Orange County releases details about its Police Reform Advisory Panel

Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus provides information about the Orange County Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Advisory Panel, established per Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203 to review the policies and practices of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

The order requires that each local government entity which has a police agency operating with police officers as defined under 1.20 of the Criminal Procedure Law to convene a group of stakeholders from both the government and the community to evaluate policy strategies.

Other important areas that must be addressed include:

Procedure and training, policing functions, standards and strategies;

Fostering community-oriented leadership, culture and accountability; and

Recruiting and supporting excellent and diverse personnel.

This Advisory Panel will gather input from the public and the Sheriff’s Office, and based upon their findings they will put forth recommendations to the County Legislature to adopt a plan, which must be signed by the County Executive and sent to the state no later than April 1, 2021.

The Advisory Panel is tasked with developing a plan to improve the deployments, strategies, policies, procedures and practices of the Sheriff’s Office, while addressing the particular needs of Orange County.

The plan will also focus on promoting community engagement to foster trust, fairness and legitimacy and to address any racial bias and disproportionate policing of communities of color.

The Advisory Panel represents County government, social services agencies, community service leaders, clergy and education leaders and not for profit agencies.

All panel meetings will be held virtually. The first meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 10.

Detailed information including links to attend meetings, email comments, and to complete a survey can be found at www.orangecountygov.com.