KINGSTON – The state mandated Ulster County Police Reform and Reinvention plan for the sheriff’s office was approved by the Law Enforcement and Public Safety Committee of the county legislature Wednesday evening.
Legislator John Parete said to some degree, the report is a “wish list,” but Sheriff Juan Figueroa termed it a compromise and noted the county had a hard deadline of April to file it with Albany.
Committee Chairwoman Eve Walter doubted the governor’s staff will actually review the several hundred reports that will be filed at the same time.
“I don’t believe anyone in the governor’s office is going to read hundreds of these reports that are going to come because every municipality in the entire state has to do it,” she noted. “That said, I don’t want to take the chance that they pull any one and not see a full document. Should anyone look at it, they will see it is a very thorough job.”
Lawmakers noted that some components of the report address projects already underway like restorative justice.
The full county legislature must now approve the plan before it is shipped off to Albany.
