Steve Thurston (2021)
"Adopt or Ratify" the police task force report, civil rights activists said at a rally March 22, 2021.
About two dozen people stood on the steps of Saratoga Springs City Hall yesterday and demanded “Adopt or Ratify,” a call to the city council that they should accept the findings of the Saratoga Springs Police Reform Task Force. Another 30 or so people, including the press, were in attendance on the sidewalk.
“We are happy that the city council reconsidered their original draft resolution and amended it to directly incorporate the majority of the police reform task force’s plan,” said Camille Daniels at the press conference. Daniels served as a task force co-chair. “The city council made the right decision not to put state funding at risk.”
The task force was created under a gubernatorial executive order last year, which states that the legislative body, in this case the Saratoga Springs City Council, must approve the task force report as a legitimate report or risk losing state and federal funding. The council does not vote on the report itself but on a resolution supporting the report.
Saratoga Springs' resolution, drafted by city attorney Vincent DeLeonardis with input from Police Chief Shane Crooks and the city council, was released to the public last week. The city must ratify a resolution and have it to the state budget office by April 1.
Despite the changes, one problem still remains: the Civilian Review Board.
With words like “review” and “analysis” regarding the CRB, the draft resolution still does not go far enough, activists and leaders say.
The recommendation in the updated resolution says that prior to implementing a CRB “the Council finds it appropriate to more thoroughly review and define the purpose, scope and function of a Civilian Review Board and, therefore, defers any determination until such review has been completed.”
Daniels said in her statement that the committee should not look at whether to implement the CRB but how to implement it. After the press conference she said the CRB is critical.
She said she believes the task force created a modest proposal and that the Albany police department already has a similar CRB, adding that the council could look to Ithaca where the recommendation was to replace the entire police department administration with a civilian oversight board.
“We are literally asking for the floor,” she said. The report does not ask for the ceiling, like they did in Ithaca. “We’re on the floor.”
She continued: “If you read our proposal, the CRB does not discipline officers. It recommends, it reviews details and information. If you’re not disciplining people, what’s the problem?”
The recommendation calls for a board with subpoena power and the ability to investigate a complaint when it comes to them. The city has maintained that a CRB could run afoul of the city charter and the police union. It is much too complicated to pursue instantly, city leadership has said.
The five-page Appendix G in the task force report, “Saratoga Springs, NY Civilian Review Board,” outlines the structure and operation of the board including a mention that the board cannot interfere with regular police operations.
Lexis Figuereo, a community activist with All of Us and with Black Lives Matter Saratoga, told those assembled that it was their work that forced the revisions of the city council’s resolution, but until there is a CRB, the pressure will not stop.
“We need change, and until there is change, we’re going to continue to be in these streets. We’re going to continue to organize like we are here right now," he told those assembled. "Your summer will continue to be disturbed, your spring will continue to be disturbed.”
The call for the CRB stems partially from the death of Darryl Mount, a bi-racial man who died under suspicious circumstances in 2013. Police have told the press that he fell 19 feet from a scaffold but his family maintains that he was beaten. There has been no definitive answer.
Civil rights leaders in Saratoga said that a CRB would help find out what happened, and since it would be chaired by civilians, it would come to a conclusion that residents could trust.
Saratoga Springs City Council is holding a special meeting on the resolution this evening, Tuesday March 23, 7p.m.
The website has been updated to show both drafts of the resolution.