Police Reform

There was a lot on the docket during the most recent meeting of the Tompkins County Legislature, plus some debate not tied to any specific motions. Here's a recap.

Current Sheriff David Harder announced he plans to retire at the end of this term.

Organizers say the governor's executive order to reform police last year didn’t go far enough in curbing discriminatory policing against Black New Yorkers.

"You know, some will cite this incident as proof that the practice of armed police responding to a domestic matter should end. Others will say that if unarmed social workers had responded, we may now be mourning a dead child."

A task force will now take over the work for designing how the new overarching Department of Public Safety would work.

“So when is the next meeting? What is the next step? We don’t have that.”

“For every officer when you get their badge number, you should be able to look up their service record, and it should be easy."

“I get the frustration of the callers, we do understand decorum, but again, setting the tone without being condescending is important.”

“It wasn’t inclusive and they didn’t listen to any of the needs of people of color."

"The job is just very different than it was 50 years ago or 30 years ago. A ton of what we ask our officers to do may not be considered traditional police work."