Saying she wants to get it right, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren on Thursday night released her draft of a police reform plan mandated by Governor Andrew Cuomo. The plan is due to be approved by City Council before April 1st.
Before that happens, Warren says she wants citizens and all the interested groups in the city to read it and comment.
The 10-point plan recommends amending state law to allow the city’s police contract with the Locust Club, the patrol officer’s union, to be set aside. Warren wants to be able to fire officers for cause. She wants to downsize the department over the next five-to-ten years, reallocating the financial resources to support for mental health programs.
The plan includes numerous steps to improve community involvement with policing, and to create a community-oriented culture among police officers. It also calls for reporting the data collected by the department for more transparency.
Finally, Warren wants to put the sanctity of human life at the department’s center.