Reimagining Public Safety Reinvention and Collaborative Plan #2
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus has announced the creation of the Orange County Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Advisory Panel per Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order #203 to review the Orange County Sheriff’s Office policies and practices.
This Order signed by Governor Cuomo 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 government and the community to perform such evaluation.
Municipalities must address 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 then make recommendations to the County Legislature to adopt the plan which then must be signed by the County Executive and sent to the State no later than April 1, 2021.
The Advisory Panel is charged with the task of developing a plan to improve the deployments, strategies, policies, procedures, and practices, for the purposes of addressing the particular needs of the communities served by such police agency with an eye toward 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 will ultimately write a plan which considers the community's needs and will recommend how the Orange County Sheriff’s Office could best meet those needs.
This website will allow for citizens to provide comments and recommendations by posing questions and comments by email, and by using the provided survey tool in this page. There is also links to attend any of a series of three virtual public meetings that will be held.
To assist in this effort there is also detailed information of the current services and practices of the Sheriffs’ Office, 911, and support agencies that assist the Sheriff’s Office in their mission.
The members of the Orange County Advisory Panel are:
Kenneth Jones, Undersheriff Orange County Sheriff’s Office
Kevin Hines, Orange County Legislator, Chairman Public Safety Committee
Darcie Miller, Commissioner of Mental Health/ Social Services
Brendan Casey, Commissioner of Emergency Services
Stewart Rosenwasser, District Attorney’s office
Karen Edelman-Reyes, County Attorney’s office
Craig Cherry, Deputy Commissioner Emergency Services
Inaudy Esposito, Executive Director OC Human rights Commission
Gary Abramson Orange, County Legal Aid Society
Dr. Kristine Young, President - SUNY Orange
Colin Jarvis, Executive Director Newburgh Ministries
Ray Rodriguez (Coach Ray), President of MyFOURmula, Inc.
Nadia Allen, Executive Director of Mental Health Association in Orange County, Inc
Christopher Molinelli, Executive Director of HONOR
Kellyann Kostyal-Larrier, Executive Director Fearless
Julia Doellinger - Community Member
Community input and public comments will be taken into consideration in the development of the group’s final plan, which much be adopted as a local law no later than April 1, 2021.
