The Village of Schoharie will get a look at a draft review of its law enforcement policies at its meeting next Tuesday.
Input on the plan is still welcome--and encouraged—said Colleen Quirion, one of those who helped put it together.
Schoharie’s Village Board meets at 6:30pm at its 300 Main Street offices; the date for the March meeting is the 9th.
The Village’s LERC met once to go over Schoharie’s already-adopted Lexipol policies, Ms. Quirion said.
Maybe more importantly, she’s been reaching out to everyone she can think of—Main Street businesses, Schoharie Central School, members of the Schoharie Promotional Association, RSS and Lexington Arc among others—asking if their experiences back up the Schoharie Police Department’s own statistics.
And they do.
Ms. Quirion said she’s only received a few responses to her inquiries—all of them positive.
In fact, the Arc went out of its way to commend the Schoharie PD for its actions on a recent call, she said.
According to Schoharie PD stats for 2020, there were no complaints of officers using force—in fact, there were no complaints against officers at all—and no complaints of racial disparities, arrests, or detainments—all things Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203 is requiring Police Departments to look at.
According to Officer in Charge Brian Rossi, in 2020 there were 155 calls, 34 of them for criminal complaints resulting in three arrests; two domestic calls, and 11 calls for mental health issues.
Eighty-nine traffic tickets were issued.
“We’re a small village with a very small part-time police force,” Ms. Quirion said. “We don’t have a lot of issues that the bigger places do.”
One recommendation the LERC will make to the village is that the review process incorporates a broader range of residents, she said.
In addition to Ms. Quirion, who’s pastor of Schoharie’s Christ the Shepherd Lutheran Church, members of the Schoharie Village’s LERC include businesswoman Jennie Flagler, District Attorney Susan Mallery and Suzanne Graulich from the County’s Assigned Counsel program.