Riverhead’s draft police reform plan will be the subject of a public hearing next month.
The Riverhead Town Board scheduled the hearing at its meeting yesterday. It will take place on Tuesday, March 16 at 2:10 p.m.
Riverhead Law Enforcement Advisory Panel’s draft report will be posted on the town’s website no later than March 2, according to the resolution adopted yesterday.
Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said the advisory panel is finishing its work, including analyzing the responses provided in the 1,200 community surveys it collected.
Riverhead’s advisory panel was established in October in response to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s June 12 executive order requiring every local government that a police agency to perform a comprehensive review of current police force deployments, strategies, policies, procedures, and practices and, with community stakeholder participation and input, develop a plan to improve them. A public hearing on the plan is also required.
The executive order requires local government’s legislative body to adopt their policing plan no later than April 1 and certify to the state budget director that it has complied with the executive order or risk losing appropriations of state or federal funding.
To comply with that mandate, the town board will have to either adopt the LEAP report on the day of the hearing or have a special meeting to take action, since March 16 is the last regularly scheduled hearing before the April 1 deadline. The first regular meeting in April is April 6.
The survival of local journalism depends on your support.
We are a small family-owned operation. You rely on us to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Just a few dollars can help us continue to bring this important service to our community.
Support RiverheadLOCAL today.
