Sheriff’s office presents reform plan

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Photo courtesy of washingtoncounty.gov Sheriff Jeffrey J. Murphy.

The majority of the Washington County Public Safety Committee meeting consisted of Sheriff Jeffrey J. Murphy walking the public watching via YouTube live stream and Zoom through the Sheriff Office’s Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Plan.

The plan, a 101-slide Power Point presentation, comes as a direct result of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203, requiring the mandatory review, revision and reinvention of policing, procedures, policy, protocol, training and community programs of all police agencies in the state besides the New York State Police.

“While reviewing current policy and practices, the office began training members in the areas of racial bias and de-escalation including role-playing and use-of-force scenarios,” Murphy said. “After this thorough review, our office developed a public survey which was distributed on November 12, 2020 to residents in each of the 17 towns in the county by the elected Town Supervisor.

“The survey and a survey guide were also available online and at the Sheriff’s Offices. Residents were encouraged to complete the survey and return it to their town halls, online through email, fax or to the Sheriff’s Office headquarters or satellite office.”

The Sheriff’s Office received 155 completed surveys, roughly 10 from each of the 17 townships in the county. The consensus strongly agreed with the notion that the Sheriff’s Office is dependable, reliable and consistent.

Murphy said the top three rooms for improvement voted on by the participating public are to hire more deputies, provide more visibility and to have more patrols.

Broken down into 20 sections, Murphy explained how Washington County has been proactive rather than reactive to reform, including 2019’s $330,000 upgrade in body-worn cameras, a “community first” initiative and mindset since Murphy took over as sheriff in 2012 and evaluating calls and arrests by demographic over the last four years, as well as vehicle and traffic stops by demographic from 2018 to 2020.

Due to COVID-19, Murphy said he believes there was a decrease in calls for service from 2019 (17,519) to 2020 (16,052).

The only significant change Murphy aims to make is adding a Lieutenant position who would be responsible for overseeing the actions and duties of patrol officers and would report to either the undersheriff, John A. Winchell, or the sheriff.

“In reviewing our staffing in response to EO 203, command staff has determined that we would create an “Office of Professional Standards” position,” Murphy said. “The title would be the rank of Lieutenant, with supervisory duties and authority to review officer conduct, use of force, internal affairs, training, discovery and other operational duties as assigned by the sheriff. This is a vacant position that has been approved and is included in the authorized staffing pattern for 2021.”

He added: “Assigning these duties to the existing vacant Lieutenant position would create a void in the uniform Patrol Division. I would request the county to modify our staffing pattern by adding one Patrol Lieutenant and one Deputy Sheriff to backfill. This would mean total staffing would increase by one Deputy Sheriff, as the Lieutenant would be a promotion from existing staff.”

This would provide 48 employed personnel among the three staffing groups of administration, patrol and investigations. The Sheriff’s Office is always looking to create a more “diverse workforce” with capable individuals, he said.

Now that the plan has been presented in a public forum, the Sheriff’s Office has until April 1 to submit the plan to the governor’s office. A withholding of funding and the addition of someone monitoring actions would be results of not submitting the plan on time.

Murphy made it clear that towns and villages with their own police departments in the county are responsible for putting together their own reform and reinvention plans, as well as conducting a public forum.

Granville has yet to announce a public forum date, while Whitehall has planned their final of four public forum meetings for Feb. 16, with the intent of submitting their plan upon conclusion.

The entire slideshow presentation and four stakeholder meetings can be viewed on the Sheriff Office’s website at https://washingtoncountyny.gov/201/Sheriff.

The livestream video from YouTube can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZrRTZEiAyw.