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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021_01_04 Racial Equity Taskforce Minutes Minutes of the Racial Equity Task Force of the Town of Mamaroneck Held January 4, 2021 at 7:00 pm, via Zoom Present: Jeffery King (Town Council member, Chairman), Sabrina Fiddelman (Town Council member), Helen Horsham-Bertels, Diana Lovett, Andrew Tannenbaum, Stephen Altieri (Town Administrator), Paul Creazzo (Chief of Police) Also Present for Agenda item, New Business 1, Dr. Robert Shaps, Superintendent of Mamaroneck Union Free School District Chairman King called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm. New Business 1.Dr. Robert Shaps Mr. King introduced Dr. Shaps, the Superintendent of the Mamaroneck Union Free School District, as a stakeholder in the process of Reimagining and Reinventing the Police according the Executive Order 203 and welcomed him to our meeting. He asked Dr. Shaps to begin by elaborating on his and the School District’s dealings with the Town of Mamaroneck Police Department. Dr. Shaps noted that the District has a longstanding and cooperative relationship with all three Police Departments that have jurisdiction over one or more of the 6 District schools. He went on the speak in general terms about the District’s interaction with all three Departments. The most important issues on which the District and the Police interact are safety plans for the schools, the health and safety of the students and staff in the schools, and any other presenting issues. Each municipality has a Youth Officer that interacts on a regular basis and has relationships with faculty and staff. In the post-Sandy Hook era, the District and the Police Departments increased emergency and health and safety drills and interactions. The District engages with the Police in discussions about social and emotional issues of youth and how they present in school and the community. The District is fortunate to have Guidance Counselors, Social Workers and Psychologists available on staff to work with students, as needed before Police involvement is warranted. Chief Creazzo noted the Police only are called and become involved if a criminal incident occurs. The School District participates in quarterly meetings with the Town and 2 Villages and in regular meetings with all three Police Departments. We spoke about the value of community engagement with young people. Reference was made to the DARE program as an example of younger students interacting with the Police. Dr. Shaps spoke of bike safety programs that happen in the District. He referenced a program that existed in a District in which he once worked where Police officers took students to out-of-school activities like minor league baseball games. Police Officers here often attend sporting events or are hired independently to coach sports. He believes activities like these are productive. Dr. Shaps spoke briefly about the District Equity Team and its role in this work as well. Ms. Horsham- Bertels asked if we could learn more about that. Dr. Shaps will forward background information. Dr. Shaps was asked if a student had a complaint about the Police, was there a mechanism in place to voice it. Dr. Shaps referred again to the broad network of Guidance Counselors, Social Workers, Psychologists and Administrators available to our students. Mr. Tannenbaum asked if the Police would be called in to address a specific disciplinary issue. Both Dr. Shaps and Chief Creazzo reiterated, only if a crime has been committed or if there was a physically dangerous, imminent situation. Dr. Shaps indicated that action was discretionary and there was not a specific policy in place but that the District is obligated to call the Police if a crime is committed. If a student has an issue with the Police, both the District and the Police Departments prefer to address it at the student’s home so the child’s parents can be present and the child’s rights can be protected. Ms. Lovett asked how often Town of Mamaroneck Police are called into one of the schools in their jurisdiction. The answer is very infrequently, in his recollection, not as often as once a year. The last time they were called was for a guardianship issue. Dr. Shaps offered to come back and speak to the Task Force if we wished to continue this conversation. 2. Preliminary Review-List of Recommendations for Executive Order 203 Response Report Mr. Tannenbaum has developed a working list of recommendations to help the Task Force begin to address this task. He has categorized his recommendations into five of the seven categories originally identified as areas of focus for the Task Force. He added another category for the purposes of his recommendations entitled, “Bias-Free Policing”. Mr. Tannenbaum used as a guide a report written by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights entitled, “New Era of Public Safety: A Guide to Fair, Safe and Effective Community Policing”. Ms. Lovett will develop a Google Doc into which each member of the Task Force can input suggestions and recommendations using Mr. Tannenbaum’s document as a basis. We will discuss the Google Doc at our next meetings. Open Issues 1. Status of Survey To date we have received 230 responses to the survey with 2 respondents to the Spanish language version. We will take a look at the results at our next meeting. Although we may opt to leave the survey open to elicit more responses to help up in our continued work after responding to Executive Order 203. The reminder post card will be mailed by the end of this week and another Robocall will be made by Supervisor Seligson early next week. 2.Approval of Minutes Minutes of the meetings of December 21 and 28 were approved. The next meeting of the Task Force on Racial Equity will be held on January 11 at 7:00pm via Zoom. Mr. King closed the meeting at 8:30.