90% of police departments comply with reform directive

ALBANY — At least 450 of the 497 police departments statewide complied with a law to reevaluate and reform the way police interact with their communities in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

"That is a phenomenal accomplishment," Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said this week. "There were about 40 that are still outstanding and they’re on notice … I know the local governments all complained and said, well, this is hard. We don’t want to do it. And the state is forcing us to do it. Yes, the state forced you to do it."

The state Association of Chiefs of Police said the community meetings required by the measure have resulted in changes that included reductions in the size of police forces that could allow funding of more mental health professionals and greater use of some less-lethal tools to restrain suspects when needed.

The municipalities that missed the April 1 deadline to submit a plan to the state now face penalties of up to 50% cuts in state and federal funding under a measure that was part of the state budget passed this week. State monitors from the attorney general’s office also could be assigned to local police departments to oversee interactions with the public.

Many of the agencies are in small upstate towns and villages with small staffs. Cuomo’s office is working with those communities before imposing a monitor or funding cut, a spokesman said.

"There is a lot of variety that municipalities have done to re-imagine their police department," said Patrick Phelan, executive director of the chiefs association and former police chief in the Rochester suburb of Greece. "A community makes a decision to have a police department. So, it’s good that they provide feedback and we should be responsive."

Peter A. Baynes, executive director of the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials, said he knows of no municipality that refused to participate. Some, he said, had a change of police chiefs that required restarting the discussions and others took longer to gain local approval from councils and boards, often in small municipalities with small staffs.

"For the most part, I wouldn’t say the process was smooth, but it went as planned," Baynes said. "Our members embraced the process and did a good job with it and, most importantly, they are now focused on implementing the plans."

But Hawk Newsome, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, said the reforms aren’t enough. He said the group will continue to push for change to reimagine police departments as "more community-centered, heart-centered" departments trained and equipped to diffuse confrontations, many of which involve mentally ill people.

On Long Island, the Suffolk County police plan calls for more police body cameras, deploying mental health experts to some 911 emergency calls, and empowering the county Human Rights Commission to review complaints of police misconduct and bias. One proposal that wasn’t included was to create a civilian review board to investigate claims of police misconduct.

In Nassau County, the community meetings resulted in approval of the county police department’s first body-camera program, a move to add diversity in the ranks and specialized responses to calls involving mental health crises. The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office didn’t submit a plan, but is working with Cuomo's office. The county contends it wasn’t required because the deputies run the jail and do some civil actions, but do no street policing.

Statewide, some communities sought to abolish the traditional police department. In Ithaca, a liberal bastion upstate and home to Cornell University, the department name and focus was changed to become a public safety department led by a civilian director. A task force was created to develop a new direction for the department. In Rochester, the police department will become smaller over the next 10 years to 500 officers from the current 780, mental health professionals will respond to calls previously handled only by police, and it will become easier to fire police officers for just cause, among other changes.

New York City will give added points on Civil Service tests to city residents, allow suspension without pay for longer than 30 days for disciplinary charges, and allow a pension to be reduced or lost when an officer is convicted of misconduct in cases involving the death or serious injury of a civilian.

By Michael Gormley

michael.gormley@newsday.com@GormleyAlbany

Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.