The Journey of Police Reform

On March 24, 2021, we, the Mayor and Board of Trustees of the Village of Ossining, voted to ratify a multi-year Plan for Police Reform and Reinvention, due to the State on April 1. A Working Committee composed of Ossining residents, faith leaders, and police officers crafted a list of 44 recommendations, most of which we approved.

In doing so, we have complied with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203, the New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative. Implemented after the horrific death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police last spring, this sweeping mandate tasked hundreds of local governments to “take action to eliminate racial inequities in policing, to modify and modernize policing strategies, policies, procedures, and practices, and to develop practices to better address the particular needs of communities of color to promote public safety, improve community engagement, and foster trust…”

As Mayor, I offer sincere thanks to the volunteers on the Working Committee, who spent countless hours with great passion framing the initial recommendations to the Plan. It contains a wide range of initiatives intended to improve the quality, transparency, and fairness of law enforcement practices in Ossining, while also providing our Police Department with the support and tools necessary.

I also want to thank the Police Department for their engagement, the consultants for their project management, and the many residents and stakeholders who offered their stories, ideas, and constructive suggestions. Special gratitude is owed to my colleagues on the Board, with special mention to Trustee Omar Lopez for his ongoing involvement and leadership from start to finish. I look forward now to working with colleagues, Village staff and our community to execute this plan.

The Village retained Matrix Consulting Group, which has a core area expertise in law enforcement, to manage the project, conduct a community survey and write the report, all in COVID-safe fashion. The effort included extensive public engagement via Zoom, with community listening sessions in English and Spanish, with specific outreach to the black, youth and LGBTQ+ communities.

The Police Benevolent Association provided feedback, and Ossining Police Chief Kevin Sylvester was a member of the Working Committee. He is proud of his staff and officers, and rightly so. Our police department has set the standard for social media and is the first in the County to wear body cameras. Chief Sylvester has “the utmost confidence that my officers’ longstanding commitment to this community together with their strong track record of innovation will continue to provide our neighbors with the high level of safety they have come to expect.”

Ossining is the only municipality in Westchester County with a Civilian Police Complaint Review Board (CPCRB). This board is rooted in the racial unrest of decades past, when a group of Ossining citizens was appointed to liaison with the police force. In our report, one third of the recommendations are designed to enhance the board’s autonomy and oversight powers.

Jennifer Cabrera, current CPCRB chair and a Working Committee member, feels that “Though some vital recommendations were excluded, this plan includes important steps toward building a more visible, independent, and accessible civilian oversight board. Continued efforts to ensure accountability will be a critical factor in building trust between the Ossining Police Department and members of our community who have not always felt protected by police.”

While the Working Committee was composed mostly of people of color, if we could do this all over again, we would include more black men who grew up in Ossining. Working Committee member Kendall Buchanan felt the village missed an opportunity to “build trust with the African American community” and “adequately include” the Black male perspective. “My hope,” he says, “is that our hard work will translate into positive change and a productive relationship between our law enforcement and the community at large.”

No one said “reforming and reinventing” a law enforcement structure created over generations in a few months would be easy, and it wasn’t. This process has been a journey, and it is not over. The work is inherently difficult because it was mandated by the Governor with little guidance for municipalities that are so different from one another. The topic of police reform can also bring up personal trauma. It took empathy and bravery to navigate these difficult conversations and produce a set of recommendations. We are confident that all voices in our community will continue to be heard going forward.

The following are the approved recommendations from the Working Committee. To see the full report and the list of commission members, go to villageofossining.org.

Mayor Rika Levin

Trustees Robert Fritsche, Omar Lopez, Manual Quezada, Dana White

Oversight and Transparency

• Remove OPD representation on the CPCRB, for a total of five civilian seats with two civilian alternates. To maintain their advisory capacity, OPD will appoint two non-voting Police Department members. Votes would be taken using a simple majority.
• Edit the definitions of substantiated, unfounded, and unsubstantiated complaints in order to make the distinction clearer and to avoid confusion.
• Add to the Village Code that Corporation Counsel or their designee is in attendance at every meeting. The Board of Trustees should receive a quarterly update on complaints from the Corporation Counsel or CPCRB chair at a public board meeting.
• In the post-COVID-19 environment, the CPCRB should retain the ability to hold virtual or hybrid meetings.
• Add a provision to the code to ensure that records pertaining to the interaction that led to the complaint (such as police reports, bodycam footage, etc.) are retained until the CPCRB has conducted its review and made a determination.
• The location of CPCRB meetings should be on any Village property.
• Increase the maximum amount of time an individual has to file a complaint from 90 to 120 days from date of incident.
• Specify that investigation of complaints will begin within 10 calendar days of the complaint being received and will be concluded within 30 calendar days of receipt, unless OPD submits a written explanation to the CPCRB chairperson.
• CPCRB member training should be split into two categories: core training, which would be required prior to reviewing complaints, and supplemental training, which must be completed within six months. Core should include use of force, vehicle stops and constitutional issues. All other training should be considered supplemental training.
• OPD should be responsible for providing all training for the CPCRB. This is a codification of current practice.
• OPD should make regular reports on a variety of metrics, including traffic stops, arrests, complaints according to demographics.
• Names and contact info for all police personnel that are ranked lieutenant and above should be listed on the Village / OPD website, in addition to the demographics of OPD personnel overall.
• The Village should support efforts at the County and State levels to reform indemnification of officers and to eliminate qualified immunity as a defense in civil suits against an OPD defendant.

Policies and Procedures

• In order to increase transparency and to better inform the public, police department policies should be posted online. In addition, the policy manual should be made available in hard copy (for a copying fee) at the police department or Village Clerk’s office.
• The department should adopt bias-free and anti-racist policing policies.
• The police department should work with the LGBTQ+ community to rewrite GO 3.91 and expand on an LGBTQ+ policy.
• The police department should modify its general orders to include that OPD officers will not respond with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unless they are called to the location.

Internal Operations and Practices

• Work with Westchester County, neighboring communities and non-profit agencies to develop a mental health, homeless and substance abuse crisis response unit that responds along with the Police Department and provides follow-up case management.
• Work with the Village and Police Department and possibly non-profit agencies to create a voluntary response registry which would assist emergency communications and responders.
• Work with Westchester County to provide officers with crisis intervention training (CIT).
• Develop a public awareness campaign in both English and Spanish to explain the Police Department’s role with respect to ICE activities in the community.
• The Village and the Police Department should work together to make a more robust website on the Department, its organization and services.
• The Ossining Police Department should implement new or improve existing community policing efforts.
• Utilize existing community resources to better understand how to connect with residents. For example, the LOFT LGBTQ Community Center has conducted training with other local offices and municipalities.

Hiring and Training

Work to increase diversity in department hiring and on promotional processes.

• Start Recruiting Program/Police Department Introduction at Ossining High School.
• Develop a plan to hire more bilingual officers or encourage fluency.
• The Police Department should develop a multi-year training plan that includes greater emphasis on anti-racism in policing, de-escalation, procedural justice, added cultural competency and handling protests.
• The Westchester County Police Academy should be encouraged to implement enhanced training as recommended for Ossining officers.