Disappointing News from the Police Chief Search Committee

Not only did the majority of the Police Chief Search Committee ignore their responsibility to provide an update to the Common Council Wednesday night, we were informed of many ways in which they've been excluding input from the community.

Article on Wednesday night's meeting and Search Committee's lack of community involvement:

Albany police chief search process criticized:
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=899468

Video from the Council Meeting:
http://www.albanycommunitytelevision.com/?cat=260

Encouraging Efforts from the APD, News Stories

More promising signs from the APD, who appear to be listening to the demands that we are making, alongside Albany's communities.

In the Metroland article, Assistant Deputy Chief Brendan Cox states that:

"Internally, we’ve been talking about increasing the number of these autonomous, permanent beats for awhile. But we realized that, if we didn’t take a look at the whole department, and if we didn’t take a look at how we were responding to the community’s needs as a whole, then we were really doing a disservice to ourselves and the public. So we slowed ourselves down a little bit. We wanted to get as many people’s input as we can.”

Cox said that the police would listen to what the community is looking for, what their perception is: “We can go on what we believe the community needs, but we might be missing something. The community is the expert on that.”
Check the link and scroll down to see Chet Hardin's story about the APD's efforts to revive relations between communities and their police:
Police, Meet Community
http://www.metroland.net/newsfront.html

Also see the Times Union's coverage of these efforts from the APD:

Albany Panel to Begin Police Changes
http://www.timesunion.com/ASPStories/Story.asp?StoryID=885666

New Cops, Familiar Cops
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=881783&category=OPINION

Police Officers Returning to Beats in Albany
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=878120&category=region

Promising Signs from the APD, Police Chief Job Description

Encouraging signs from the Albany Police Department, and their emphasis upon Community Policing in the qualification requirements for the City's next Police Chief:

"The City of Albany seeks to fill the position of Chief of Police with an experienced police professional committed to the concept and practice of community policing... The continued development of the department and its commitment to community policing will be
the primary responsibility for the new Police Chief... The new Chief of Police must sustain a leadership role in the community, actively soliciting input from the community regarding decisions affecting public safety and law enforcement in Albany."

See the official job description for the next Police Chief of Albany

We got the words on paper, now we need to hold them to it.

Newspaper Coverage of Our Student Efforts

A big thank you to Chet Hardin at Metroland for writing a great article:

http://metroland.net/back_issues/vol32_no50/newsfront.html#5

Special News Feature on Our SUNY Involvement in the Police Chief Search

Here's a special feature from the local CBS news. Big thank you to Ken Screven.

http://www.cbs6albany.com/video/?videoId=55078361001&lineupId=&play=now

CBS News Coverage of Our Demonstration

Check out the CBS news coverage of our demonstration to the common council:

http://www.cbs6albany.com/video/?videoId=55129242001&lineupId=&play=now

Attend Our Demonstration to the Common Council Dec 7th

On Monday, December 7th at 7pm, we will be making a public statement to the Albany Common Council, demanding that the next Police Chief is deeply committed to Community Policing. We need everyone to come out and support true partnership between communities and their police. This will be demonstration of SUNY students AND community members. The Common Council meeting is located at City Hall, 24 Eagle St, Albany, NY, 12207.