New Rochelle has issued its “Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Plan.” The product of many months of discussion, the document will be the subject of a formal public hearing in February and must then be submitted to the State in final form by April 1.
The plan aims to enhance the quality, transparency and fairness of law enforcement in our community, while also giving the NRPD the tools and support needed to discharge its vital mission. In their totality, the plan’s recommendations constitute the most significant reform of Policing policies and procedures in New Rochelle’s modern history — a roadmap for making a good Police Department even better and for facilitating ongoing Police-community partnership.
In addition to exploring specific action steps, the interested reader is encouraged to examine the introduction to the plan, which emphasizes the values and goals at stake in this exercise, and places our local reform effort into a broader context.
I am grateful to the volunteers who donated considerable time and energy to this cause and grateful also for the professional input of our Police and Administrative leadership. Special thanks are owed to Council Member Yadira Ramos-Herbert, who facilitated our Policing Review Committee and applied herself to this challenge with exceptional dedication and intelligence.
In the concluding words of the Plan’s Introduction, “New Rochelle’s ideals are powerful and uplifting, but the lived experience of too many residents has fallen short of these ideals. Let us commit ourselves together to ensuring that every member of our community, regardless of race, ethnicity, or national origin, is valued, afforded the full and equal protection of the law, and given sound basis to trust in the fairness of those sworn to serve the common good.”