MADISON COUNTY — On Feb. 25, Madison County held a final public input session on its police reform and reinvention collaboration plan.
The plan was developed in response to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203 (June 12, 2020), which requires every local government with a police agency to perform a comprehensive review of its department, and to adopt a police reform plan by April 1, 2021.
The New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative authorizes the director of the New York State Division of the Budget to condition state aid to localities on the adoption of such a plan.
The order asks local police agencies to actively engage with stakeholders in the local community to develop a plan to improve their police force deployments, strategies, policies, procedures and practices.
Each police agency’s plan must address the particular needs of the community and promote community engagement to foster trust, fairness and legitimacy, and to address any racial bias and disproportionate policing of communities of color.
Madison County has been seeking public input on the current relationship between its sheriff’s office and the community for the past several months.
Public comments were solicited via mail and online from Sept. 15, 2020 through Oct. 23, 2020.
Madison County Sheriff’s Office and the Madison County Board of Supervisors hosted an online public comment forum on Dec. 16, 2020 via Zoom.
On Feb. 12, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, and the Madison County Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Plan Committee released a draft plan.
The plan highlights a few of the areas in which the sheriff’s office plans to make changes or has implemented new polices. A major focus of the document is mental health.
According to the draft, the sheriff’s office will make a pledge in 2021 to have all of its fulltime deputies take 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training by 2024. The training is designed to prepare officers to handle emotionally disturbed individuals in a variety of situations out in the community.
In March 2021, the Madison County Mental Health Department and 911 will implement a mental health call diversion policy for emotionally distressed calls. The risk assessment, completed by 911 operators, will evaluate if an emotionally distressed caller requires assistance from either law enforcement or the health department.
The draft also states that the sheriff’s office intends to purchase a new records management system for documenting stops, calls and arrests. The new system is expected to help the office better track and report on demographic information such as gender, age and race. Madison County plans to provide quarterly reports to the public and publish the information on its website.
Additionally, the sheriff’s office plans to report monthly to the Madison County Criminal Justice, Public Safety & Emergency Communications Committee on any filed complaints and their outcomes.
Prior to the final input session, two virtual public comment periods (Feb. 18 and Feb. 19) were held to offer the community a chance to share their thoughts on the draft plan.
Participants in the Feb. 25 session included Hood, Madison County Administrator Mark Scimone, Town of Cazenovia Supervisor Bill Zupan, Madison County Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Clifford Moses, Town of Georgetown Supervisor Pete Walrod, Chief Assistant District Attorney Robert Mascari, Canastota resident Arthur Lelio, and Matthew Ware, the school resource officer at Oneida City Schools.
“We have gotten a lot of good feedback from the community in regards to the plan,” said Scimone. “We have made some adjustments to that plan based on the feedback. [It] will go to the criminal justice committee next Tuesday for final review, and then to the board of supervisors on March 9 for final approval.”
Following Scimone’s introduction, Lelio commented that the draft plan failed to include any actions to address racial inequities, racial bias, and the needs of communities of color.
The Canastota resident requested that the “Introduction” section of the plan be revised to include an overview of all aspects of Executive Order 203, including its mention of the need to address racial bias and disproportionate policing of communities of color.
“There is nothing in the plan about any of that,” Lelio said. “The expressed goals that are noted in Executive Order 203 are ignored. There are no bias-based policing reviews being conducted. There are no goals [in the plan] to address racial bias; we are not even looking for it. There are no goals to address disproportionate policing. I have to ask, why was this most fundamental aspect of E 203 ignored? It’s like a blatant disregard of the community of color . . . Please restate the Executive 203 and do something about the things that have been omitted.”
Lelio went on to state that although the plan mentions that the county’s population is 94 percent white and makes note of the department’s racial makeup, it does not disclose the racial makeup of the police reform committee or the criminal justice, public safety & emergency communications committee.
He also requested that the county make the complaint-filing process easier and more obvious on the sheriff’s office website.
In response to Lelio input, Scimone noted that Julie Carlson, a resident of Lebanon and a member of Hamilton Area Anti-Racism Coalition (HAARC), also expressed specific concerns regarding racial bias, and that the county is looking into that aspect of the plan.
Later in the session, Hood brought Lelio’s attention to the fact that the plan introduction includes a web link to Executive Order 203 in its entirety.
Scimone concluded the session by stating that the county would be accepting written comments on the plan up until March 1 at noon.
For more information on the Madison County Police Reform and Reinvention Collaboration Plan and its development, visit madisoncounty.ny.gov.
