SARATOGA SPRINGS — For the past year, the city’s Police Reform Task Force and Saratoga Black Lives Matter have been asking the Commissioner of Public Safety James Montagnino to implement all 50 points in its Reform and Reinvention Plan.
But after 14-months in office, advocates for police reform have lost patience and are now demanding Montagnino move more quickly to enact recommendations.
“I’m deeply disturbed,” Daesha Harris, a member of the Police Reform Task Force told the City Council last week.
Montagnino, however, says the city has moved on most of the recommendations designed to improve police culture, policies, training, transparency and accountability. He pointed to the the controversial Civilian Review Board that was seated last month, as well as the commitment to transparency that he demonstrated when he publicly released the police body cam videos from a Nov. 20 shootout on Broadway.
“Over the last year and a quarter, there has been significant change,” Montagnino said on Thursday. “Not only personnel and command staff level, but also the way things are done.”
But Saratoga Black Lives Matter leader Lexis Figuereo said Montagnino and the city is falling short; for example, the Civilian Review Board has been formed, but they don’t have a manual in place to define its operation.
“Based on my analysis, there are 25 to 30 points that haven’t been started at all,” Figuereo said.
Montagnino challenged that assertion, saying many of the points are in still in progress — such as state accreditation for the department, which should be awarded by the end of the summer. He also said he plans to release a report, with data on police actions and demographics, by next week, another point in the reform plan.
Yet he also admits there are other…
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