Genesee County announced today (Feb. 7) that the draft of Genesee County Police Reform and Reinvention Report is open for public comments until Monday, Feb. 22.

Genesee County residents and other stakeholders can submit comments to the draft plan via email at:  County.Manager@co.genesee.ny.us

The Genesee County Police Reform and Reinvention Report (pdf) can be accessed at the Genesee County Sheriff Department’s website. Click here to see it now. 

The 20-person stakeholder committee appointed by the Genesee County Legislature that wrote the draft of the report will consider the comments at its next scheduled meeting on Feb. 22^nd.

The committee reviewed the various practices, policies and procedures of the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office which are outlined in the report.

The Genesee County Police Reform and Reinvention Report is in response to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Executive Order 203 issued on June 12.

Police departments across New York State are mandated by EO 203 to submit reform plans by April 1. Those government localities with law enforcement agencies that do not submit a reform plan will lose state funding for their agencies.

Comments will be discussed and considered by the committee at its Feb. 22^nd meeting with a final plan to be adopted by the committee by March 1.

The report and plan will be considered by the Genesee County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee at its March 15 meeting, and if adopted will be submitted to the Genesee County Legislature for consideration and approval at its March 24 meeting.

The City of Batavia and the Batavia Police Department are asking city residents to participate in an online survey the results of which will be used in formulating the department’s response to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203, which requires police departments across New York State to submit reform plans to the state by April 1.

The online survey can be accessed here. It is anticipated that filling out the survey will take approximately five minutes.

The survey is just one component of the various outreach and engagement efforts being conducted by the Batavia Police Advisory Collaboration Stakeholder Group. The Stakeholder Group has met several times with the next meeting scheduled for Dec. 10^th at a venue still to be determined because of concerns about the increasing COVID-19 infection rates.  

“Community feedback and input is a critical component of our efforts in developing our plan,” said City of Batavia Police Chief Shawn Heubusch. “We realize that not every resident has reliable online access so various members of the stakeholder group are going to assist residents to fill out the survey.”

The survey asks residents to answer various questions, including: the nature of their last interaction with the police department and how they would rate that experience; a series of questions based on a 1-5 rating as to whether they strongly agree or strongly disagree with various statements about the police department; a list of options as far as what the police department should be prioritizing; whether or not assigning non-law-enforcement professionals should respond to certain 9-1-1 calls; and, various demographic information among others.