Riverhead Town Board to meet today to vote on police reform plan

The Riverhead Town Board will hold a special meeting today at 1 p.m. to consider the adoption of the town’s police reform plan developed at the direction of Gov. Andrew Cuomo last June.

An adopted plan is due at the State Budget Office by April 1, pursuant to the governor’s executive order requiring all municipalities with law enforcement agencies to develop police reform plans collaboratively with the communities they serve.

Following two public “listening sessions” in January, a community survey and a public hearing before the town board on March 16, the board will take up a resolution adopting the plan this afternoon.

There will be no in-person attendance by the public, pursuant to the supervisor’s state of emergency order currently in effect, issued pursuant to the statewide pandemic emergency declaration made in March 2020 and the governor’s subsequent executive orders allowing public meetings to be held virtually and/or with virtual public participation.

The meeting will be live-streamed on the town’s website and carried on Optimum cable channel 22.

Any resident who would like to comment at the meeting may do so via Zoom at online here or by phone at +1 929 205 6099. (Meeting ID: 862-2671-4203. Password: 636375.)

According to today’s meeting agenda, the board received six letters or emails about the plan following the hearing, during a written comment period that closed Friday afternoon. (See written comments below.)

Riverhead’s police reform plan was developed by the Law Enforcement Advisory Panel committee, dubbed “LEAP,” which was formed by the supervisor and appointed by the town board in October. The plan was released earlier this month.

Read Riverhead’s police reform plan below:

Riverhead Police Reform and… by RiverheadLOCAL

Riverhead Town police reform plan: Written Comments by RiverheadLOCAL on Scribd

Suffolk County legislators will discuss and vote on proposed reform plans for the county police department (see draft plan) and sheriff’s office (see draft plan) tomorrow.

The Suffolk County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee will meet tomorrow at 10 a.m. to discuss both draft reform plans, Presiding Officer Rob Calarco said. If the committee approves the plans, they will be taken up by the full legislature at a special meeting tomorrow at 1 p.m. Both the committee meeting and the legislature’s meeting will be livestreamed on the county legislature’s website.

Residents who wish to address either the committee or the full legislature or both tomorrow may do so via Zoom. Register here.

Southampton Town adopted its police reform plan at its regular meeting on March 23. Read adopted plan below:

Town of Southampton Police … by RiverheadLOCAL

Southold Town continues work on its plan. At a special town board work session and a special meeting Friday evening, town board members discussed the draft plan developed by the Southold Justice Review and Reform Task Force. See the draft plan here.

Some members of the town board, including Supervisor Scott Russell, disagreed with some provisions of the plan, including its recommendation for the establishment of a standing community-police partnership committee. Russell took the position that the existing six-person police advisory committee can be expanded to add three new members and it can work with other existing groups such as the town’s anti-bias task force. There is also ongoing discussion of appropriate review processes for complaints about police.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include written comments submitted by the public before the March 26, 2021 4:30 p.m. deadline. The documents were provided by the Riverhead town clerk this morning after the initial publication of this story. Redactions of personal information (emails, home addresses and phone numbers) were made by the editor.