Cuomo to local governments: Redesign policing by April 1, or lose aid
NEW YORK (WRGB) Twenty days after the death of George Floyd, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has given New York's municipalities a deadline.
Every community is to discuss what they want local policing to look like, and redesign their police department to fit that -- by April 1, or lose state aid.
The governor asks people: What functions do you want for your policing? Staffing? Budget? What should they be tasked with? What equipment should they have? He says every community must determine all of those things, and make them happen.
He says the plan should not be what "the government" wants -- that is the current policing system. Communities need to come up with what reforms they want for themselves, and make it happen. Different communities will want different things.
Cuomo said it takes nine months to give birth, and New York is going to birth a new policing system.
Local governments that do not do the work -- won't receive any state aid, period, the governor said. "If you don't want state funding, then you don't have to do it."
The drop-dead date to enact the newly designed police system is April 1, 2021.
The governor said no police force can operate without the respect and trust of its community. It is a function of what the community wants, and in many communities, the relationship is broken. "In the communities that want a different relationship, design it. Define it," he said.
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