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ALBANY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed off on three additional police reform bills on Monday. In addition, a new executive order was released called the New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative.
“Every community has to now come to the table as a collaborative — local leadership, police, the community activists — and redesign their public safety function,” he said.
Every locality with a police agency will need to ratify or adopt a plan by April 1 or they could lose state and federal funding for police. He’s urging localities to get started “today.”
The Executive Director of the New York State Sheriffs’ Association Peter Kehoe said the timeline is “no problem,” but he said it’s an “attempt to be a bully” on the Governor’s part.
“He had the legislature in town this past week, and all of this nonsense that he’s throwing out in his executive order could have been and should have been considered by the legislature,” Kehoe said.
The Governor also signed off on three police reforms: One requires an officer to report a weapon discharge within six hours and another requires police departments and courts to track arrest data on race and ethnicity.
“Third, a law that requires police officers to provide for mental and medical help to any person under arrest or any person in custody when they require it,” the Governor said.
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