Latest in a series of posts on the George Floyd killing 
In Bethlehem, the Cuomo plan (see link and text below) would look like this. The Mayor convenes the Police Chief and a broad range of stakeholders (police officers, other law enforcement officials, community members from high incident areas especially, religious groups, non-profits, etc.) that considers anything and everything promoting public engagement and addressing racial bias for the purpose of creating a plan tailored to local needs that improves the police/community relationship, a plan that is offered to the general public for comment then presented to Council for passage into law. (In the Cuomo plan, if the town didn’t do that by April 1, 2021, it would forfeit state funding.)
Is this a model for the Reynolds/Crampsie Smith Community Engagement Initiative?
New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative
Governor Cuomo executive order
Each local government entity which has a police agency operating with police officers as defined under 1.20 of the criminal procedure law must perform a comprehensive review of current police force deployments, strategies, policies, procedures, and practices, and develop a plan to improve such deployments, strategies, policies, procedures, and practices, for the purposes of addressing the particular needs of the communities served by such police agency and promote community engagement to foster trust, fairness, and legitimacy, and to address any racial bias and disproportionate policing of communities of color.
Each chief executive of such local government shall convene the head of the local police agency, and stakeholders in the community to develop such plan, which shall consider evidence-based policing strategies, including but not limited to, use of force policies, procedural justice; any studies addressing systemic racial bias or racial justice in policing; implicit bias awareness training; de-escalation training and practices; law enforcement assisted diversion programs; restorative justice practices; community-based outreach and conflict resolution; problem-oriented policing; hot spots policing; focused deterrence; crime prevention through environmental design; violence prevention and reduction interventions.
The political subdivision, in coordination with its police agency, must consult with stakeholders, including but not limited to membership and leadership of the local police force; members of the community, with emphasis in areas with high numbers of police and community interactions; interested non-profit and faith-based community groups; the local office of the district attorney; the local public defender; and local elected officials, and create a plan to adopt and implement the recommendations resulting from its review and consultation, including any modifications, modernizations, and innovations to its policing deployments, strategies, policies, procedures, and practices, tailored to the specific needs of the community and general promotion of improved police agency and community relationships based on trust, fairness, accountability, and transparency, and which seek to reduce any racial disparities in policing.
Such plan shall be offered for public comment to all citizens in the locality, and after consideration of such comments, shall be presented to the local legislative body in such political subdivision.
Follower Deni Thurman-Eyer suggests we read this story.
