Police Chief Hazard questions legality
In the midst of a battle between law enforcement and Black Lives Matter protestors, Governor Andrew Cuomo recently signed an executive order — the New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative — requiring state police agencies to develop a plan which reinvents and modernizes police strategies and programs in their community. Plans must be adopted by April 1 in order for agencies to be eligible for future state funding.
“I don’t even think it is legal,” Town of Cornwall Police Chief Todd Hazard said. “The State of New York Constitution provides for a process where laws are enacted by the State Legislature, although this governor often gets approval from the Legislature through the state budget process. The state’s Declaration of a State of Emergency for COVID-19 did give the governor powers to issue executive orders pertaining to COVID but it certainly didn’t change New York to an imperial form of government whereby the governor could issue executive orders for anything he felt necessary.”
Each police agency’s reform plan must address policies, procedures, practices, and deployment, including, but not limited to use of force.
In developing such a plan, stakeholders must be engaged in a public and open process. Members of the public should be allowed to comment and offer input on the plan.
Hazard said many of the items which the plan must include are already things which have been employed by the department for years. Such policies include: Use of Force, Community Policing, Citizen Complaint Process, Weapons Discharge Reporting, Arrest Data, and providing, to those who require it, medical and mental health treatment for those under arrest or in custody.
“The Town of Cornwall Police Department has been accredited for 15 years and we have to meet compliance with the 109 standards set forth by the NYS Accreditation Council,” said Hazard.
The governor’s order also includes Implicit Bias Training, something the department has been working on in conjunction with the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
“Some things that he ordered, such as Restorative Justice Practices, really need to be defined greater as to how an agency such as ours could handle that. Unfortunately, these items are additional unfunded mandates for municipalities. The governor is aware of the tax cap, he is also aware that sales tax revenue is down and he has been saying how broke the state is for the last 105 days. That being said we will adapt and figure it out because that is what we do.”
Hazard said a public forum would be held at some point in the future, but added the department doesn’t actually receive aid from the state. Cornwall secures $4,000 from the governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, but that’s money given to states by the federal government.
“It is not money that we operate with; it basically pays for extra hours of traffic enforcement,” Hazard said. “Obviously we are going to do what it takes to comply with the order but this state funding that he is talking about withholding amounts to nothing.”
Hazard believes his department is providing the best service it can with the resources it’s provided and took offense to some of the comments the governor made. “It was very heartless for the governor to say that we need to restore trust. Two weeks prior he was saying what a debt of thanks we owed our front line workers who went to work when he was telling everyone to stay home. Because of an incident that occurred in Minneapolis every agency in New York is not to be trusted?”
