The Saratoga Springs Police Task Force finished its work last week, voting to approve 50 recommendations in its report, “Reinvention Plan: Toward a Community Centered Justice Initiative.”
The plan has been sent to Saratoga Springs City Council.
“We don’t know at this point what’s going to happen from here,” said Mayor Meg Kelly’s executive assistant, Susanna Combs in a voice mail. The task force recommendations and plan can be found on the city’s website, but a plan for what is next has not been made, and it is not yet on the agenda for next week’s city council meeting, she said.
The plan, as all plans in the state, is required to be approved by the governing body--in this case, the city council--and sent to the governor’s office by April 1.
Robin Dalton, the Commissioner of Public Safety, said she had gotten a copy of the report in her email, but she confirmed that no plans as yet have been made. She added that she was a little confused by the process and was not sure if the mayor’s office was creating the process, since the mayor’s office originally created the task force, or if the task force was creating the process.
“There’s probably a normal explanation for all of this,” she said, adding that she has four pages of questions already prepared.
The votes occurred in the areas of Culture and Training, 13 recommendations; Policy, 20 recommendations; Community-Centered Reinventions, 8 recommendations; and Transparency and Accountability, 9 recommendations.
Three groups of recommendations, a total of 12 recommendations of the 50, were carried unanimously:
In the Policy section: four recommendations under the Conducted Energy Device and Control Device Policies passed unanimously. SSPD will have a more rigorous review process including more data collection of the use and a policy review when a Tazer-type weapon is used. Also, officers will receive more training to minimize the use and the permanent harm done when used.
The Data Analytics section calls for seven recommendations, under the Transparency and Accountability section that will reshape how the department collects and reports data. Among those is a request to staff a “Database Manager” position and pursue an accredited data collection system and a complete data collection policy.
Also under the Accountability and Transparency section, one recommendation written for the Complaint Form Process was carried unanimously. The recommendation simply calls to revise the complaint form, provide instructions for its use and down-play the warning that filing false reports is a crime. On the current form, the report said, the threat of the possible crime itself is intimidating.
Of the remaining recommendations, they passed by nine votes or more on the 12-person panel.
Most of the no votes came with notes of explanation. Often the “no” revolved around one or two recommendations inside of a group of recommendations.
The public weighed in before the votes. Ed Lindner was one who said that the department needs to work toward a Citizen Review Board, a concept that Police Chief Shane Crooks has said could be problematic.
Chandler Hickenbottom, a member of the All of Us civic action group, added that a citizen review board is necessary and that it must have people of color and poorer people on it. She also called for the board to have subpoena power.
Others spoke of the need for more accountability and for public reporting when a police officer is fired so that he or she cannot easily get another job in police work.
Gabrielle Elliot suggested a better due diligence process in this so that Saratoga Springs hires the best people.
Most of the recommendations look toward the police culture and policy with the idea that Saratoga Springs move toward Community Centered Justice, training that focuses on de-escalation, and accountability, especially in the use of force and poor behavior.
An earlier story about the task force said there were 42 recommendations. We are sorry for the confusion.