{"id":584,"date":"2021-02-09T22:49:30","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T22:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.justtalk.blog\/?page_id=584"},"modified":"2021-02-09T22:49:32","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T22:49:32","slug":"the-limits-of-police-reform","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/the-limits-of-police-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"The Limits of Police Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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2017 JUST Rally at BC Jail
Photo Credit: Kojo Senoo<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Faced with unrelenting waves of protest against police brutality, elected officials have mobilized in response.  Local sheriffs, police chiefs, and mayors first proposed and then enacted new laws to incarcerate those who \u201cannoy\u201d the police, arresting protestors in the process.[1]<\/a>  Governor Cuomo, facing larger Black and Latinx insurgencies and voters, responded with an executive order in August that required all police departments\u2014except<\/em> state police departments including SUNY state police\u2014to conduct a review and send a final reform report to the state by April 1, 2021.[2]<\/a> The cudgel: an open threat to cut state aid to cities and counties that don\u2019t comply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local departments led by the Binghamton Police Department and the County Sheriff started late on their reform review, with a top-down, hand-picked set of commission members.[3]<\/a> Public (Zoom and phone) call-in meetings for both the city and county have been swamped by demands to downsize police operations and fund alternative health and violence prevention programs. From the thin public records available,[4]<\/a> it appears the commission proposals will be limited to recommendations that police departments increase their efforts to hire more diverse officers, expand cultural competency and de-escalation training, team up with mental health and addiction counselors, and expand community policing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All these measures have been recommended by national and local commissions for over 30 years and failed us–as any one who dips their toes into the subject through a Google search comes to know very quickly. George Floyd was killed in a city whose police department had undergone a deep set of these reforms.[5]<\/a>  Data shows that hiring more officers of color does not alter police violence and brutality.[6]<\/a>  Despite diversity and sensitivity training Binghamton\u2019s police force has faced multiple protests alleging abuse of children of color.[7]<\/a> Proliferation of teams of police officers and medical counselors, under direct police control, along with restricted medical treatment in the jail has only increased the use of the police as the primary means to address substance use disorders.[8]<\/a>  Indeed such programs threaten to expand and cement the use of the jail as the county\u2019s primary drug and mental health treatment center and increase drug overdoses.[9]<\/a> Pledges by the City of Binghamton to hire and deploy a more diverse force are heard year after year,[10]<\/a> but little progress takes place; at last count the city force was 1.5% Black.[11]<\/a>  The Broome County Sheriff simply states \u201cWe don’t hire by race\u201d[12]<\/a>\u2014and supervises a 160+ person force that is 98% white (as far as we can uncover[13]<\/a>).  Why not Black officers?  Harder recently blamed the local NAACP for not acting better as a recruiting arm for him.[14]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Community Actions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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June 2020 Recreation Park Community Consultation on Police and Budget
Photo credit: Bill Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is the local community to do? Actually a lot has been done at the grassroots. For over five years many community organizations have called and rallied for change in mass policing and mass incarceration policies, most prominently Citizen Action<\/a>, Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier<\/a>, Progressive Leaders of Tomorrow<\/a>, and Truth Pharm<\/a>.  For over five years people have rallied at the local jail, protesting over-incarceration and deaths in the jail.[15]<\/a> Black residents have rallied against police abuse of local Black youth.[16]<\/a> Last summer over a thousand persons marched through town demanding change as part of a Black Lives Matter rally launched by local Black high school students.[17]<\/a>  Over 400 persons met later in Rec Park to discuss and hammer out a collective plan to change local policing priorities and practices.[18]<\/a>  A local coalition of community groups\u2014Divestment, Accountability, Reinvestment in Our Community<\/a> (DAROC)\u2014advanced these discussions at community meetings in multiple city parks, and is now presenting the results to elected officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City and County Responses<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All to no apparent avail.  The City of Binghamton and Broome County officials refuse, in direct opposition to the Governor\u2019s recommendations, to speak with the most active community organizations. The Governor\u2019s guidebook is quite clear that it would be a mistake \u201cto impose to-down solutions\u201d and that reform efforts and meetings should \u201cinvolve the entire community in the discussion\u201d including Interested non-profit groups.[19]<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither the City nor County have done this.  Commissions have been composed and imposed by the mayor and sheriff, with the mayor calling the community groups who have led local protests \u201chate groups\u201d and the sheriff simply refusing to discuss the issue.[20]<\/a> To date the only forums for public comment have been call-in Zoom meetings which permit short statements by outsiders with no response by committee members.[21]<\/a>  The mayor and sheriff, and most commissioners, are either silent or absent completely.[22]<\/a>  This has made it impossible of course to consider, again as Cuomo\u2019s guidelines dictate, \u201cwhat grievances your community has had with its police force in the past and what you can learn from those instances.\u201d[23]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Questions to Ask<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is no sign that either city or county meetings are pursuing even the most elemental questions raised by the state guidebook for all reform efforts:<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n