The city of Binghamton’s attempts to tackle the issue of police reform have seen mixed responses from local organizations, some of whom recently described the effort as disingenuous.

On June 12, 2020, New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed Executive Order No. 203, mandating that all local New York state governments adopt a plan for police reform, following a summer of protests against police brutality. On Aug. 17, Cuomo elaborated on the order, requiring each locality in the state to submit a police reform plan by April 1, 2021 to remain eligible for state funding.

Six months later, on Jan. 8, Binghamton Mayor Rich David announced the city’s plan for police reform. The Binghamton Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative included the formation of a Steering Committee, which holds community meetings to identify venues for improvement within the Binghamton Police Department (BPD), and partnership with the John F. Finn Institute for Public Safety to track the police reform process and survey residents, according to the city of Binghamton website. Recently some local organizations and participants, however, have denounced the process as slow and ineffective, while others maintained their support.

Since Jan. 26, the Steering Committee has organized six Zoom community meetings, the final of which was an open public comment on Feb. 18. The public survey conducted with the Finn Institute for Public Safety finished accepting responses on March 1.

Tina Chronopoulos, member of Binghamton University’s Campus Citizen Review Board (CCRB) and Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier (JUST) and associate professor of classical and near eastern studies, denounced the survey, claiming it failed to take into account concerns raised in the community meetings.

“It doesn’t ask people what they think about banning choke holds,” Chronopoulos said. “It doesn’t ask people what they think about a community oversight committee. The survey is very narrow, and it doesn’t reflect what the community actually wants.”

William Martin, founding member of JUST and Bartle professor of sociology, echoed Chronopoulos’ comments, also claiming the questions in the survey were leading, eliciting certain answers from respondents.

“Consider the following question asked, ‘The city will need to direct more resources to the police department in order for it to meaningfully engage in community policing,’” Martin said. “How can you answer that question if you believe what needs to be done is to take some resources away from the police and fund alternative kinds of programs that address the community?”

The Finn Institute for Public Safety released its survey results last week. Jared Kraham, executive assistant to Mayor David, stressed the importance of the survey.

“This expert analysis, and not unsubstantiated conclusions or opinions from public comment, will provide the best and most complete information,” Kraham wrote in an email.

Sharon Bryant, Steering Committee member, associate director of the Tubman Center and director of diversity, equity and inclusion for Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences, is optimistic of the outcomes of the initiatives.

“I remain hopeful that we can implement some meaningful changes,” Bryant wrote in an email. “The process continues and we have decided what is included in our final report.”

The last community meeting allowed a final opportunity for community members to provide their input on changes they wished to see in the BPD.

In this meeting, Chronopoulos read aloud statistics from a 2015 to 2019 BPD Use of Force report, stating that 44 percent of use of force applications had been used against white people within this timeframe, while 49 percent had been used against Black people. Chronopoulos also criticized the mayor’s recent comments calling certain critical groups “anti-police hate groups” in the Feb. 2 “Binghamton Now” radio show.

Chronopoulos had previously made separate Use of Force allegations which had prompted a response from Steering Committee member BPD Internal Affairs Captain Becky Sutliff-Smith on Feb. 9, who sought to clarify several of the allegations, made of those under the age of 18.

“In each of these cases there was a parent or guardian not only present, but [they] had also been the ones who had requested the help of the police in restraining their child,” Sutliff-Smith said. “Social workers were involved in three of these incidents, and two of them were actually our mobile crisis social workers, [who] came to the scene with us.”

Alexis Pleus, founder of Truth Pharm, a nonprofit that advocates for policy change to reduce the harms of substance use, also attended and provided testimony at the Feb. 18 meeting. Pleus told a story of her experiences protesting in Binghamton, claiming to have received multiple death threats and being subject to police intimidation when attending Black Lives Matter (BLM) rallies, while receiving little to no police response during her own, sometimes larger, Truth Pharm events.

Pleus questioned the intentions of Mayor David, criticizing the allocation of funds away from community services like her own.

“[Truth Pharm] this past week received a notification that we were denied four grant applications that we submitted to the city to provide funding to help people in the city of Binghamton with substance use disorder,” Pleus said. “All four of our proposals were denied. And then just yesterday I watched a press conference where the mayor announced the construction of the [Southern Tier Crime Analysis Center] and the tripling of staff.”

Another speaker in the Feb. 18 meeting, Robin Alpaugh, was among the few present who expressed support for the BPD and the police reform process.

“I’ve never had a bad experience and I have had some [police] interaction with problems in the neighborhood and it’s never been anything but positive and immediate action,” Alpaugh said. “Are there problems out there? Sure, but I think this is a great and positive way that we can come together and address them as we are to make our community better all around.”

Nate Hotchkiss, 30, of Binghamton and a Feb. 18 meeting attendee, questioned the effectiveness of allowing five minutes of input from members during community meetings, and the appointment of the Steering Committee.

“The only Steering Committee meeting that was posted did have some good discussion that went deeper,” Hotchkiss wrote in an email. “However, the Steering Committee itself was handpicked by the mayor, and there is no opportunity to nominate or elect someone that the community would like to have representing them in the process.”

Previous meetings had seen more varied opinions, including the Feb. 16 meeting for education and youth organizations. Tonia Thompson, Steering Committee member and superintendent of the Binghamton City School District, had praised the BPD and emphasized the importance of school resource officers (SRO)’s and her district’s own surveys used to assess community concerns.

“The experience of each student is unique and valid and I’m confident that overall having [SRO]’s in our buildings has made a positive impact on our school population,” Thompson said. “This has been evidenced through the experiences and thoughts shared by our students in various surveys.”

Jabari Randolph, CCRB member and a senior majoring in human development in the accelerated 4+1 human rights master’s program, also viewed the timeframe allotted as too short, claiming it would prevent comments from “marginalized families” on time constraints.

According to the city website, a formal document detailing changes requested by the community will be presented for public comment by April 1.

Though Martin voiced his discontent with the mayor’s handling of the process, he stressed the importance of remaining hopeful and vigilant amidst frustrations in the Binghamton community.

“What we need to do is be a bit more active and ensure that when this reform act has come along — and this is not the first one it’s going to continue — that we try to support ways of making that community safer,” Martin said. “The way to do that isn’t always more police. We need more counselors, we need more substance disorder treatment and we need some basic assistance to people that don’t have housing.”

Thompson expressed her faith in the process, encouraging participants to keep involved and perceptive.

“We must be open to learning from what we have deemed effective in other communities, and I employ my fellow panelists to listen closely to the community, ask questions of the data, seek understanding and be willing to think flexibly so that true reform results from our collective efforts,” Thompson said.