Contact: David Galin
ALBANY, NY - Mayor Kathy Sheehan released the following statement in response to the Common Council's overwhelming approval of the City of Albany's Policing Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Plan:
"Albany's Policing Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Plan is among the most detailed, comprehensive and actionable plans of any city in the state, and includes recommendations, actions to achieve them, and timeframes to hold ourselves accountable.
"Chief Hawkins and I acknowledge that transparency is necessary to building trust with the community and in demonstrating the progress we are making to address structural racism and improve policing, particularly in communities of color. We believe this plan will help us achieve these goals and look forward to its implementation.
"A sincere thank you to the 32 members of the Collaborative for their tireless dedication to this effort. Over the course of six months, the Collaborative and its working groups held 63 meetings, conducted research into best practices and innovations across the country, and offered multiple options for public input resulting in hundreds of public comments. We are grateful for their hard work and for the recommendations they provided in this 100-plus page document.
"We also want to thank the five individuals - Rebecca Campbell, Dr. Celia Gonzalez, Jasmine Higgins, Prof. Laurie Shanks, and Brian Shea - who dedicated themselves to this endeavor and helped support the Collaborative's important work."