Westchester County Police Reform and Reimagining Task Force
On June 1, 2020, following the killing of George Floyd, the County Executive acted quickly to pull together a working group charged with producing a report within 30 days with the following responsibilities:
- To review the curriculum used at the Westchester County Police Academy to train both new recruits and those already working in law enforcement;
- To recommend changes and reforms needed to address bias in policing
The County Executive also charged the Human Rights Commission with leading a series of community conversations to be held countywide on racism, bias, and diversity.
On June 12, 2020, Governor Cuomo signed an Executive Order to reinvent and modernize police strategies and programs – requiring every police department in the State to develop a reform plan with community input for submission to the state by April 1, 2021. These police reform and reimagining plans must:
- Address policies, procedures, practices, and deployment;
- Certify that they have engaged stakeholders in a public and open process on policing strategies and tools;
- Be presented to the public for comment; and
- Be certified by the local legislative body
To reconcile both tasks, the County Executive expanded the Task Force to 35 members, increased the number of public forums, and directed the Task Force to have a report ready for review to the Board of Legislators by the end of December 2020.
Questions and comments about Westchester County’s Police Reform process may be sent to: .
Police Reform Task Force Report
The Westchester County Police Reform and Reimagining Task Force transmitted their initial findings to the Westchester County Board of Legislators on February 9, 2021 for public comment, review, and additional work. Read the initial report.
On March 22, 2021, the Task Force submitted their Final Report to the Board of Legislators. The Report was subsequently submitted to the State on April 1, 2021. Read the Final Report.
Moving Forward from Recommendations to Implementation
This provides the current implementation status of the recommendations in the final report that were referred for Executive action.