Following a historic year shining the light on long standing injustices in our nation, Westchester County Executive George Latimer announced the formation of the Westchester County Police Reform and Reimagining Task Force in early June. After seven months of intensive collaboration his task force is now issuing the report required by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203.
“What we saw this past year, similar to what I lived through as a young man in the 1960s, was a breaking point in our society,” Latimer said. “It is on us in government to now act. It became clearer than ever—following the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others—that real reform must occur. It also must occur with all stakeholders at the table. I believe this task force has done admirable work toward that goal and I thank them all for their service. The County Department of Public Safety has already instituted
multiple policies—such as police body cams—and we will work to do more.”
The task force, chaired by prominent Westchester residents Mayo Bartlett and Leroy Frazer, both attorneys, was comprised of county and local law enforcement professionals, clergy representatives, criminal justice and police reform advocates, human rights professionals and public servants to develop a blueprint for new policing strategies and to highlight policies currently in place by the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, WCDPS.
The task force formed six working groups: Community Engagement, Qualification & Recruitment, Training and Equipment, Policies & Procedures, and Accountability and Transparency. Following its extensive work—which included public hearings, countless work sessions and insightful discussion on the serious issues at hand—the task force released a report organized in three main sections: 1) Background and structure of this task force; 2) Reports detailing the work, process, recommendations and overall findings; and 3) a description of
the 51 recommendations organized based on the level of government to which they must be referred for action—opportunities for administrative action by the County Executive, recommendations for the county Board of Legislators, and recommendations for action by New York State.
“It has been a pleasure working with the members of the Westchester County Task Force,” Bartlett said. “It is my sincere opinion that all of the members of the Task Force were interested in implementing best practices, and strengthening the relationship between police and the community. While I believe we have been successful in identifying areas where WCDPS may improve, we also reached the determination
that our work will not be complete following our report. For that reason, it is clear to me that we must continually review models of policing to ensure that law enforcement may properly serve the community.”
The 51 recommendations originated from the six working groups created within the Police Reform and Reimagining Task Force. Thirty of the 38 members of the Task Force formally voted on each of these recommendations at their Jan. 12 meeting.
“The recommendations contained in this report represent countless hours of research and hard work by dedicated individuals seeking to bridge the gap between the community and police while maintaining public safety,” Frazier said. “It is my fervent desire that readers will see the excellent policies and procedures that our County police have in place and envision acceptable ways of insuring transparency
and accountability.”
Among the recommendations:
• Reviewing Westchester County Department of Public Safety (WCDPS)’s use of social media,
• Making WCDPS’s homepage available in multiple languages.
• Design and add a series of questions regarding an officer’s interaction with the community they serve when considering promotions and/
or annual evaluations.
• Conduct joint de-escalation (also known as verbal judo) training with the Department of Correction.
• WCDPS should explore national accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies’ Advanced Law
Enforcement Accreditation Program.
• Implement policies to educate the public on police values, principles and operations.
• Make non-confidential documents and other data, which will allow the public to assess the fairness of civilian police interactions, readily
available to the public.
• Enhance officer training—extension of leadership training to second and third line supervisors on an annual basis.
• Increase training hours for the county Police Academy’s Basic Training Course for police officers to include one week devoted to procedural justice, cultural diversity and bias related crimes and incidents.
• Implement Project ABLE REFORM from page 1 (Active ‘Bystandership’ for Law Enforcement).
• Identify liaison officers at each municipal police department who are trained to respond to hate incidents.
• Enhance the county’s already successful Police and Community Together, PACT, community engagement program and make it available
as a model for other communities. Establish and open disciplinary process.
• Pass county laws to create the Office for Police Accountability to investigate allegations of misconduct by county police officers.
• Expand the use of specialized teams to respond to mental health calls countywide and explore additional co-response initiatives. Expanding age range for police officers.
• Create and implement a countywide electronic database for mental health behavioral cases and special needs populations.
• Establish a shared Body Work Camera database through shared services.
• Update Section 273.01(3) of the County Public Safety Law in reference to hate crimes.
• DCJS Certification/Licensure overhaul
• Provide for legislation requiring municipal indemnification by officers guilty of reckless and willful misconduct.
The report will now go to the Board of Legislators for their review and legislative action. In addition, following guidelines from the governor’s Executive Order 203, this plan will be posted for public comment and a final version will incorporate public comments received. Once the plan is adopted by the county board, Latimer will complete the Certification Form and submit the certification and a copy of the
plan to the Director of the New York State Division of the Budget on or before April 1.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meetings were held virtually through WebEx and open to the public. (Submitted)
