Manlius Policing plan focuses on communication

After several months of discussions and community feedback, the town of Manlius public safety advisory committee (PSAC) has prepared a draft plan that summarizes the committee’s findings and makes a series of recommendations for the town of Manlius Police Department.
In July 2020, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued executive order 203, which required all municipalities that have a police force to review police policies and procedures and make recommendations to “promote community engagement to foster trust, fairness, and legitimacy, and to address any racial bias and disproportionate policing of communities of color.”
Much of the PSAC’s plan has to do with transparency and cultivating communication between the police department and the community.
The plan calls for a variety of department policies to be made publicly available on the town website, including policies on internal affairs, preventing biased policing, interactions with people suffering from mental illness, and body worn cameras.
The plan also calls for an online form to be added to the website to allow residents to provide feedback, compliments, or file a complaint. The committee also suggests more online interaction with residents in the form of example traffic stops, virtual citizen’s police academies, and annual workshops for residents on the services provided by the department.
The plan also recommends creating a staff person whose primary role would be community relations.
“This person would be in charge of keeping the community up-to-date via social media and press releases,” the plan states. “They also should be actively cultivating community relationships and unique opportunities for officer engagement.”
The mental health of police officers was also a focus of the committee, and the plan calls for “the need to normalize mental health within our police department and our community,” and highlights the mental health resources available to officers and their families.
In discussing the draft plan last week, committee member Bill Harris suggested adding a section on community responsibility.
“The spotlight is always on improving the police and their attitudes, and yet sometimes the public just doesn’t get it,” Harris said. “Some of the citizens’ responsibility, that I feel should be a part of this, is to be respectful; to be compliant.”
The committee decided not to include a section on community responsibility because the focus of the executive order was specific to policing.
To meet the requirements of the executive order, the town must adopt a plan by April 1. The PSAC hopes to finalize the plan over the next couple of weeks before delivering it to the town board, which would then hold a public hearing during the month of March before voting on adoption.
A committee led by Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick is also in the process of creating a plan that can be adopted by municipalities within the county to fulfill the requirements of the executive order. Manlius town councilor Elaine Denton, who chairs the PSAC, said they “look forward to seeing the county’s plan to see what recommendations they have for training, community relations, alternatives to police response and more.”
The committee, which features diversity in age, race and gender, includes two former town of Manlius police officers.