executive order is important in getting municipalities to take a look at issues that
are hard to get consensus on from board members.
“I don’t accept the status quo,” he said. “I challenge everything. I may not have been proactive in challenging it but ... I’m still finding things wrong that ... should have (been) found 11 years ago.”
Quigley added that experiences with issues such as budget reform and infrastructure updates can be daunting enough, but making changes to law enforcement procedures will be easier if there is support in a citizens panel.
“Unfortunately when you come into this office you can’t turn over every rock looking for something,” he said. “If you spent your time doing that you would not accomplish anything in your first two terms.”