All views considered at police reform public hearing

MILLERTON — Taking another step forward in the police reform and revitalization plan’s development, the Village Board took every comment, concern and stance raised by local residents into careful consideration at the public hearing held on Thursday, March 11, via Zoom due to the  COVID-19 health crisis. It was live streamed to the “Village of Millerton VOM” Facebook page; speakers were limited to three minutes each.

The Joint Village of Millerton and Town of North East Police Committee has been working on the police reform plan since Governor Andrew Cuomo issued his Executive Order mandating all police agencies in the state adopt reform plans by April 1 or risk losing state funding.

Millerton resident Daniel Goldhagen said the plan, as drafted, falls short in addressing racial and ethnic profiling and implicit biases that may exist in police enforcement. He suggested a strong statement  opposing such biases. 

Urging the board to remember the community isn’t too small to be affected by the “horrifying killings” that led  Cuomo to issue his mandate, Millerton resident Eliot Ramos said the community has been given “the rarest of opportunities to reinvent what we want to see happen in our town and village.”

Town of North East resident Bill Kish criticized the Village Board for delaying the review process. 

“For some reason that I never really fully understood, it seems that the village government was under the impression that they’d be able to utilize the county police reform plan as their own and submit it,” he said, “and so, as a result, a large amount of time that could have been productively used was wasted.”

Though he acknowledged the pressure the police committee was under, Kish said the existing police reform plan will be the plan of record for the Millerton Police Department, and any statements that it’s a living document or a document that will be worked on in the future “is really somewhat meaningless.” He suggested the board state in the document what steps the police committee and village will take to reform the police going forward, reminding them that “what you put in writing in this plan is your commitment to the community — you need to put something in writing that we can hold you to.”

Millerton resident Meg Winkler shared her concerns about the citizen complaint methodologies, suggesting the community be creative in its thinking about creating a hotline. 

Meanwhile, Millerton resident Joan Binzen commented that it would be good to regard the police reform document as a work in progress rather than as a statement to last for a year. A work in progress, she said, means it’s something that can be added to or modified in an official way, adding that she thinks it should be regarded along the same lines as a long-term project. Posing the question of having an alternative to the police for “the many cases that really require social worker intervention,” Binzen suggested reducing the  police force by one-half of a position and using those hours to bring in a professional social worker.

Concerns from 

communities of color

In addition to sharing his thoughts that the draft plan doesn’t reflect the community, is poorly written and has no backbone, Nuno Ramos of Millerton said he didn’t believe anyone on the police committee could put themselves in the place of a Black or Hispanic person and asked the board to imagine how horrifying it is for a person of color to be pulled over by a police officer “because these days, we really don’t know how to act.” 

Drawing from his experience as a person of color to talk about how traumatizing it is to see “young brothers die in the hands of the policemen,” Ramos said, “There’s a lot of images that will be stuck in my mind forever, and I think here we have an opportunity to make some changes and to reinvent the police force, [to] re-enforce the relationship between the community and the police department.”

Touched by Ramos’ words, a handful of community members shared they realize how little they understand about what local communities of color face in regard to policing and reiterated the need to address these issues carefully.

“None of you will ever know what it’s like to be Black and none of you will ever feel what it’s like to be profiled,” Millerton resident DeLora Brooks told board members later that evening, “so I feel that your expressions and statements about my position in life are very meaningless.”

Moving forward, the board heard from various residents who shared their thoughts for how the community’s relationship with the police could be strengthened.

A copy of the village’s draft police reform and revitalization plan can be viewed online, at www.villageofmillerton.net.