After months of research, public input and planning, Westchester County Executive George Latimer is updating the public on the county’s implementation of the Westchester County Police Reform and Reimagining Task Force’s recommendations. 34 of the 38 recommendations that apply to the county have been implemented, and four are in the process of being implemented.
Additionally, WCDPS decided to independently develop a policy where non-fatal police involved shootings are investigated by outside entities in partnership with local chiefs and commissioners, forming a countywide police-involved shooting investigation.
“It has been a tremendously rewarding experience doing the work of the Task Force,” Bartlett said. “It is of paramount importance that we are continuing the effort to implement the recommendations of the Task Force in a comprehensive and thoughtful way, taking advantage of the multi-disciplinary talent that we
are fortunate to have in the County. It is our sincere hope that we are providing a strong foundation as we continue to work to ensure best practices in the law enforcement and mental health services that the County provides.”
The task force, chaired by prominent Westchester residents Mayo Bartlett and Leroy Frazer, was comprised of county and local law enforcement professionals, clergy representatives, criminal justice and police reform advocates, human rights professionals, and public servants to develop a blueprint for new policing strategies and to highlight policies currently in place by DPS. “It has been a tremendously rewarding experience doing the work of the Task Force,” Bartlett said. “It is of paramount importance that we are continuing the effort to implement the recommendations of the Task Force in a comprehensive and
thoughtful way, taking advantage of the multi-disciplinary talent that we are fortunate to have in the County. It is our sincere hope that we are providing a strong foundation as we continue to work to ensure best practices in the law enforcement and mental health services that the County provides.”
The Task Force formed six working groups: Community Engagement, Qualification and Recruitment, Training and Equipment, Policies and Procedures, and Accountability and Transparency. Following its extensive work—which included public hearings, countless work sessions and insightful discussion on
the serious issues at hand—the task force released a report organized in three main sections:
1. Background and structure of this task force
2. Reports detailing the work, process, recommendations and overall findings
3. A description of the 51 recommendations organized based on the level of government to which they must be referred for action—opportunities for administrative action by the county executive, recommendations for the county Board of Legislators, and recommendations for action by New York state.
Department of Public Safety Commissioner Tom Gleason said: “Here in Westchester County, we have been proactive and ahead of the curve in many areas, including our training in Procedural Justice, Implicit Bias, De-escalation, Duty to Intervene and Crisis Intervention, to name a few. And, although we already had policies and procedures in place that incorporated many of the Task Force recommendations, we are always open to looking at possible ways to improve
upon what we do. We have looked at all of the task force recommendations and implemented many of the ideas to enhance our training, policies and procedures.”
(Submitted)
Those recommendations completed include:
• Increase and diversify recruitment efforts for county Department of Public Safety, DPS, to provide for a more diverse police force
• Provide body cameras to all DPS police officers and dash-cams to all vehicles
• Train new recruits on Procedural Justice, Cultural Diversity and Bias Related Crimes and expand the training from a few hours to a full week
• Review DPS’ social media and expand use for community outreach
• Develop a library of training videos for DPS police use
• Increase training for officers transferring to DPS
• Develop and implement a DPS mobile police app
Those recommendations in progress of being implemented include:
• Make DPS communications available in Spanish
• Create a system of hate crime liaisons at all county’s police departments to respond to hate incidents. — To date, 33 police departments out of 45 across Westchester County have joined the effort
