POUGHKEEPSIE – City of Poughkeepsie Mayor Robert Rolison and Police Chief Thomas Pape announced a “Community Survey” at city hall on Thursday seeking the community’s input regarding “Procedural Justice” in the city. According to Pape, Procedural Justice in simple terms means “treating everyone fairly.”
According to Rolison, a 2015 task force created by then-President Obama called the “Task Force For 21st Century Policing” called for “Procedural Justice” which is based on four principles which are treating people with dignity and respect, giving individuals “voice” during encounters, being neutral and transparent in decision making and conveying trustworthy motives.
The city plans to implement the “Procedural Justice” campaign and the mayor is seeking the community’s input.
Starting September 21, 3,000 surveys will be sent to random households in the city, divided equally among each of the eight wards which seeks to determine problems, if any, that the police department has in relating to the community it protects.
Rolison said the surveys will include a cover letter from him along with a detailed survey of 30-35 questions that he hopes will be returned prior to October 12.
“The survey will be both in English and Spanish and this is going to give us the opportunity to hear directly from the citizens that our officers serve on how they feel about their community, how they feel about their neighborhoods, and most importantly, how they feel about their police officers,” the mayor said.
Rolison said that the surveys which are anonymous, will not be read by city employees and instead will be tallied and reviewed through a partnership with Marist College. Professor Frank Merenda of the Marist College Center for Social Justice said that the survey will help determine how the community feels about its police department and will help Chief Pape and Lieutenant Sean McCarthy develop training to enhance the department’s ability to relate to all of the Poughkeepsie residents.
Lieutenant McCarthy is one of seven Procedural Justice Master Instructors certified by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services and is developing an initial eight-hour training in the program for all Poughkeepsie police officers that will take place before the end of the year.
Both Rolison and Pape cited the assistance of Marist College as a tremendous asset in getting this project moving with Rolison saying “Marist’s involvement lends great legitimacy to this project.”
Chief Pape said the results of the survey will help the command staff develop training needs to meet the needs of the community. Pape also stated that in conjunction with the city-wide survey, a second anonymous survey will be delivered to each member of the city’s police force to determine what internal problems might exist that create difficulties in executing their duties including “protecting life and property.”
Rolison and Pape stressed the importance of having the community complete and return the survey in a timely fashion so that the training can be developed. Rolison said that “reminder” postcards will be mailed out prior to the October 12 return date asking recipients to please complete the surveys.
