While an Assembly budget proposal threatens to take some of the teeth out of an executive order requiring police departments across the state to adopt reform plans by April 1, East End departments are moving toward meeting that deadline.
In June, when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued the order amid a nationwide reckoning over systemic racism in policing, the prospect of losing funding loomed should municipalities fail to adopt these plans by April 1, a deadline that the Assembly's budget proposal would remove. "During a year that has left local governments across the state in dire fiscal distress, we must ensure that the state is providing adequate necessary support funding and removing all barriers to economic recovery," Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who chairs the Assembly's local government committee, said in a release on Monday.
Nevertheless, the East Hampton Town Board is set to formalize the town's police reform and reinvention plan at its meeting today, East Hampton Village was set to release its plan Tuesday afternoon and possibly discuss it at a board meeting tomorrow, and the Sag Harbor Village plan was released to the public last week and is expected to be adopted by the village board next Thursday.
"I think it's great that we have support to continue on past the deadline, should important work and discussions be ongoing, and progress is being made," East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo wrote in an email. "The municipalities should not be penalized financially for putting serious time and effort into the initiative. I believe we are all facing fiscal challenges as it is, and most of the departments will be finished up by the deadline anyway, but it is a nice show of acknowledgment and support by Assemblyman Thiele. We appreciate it."
Mr. Thiele said he supports the reform initiative, but that with the pandemic already making things difficult for municipalities, "no one thought holding back aid was appropriate." The governor issued his budget proposal in January; the Assembly and Senate each issue their own proposals in response, and starting this week, they go to conference to work out the differences and find common ground. A resolution is expected by April 1, so removing the deadline for adoption of the reform plans is largely just a gesture acknowledging the service of local government and their "good faith" efforts than a practical shift in the police reform process, the assemblyman said.
East Hampton Village's reform and reinvention plan focuses on the "use of force, police department rules and procedures, New York State accreditation standards that we are held to as an accredited agency," as well as transparency, training, communication to the community, according to Village Police Chief Michael Tracey. The plan also touches on the village department's hiring process, which the chief said makes it difficult to prioritize diversity and more accurately reflect the community.
In Sag Harbor's reform plan, Chief Austin J. McGuire also angled for a refurbished hiring process. "Obviously we always talk about integrating the police department and more diversity. I think no one really understood that the whole Civil Service process isn't good for that because of the way it's set up."
He said the biggest obstacles in the process are Civil Service residence requirements and the "one in three rule," which requires chiefs to hire at least one out of the top three people with the highest test scores, dismissing many qualified, diverse candidates on a technicality.
To alleviate exclusivity in the hiring process, Sag Harbor's reform plan suggested "providing affordable housing and or property tax relief for new police recruits" and involving "the historically Black communities of Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah Beach to help identify potential candidates and consult on hiring decisions."
Chief McGuire additionally hoped to "investigate legally appropriate ways to collect and analyze demographic data on traffic stops and enforcement actions." He said he wants to find a method more exact than the Suffolk County Police Department mandate under which officers do not ask the driver their race, but rather make "a subjective decision based on race and ethnicity which is just for statistic purposes to see if one group is being stopped more than others."
Any change is multistep: Collecting such demographic data would necessitate the module to note race in Sag Harbor's e-system for traffic stops, which would require something like the availability of race or ethnicity on a driver's license, said Chief McGuire.
Even for arrests, the only time race is recorded, there is no collation system or search engine to assess breakdown, just the option to sort through each arrest report, one by one, the chief said.
A townwide survey in East Hampton showed that respondents described police-community relations as generally positive, with majorities of both English and Spanish speakers calling the relationship excellent or good, the town's police reform and reinvention committee and Chief Sarlo told the town board last week. But people who responded to the survey also called for improvement in some areas.
A virtual, bilingual public comment session was held last Thursday, but only two members of the public weighed in on the plan. One referred to a police officer who he said regularly demonstrated racism, xenophobia, and micro-aggression in recounting traffic stops involving Latinos. Other officers have the same mind-set, he charged. Another caller asked about a planned community review board and how its composition would be determined. "It's very important to have an African-American on the board for accountability purposes," she said, referring to negative incidents with police officers that she said left African-American residents frustrated and afraid.
The review board, said Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, "would include not only some high school students, but our goal would be to have it made up of a broad and diverse group of local citizens that best reflect the makeup of our community." He asked that those interested in joining the review board, which will meet with the police chief biannually to review progress on implementation, contact his office or other members of the town board.
Mr. Van Scoyoc acknowledged the importance of diversity on the police force itself, and said that there has been "an effort to increase numbers of Spanish-speaking personnel. Percentage-wise, we could do a little better."
"We struggle as a town board" to communicate with Latino residents, "primarily because of the language barrier," the supervisor said. One of the committee's most important topics, he said, was communication. "All community members' voices need to be heard and understood." The board is working to overcome a communication gap by publishing news releases and posting content to the town's website in Spanish as well as English, and by partnering with groups like Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island, or OLA. "We know there's a lot more work that needs to be done, and we hope that all members of our community can assist us in improving communications about any aspect of town government," he said.
But also important, he added, is the public's understanding of police procedures and regulations, and its ability to see things from the perspective of police, particularly with regard to traffic stops, likely the most common interaction between the groups. "Improving communication to the general public to help everyone understand what to do in a traffic stop would go a long way toward alleviating any issues," he said. To that end, the committee has discussed production of short explanatory videos.
High on the reform committee's wish list is body cameras for police officers. Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said on Tuesday that Chief Sarlo had learned that that equipment is far more expensive than he had previously believed. "Some recommendations will take funding from federal and state partners," she said.
Mr. Van Scoyoc suggested the addition in the town's adopted plan of a request for state funding in order to support implementation. "I would like to move on all aspects of the plan as quickly as possible," he said. A funding request was "an integral and necessary component to achieve full implementation of the plan."