To Our Ossining Community,
On June 12, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed Executive Order 203, the New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative. The Village recognizes this undertaking as an opportunity to affirm our values and strengthen community relations with law enforcement. We believe Black Lives Matter and we support our local police force. These positions are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are both essential for a healthy and safe community.
The Governor’s order requires every local government in New York with a law enforcement agency to adopt a policing reform plan by April 1, 2021. The Village Board takes this responsibility seriously.
The days that followed the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the hands of police officers resulted in historic demonstrations, including here in Ossining. Community members mourned and cried for justice, repeating the refrain that captured the moment: Black Lives Matter.
Ossining is unique among Westchester communities in our approach to responding to the executive order. The Village Board determined that engaging a facilitator with expertise in law enforcement, and the ability to convene diverse community stakeholders, is the best approach for creating the plan to improve our local police department. This summer the Village Board issued a request for proposals to identify a facilitator that could meet this objective.
Ossining benefits from having an engaged, diverse community made up of individuals and groups that are dedicated to advancing justice. The foundation of our police department is community policing. In furtherance of this commitment, Chief Kevin Sylvester participated in a 21st Century Policing conference hosted by President Barack Obama. The bias training undertaken for our entire police force was drawn directly from that experience. Ossining was also the first Westchester community to have all patrol officers wear body cameras, and is the only community with a Civilian Police Complaint Review Board.
Essential for the success of Ossining’s Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative is engaging community stakeholders that have confidence in the process. Conversations with stakeholders are already underway. This week the Trustees and I will be announcing the appointment of members to the Police Reform & Reinvention Working Committee. It was brutality and violence against black men that specifically prompted the executive order. To ensure the voices of Ossining's diverse community are heard, the working committee will include representation from all disenfranchised groups.
We are aware of the risks involved with this work. We risk falling into the trap of polarized rhetoric that minimizes complex history into choosing one side or another. We risk being overwhelmed by doing this difficult work during a global pandemic. We risk our staff’s ability to move forward on the initiatives already on their plate which require their attention and are of importance to other stakeholders in our community. We risk apathy from the amount of incidents of negative police interactions we see in the country. We risk alienating our local police force.
We are also aware that this is an opportunity to strengthen our community—building greater trust between marginalized community groups and local law enforcement. We are dedicated to working together, honoring the work of the community and our police department, to advance justice for all.
With the unanimous support of the Board of Trustees,
