Burton-Hill:
“We all want to be
safe here”
NEWBURGH – Residents in the City of Newburgh are voicing concerns about the way the current community policing practices and complaint evaluations are being handled, and their concerns are being met with support by their new Police Chief Douglas Solomon.
At Wednesday evening’s monthly City Police Community Relations and Review Board meeting, residents agreed that the community policing, as is, is not having the effect they had envisioned and that complaints are lacking in transparency, with some community members alleging there are officers in the community policing units acting in an unbecoming manner.
Gabrielle Burton-Hill, a resident and former board member, said she believes the police handling complaints unilaterally has made it impossible to determine whether or not officers are being forthcoming about those incidences. She suggests that having the review charter examined and brought before the council for amendment will enhance community trust with the police, as well as preventing incidences that shouldn’t result in escalation from either side form doing so.
“We all want to be safe here,” said Burton-Hill. “We all want to feel respected, and I understand sometimes things happen and police officers are human too- I get that; but, the way this is set up right now, we really need to take a look at it so that we don’t have an incident that’s going to cause a whole bunch of ruckus. We don’t want people sticking their finger up at the police because they feel disrespected.”
Solomon:
“They’re embracing
the philosophy”
To that, Chief Solomon revealed a number of new directions in which he wants to take the city’s police department. They include rebranding the Anti-Crime Unit to the Community Progressive Response Team, changing the practice to be more community police oriented and less intrusive, starting a cadet program for 14- to 21 year-old residents, initiating a junior police academy summer camp (slated for August), bicycle policing and a community/police walk-around.
Solomon said although all these programs are still in the works and not quite ready for public consumption, he feels his department is on board with making the changes.
“My command staff has got a little more bounce in their step, it seems like, since I’ve been there and I’ve put some of these ideas out,” said the chief. “They’re embracing the philosophy that I have about where the department should be going.”
Solomon said in the next months he will be rolling out detailed action plans for these new initiatives to the public and city council.
