Residents question Riverhead’s progress on police reform plan mandated by state

Riverhead Town’s progress in complying with a state mandate to develop a policing reform plan by April 1 is so far being kept largely under wraps, though Supervisor Yvette Aguiar says she has already formed a committee to lead the town’s effort and will soon announce who’s on it.

Aguiar said in an interview last week there are seven people on the committee so far and the committee would be appointed by town board resolution “within two weeks.” The supervisor declined to name who has been asked to be on the committee.

“We have to make sure — I have to go back to them and make sure that they’re confirmed before I put it on the resolution that they want to be known,” Aguiar said.

“It will involve members of the community, business owners and professionals. It’s gonna be diverse. And the one thing is, I’m gonna refuse to make this a political task force,” she said. “This is going to reflect a – somewhat the people who can research, who can reach out to the community, and we we move forward in a cohesive manner,” Aguiar said.

The supervisor said she is looking to hire LexiPol, a consulting company that works with police departments to update their policies and assists with training. It would require a $13,000 initial investment, she said.

There has not yet been any public town board discussion of the policing reform project. Last week, town board members said there had been no discussion and they were unaware of any committee being formed.

“As far as I know Yvette is handling it — with the chief,” said Councilman Tim Hubbard, a retired Riverhead Town Police detective and the town board liaison to the police department.

Other board members made similar statements.

Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller said last week the supervisor has been putting a task force together. It is “almost formed,” he said.

But some community members questioned the process.

Riverhead resident Larry Street, a leader of the Eastern Long Island Branch of the NAACP said the town has not reached out to his organization to invite participate in a police reform task force.

“There’s no transparency because no one’s telling us anything,” Street said.

Marilyn Banks, cofounder of the African-American Educational & Cultural Festival in Riverhead, said Riverhead needs to build trust between the town police department and the community. “It would be beneficial to the community to come together in a collaborative effort to come up with solutions to bridge the gap,” she said.

“I would hope the task force reflects in a comprehensively diverse way the demographics of the Town of Riverhead, i.e. race, religion, age and the various sectors of the community — business, religion, education and so on,” said the Rev. Cynthia Liggon, assistant pastor of First Baptist Church of Riverhead. “Anything less than that lacks sincerity.”

Hegermiller said the supervisor’s committee is diverse.

“It covers a lot of the bases,” he said. “There will also be an outreach part, reaching out to the entire community. I think the people she’s chosen to be on the committee are in the right place to do that.”

Sr. Margaret Smyth of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate, an organization that works directly with the Latino community in Riverhead, also said she has heard nothing about appointments to the task force. Smyth is a member of the Riverhead Anti-Bias Task Force, along with Hegermiller, and said he spoke about the police reform committee being formed at the last ABTF meeting.

“We asked Dave [Hegermiller] to get us a meeting with Yvette but have heard nothing yet,” she said Friday. “So, I have no idea. There’s no transparency. Southold announced, presented and had their first meeting,” Smyth said.

Southold Town solicited letters of interest from the public, then turned the letters over to a selection committee comprising a few community members. They selected 17 people and the town board formally appointed them to a newly formed Southold Justice Review and Reform Task Force on Sept. 22, Southold Supervisor Scott Russell said in an interview.

“This should be a community-led task force,” Russell said. “I believe that the town’s role should be limited because it will ensure a transparent and a truly independent committee,” he said.

Southampton Town was the first East End town to commence a process in response to the governor’s June 12 executive order requiring local governments to develop a police reform plan. The Southampton Town Board on Aug. 11 established its Community Law Enforcement Review Committee. The committee includes town and police department officials, the chairperson of the town’s anti-bias committee, civic and church leaders, the Shinnecock Tribal Council, the local chapter of the NAACP, OLA of Eastern Long Island, and representatives of the district attorney’s office and the public defender’s office.

Deputy town attorney Christine Scalera said in an interview last week the committee, dubbed CLERC, is meeting twice a month. They committee has reviewed police department policies and practices, has had presentations by invited guests, completed exercises and
is discussing conducting a community survey.

“Across the board, everyone is taking it very seriously,” Scalera said. “Everybody has been open and listening to each other.”

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on Sept. 9 announced the formation of a 30-member police reform task force for the county, amid criticism by the NAACP of Suffolk, Long Island Advocates for Police Accountability and other advocacy groups that he was slow to respond to the governor’s executive order.

The county task force includes top government and law enforcement officials, including the district attorney, police commission, chief of police, county sheriff, the Suffolk PBA president, the public defenders office, and representatives of the Urban League of Long Island, Suffolk County Community College, various faith communities and the LGBT Network. Among the participants is the Rev. Charles Coverdale, pastor of First Baptist Church of Riverhead.

What the governor’s order requires

In his June 12 executive order — issued after the police-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the ensuing protests across the country, including New York — Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed each chief exectuive of the 500 local governments that have law enforcement agencies to “convene the head of the local police agency and stakeholders in the community” to develop a policing reform plan.

The executive order mandates local governments to conduct a comprehensive review of current police “deployments, strategies policies, procedures and practices” and to develop a plan to improve them, with the goals of improving police-community relationships “based on trust, fairness, accountability and transparency” and reducing “any racial disparities in policing.”

Community stakeholders are defined in the order as “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 nonprofit and faith-based community groups; the local office of the district attorney; the local public defender; and local
elected officials.

Local governments that fail to comply with the mandate risk losing state aid.

NYS Police Reform & Reinvention Collaborative Resources and Guide 2020 by RiverheadLOCAL on Scribd

State guidance document issued Aug. 16

The governor in August issued a 116-page guidance document that discusses specific areas the local plans should address and how the plans should be developed. It includes a “suggested four-phase timeline for bringing stakeholders to the table,
facilitating productive conversations, and successfully developing and ratifying a redesigned police force by April 1, 2021.”

The suggested timeline calls for planning in August and September — creating an operations plan, coordinating with neighboring localities convening key stakeholders and assessing current police operations.

“Gather information on how your police department currently operates including data, policies, procedures, prior complaint history, budget, contracts, equipment, etc. Share this information with the public,” the state guidebook says. “This self-assessment will help focus the conversation on what
you and your community want to change.”

Phase two, “listening and learning,” would take place in September and October, according to the guidebook. During this phase, the local government should conduct listening sessions with the public, engage experts and collect public feedback.

In November and December a plan would be developed by identifying areas of focus, measurable goals and then drafting “a reform and reinvention plan,” according to the guidebook.

“Keep the public engaged,” the document says. “If the public has the opportunity to share proposals and hear deliberations, the public comment period will be more productive.”

Phase four, January through March, is the public comment and ratification phase. The executive order requires that the plan be posted for public comment. The guidebook says educating the public is key when the plan is presented for comment in order to engage the public.

The plan should then be revised to incorporate public comments into a final plan. Comments that are not incorporated into the plan should be addressed, the guidebook states.

The final plan must be adopted or ratified by the local legislative body and submitted to the state budget director before the April 1 deadline.

The guidebook includes a certification form the chief executive must complete to certify that the local government fulfilled the requirements of the executive order.