New Rochelle Democratic Committee Will Monitor Police Reform
Unanimously resolves to form committee to monitor policing in New Rochelle
At its May 23rd meeting, the New Rochelle Democratic Committee (NRDC) adopted a resolution proposed by District Leader Gene Tozzi to create a committee to “keep abreast of policing and police reform in the City of New Rochelle,” and “report findings and recommendations to the full NRDC.”
In March of 2021, in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and Kamal Flowers and a national movement calling for police reform, the New Rochelle City Council passed a “Police Reform and Collaborative Plan” which included the establishment of a “Community-Police Partnership Board” (CPPB). One responsibility of the CPPB was to “research and recommend a framework for the creation of a Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB)… so that a CCRB can be established in 2022.” (pp. 3-4). Although there has been some progress toward that goal in recent months, it is now close to a year-and-a-half overdue.
In presenting the resolution at the NRDC, Tozzi gave a quick recap of the efforts of the CPPB to date, including a brief summary of the report submitted by the consulting firm CRG, which presented options for a CCRB. Tozzi mentioned two important highlights from the report: 1) the discrepancy between how the police and city officials view police-community relations versus how they are viewed by community members; and 2) the fact that one’s perceptions of whether your neighborhood is over-policed or under-policed depends on where you live.
One District Leader in Council District 3 was clear that her constituents felt over-policed. Some members raised concerns about whether the small number of residents interviewed by CRG was truly a representative sample, and the importance of increasing trust between the police and the community. Several members urged district leaders to take advantage of the Citizens Police Academy to learn more about the police department’s processes. It was stated that Mayor Ramos-Herbert and Councilmember David Peters would continue to work with the CPPB and the development of the CCRB.
Everyone agreed about the importance of the NRDC keeping up to date on this important issue. It was acknowledged that the Democrats had been in control of the city for 32 years, and therefore had a particular responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of its residents, and to mitigate the impact of racism and prejudice in all aspects of city life.
Two Black Men have been killed by NRPD officers in the last four years. In addition to the killing of Kamal Flowers by Officer Alec McKenna under mysterious circumstances in 2020, Detective Steven Conn shot and killed Jarrell Garris on Lincoln Avenue in July 2023 after Garris allegedly stole a few pieces of fruit from a local market. The Garris killing is still under investigation by New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
As I have been saying for years, economies of scale make a more regional approach on police oversight, such as a County entity policing the County police and being available as a shared service to the 40+ municipal departments, large and small, the way to go. Unfortunately, however, it has been three years since the Westchester County Police Reform and Re-imagining Task Force, which I had to fight the police unions to be appointed to, recommended a civilian complaint board. The working title of the entity was “Independent Police Accountability Board” in the draft legislation that I saw as a County Legislator in January 2023. The proposal has languished since then, with the Latimer administration saying the matter is in the hands of the Legislature. But knowing what I do about how that place works, the law would pass swiftly if the County Executive would give it the green light. When he says “Jump,” the County Legislators say, “How high?” George has two political problems when it comes to any police reform, though, even if he has any interest in it during this time in which the George Floyd protests seeming to be fading from many people’s memories . First, he has always curried favor with the police unions, which have a long history of opposing civilian oversight. Second, his new paymasters, in the current Congressional primary campaign, are far-Right Republican authoritarians who certainly don’t support police reform.