WHO’S NEXT?

City To Search For Next IPD Chief Amidst Reimagining Tumult

By Matt Dougherty

In the wake of nationwide outrage at the murder of George Floyd — which sparked conversations about systemic racism and the impact the police have on minoritized communities — the City of Ithaca began reimagining public safety and are now in the process of choosing a new police chief that will follow through on those goals.

A er former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued Executive Order 203, the New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative, former Mayor Svante Myrick introduced the idea of reimagining public safety in a GQ article published in February 2021. In the article, Myrick announced a proposal to create a Department of Solutions and Public Safety sta ed with civilian responders to work alongside the Ithaca Police Department. e Common Council voted eight to two July 6, in favor of accepting the Reimagining Public Safety Working Groups plan and implementing portions of it while continuing to seek out public input and further review the process. As a result of approving the resolution, a civilian leadership position will be established with authority designated by the mayor to oversee the city’s new public safety response systems. is civilian leader will have the title of Commissioner of Community Safety and have authority over the Department of Community Safety and its team of civilian rst responders. e commissioner and the chief of police will work together to transition to this reimagined version of public safety and change the culture of the Ithaca Police Department. However, it is uncertain who will ll these positions.

Over the last number of years, the City of Ithaca has seen an intense turnover rate amongst their police chiefs. roughout Myrick's decade-long run as the mayor of Ithaca, the police department went through four di erent police chiefs. Acting Chief John Joly has served in the Ithaca Police Department for over 15 years and has been the chief of police for about one year and four months. In addition, former Chief Dennis R. Nayor served for just over one and a half years.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the average tenure for a police chief ranges from two to three years. e City of Ithaca has not retained a chief of police for longer than two years since John Barber served in the position from June 2013 to December 2017.

Joly could not be reached to comment and it remains unclear if he is still being considered by the police chief search committee. However, he has previously expressed concern about the lack of clarity surrounding the reimagining public safety process.

Ithaca is an economically and socially diverse city that has made e orts to change the culture of the police force over the years by bringing in chiefs from outside. For example, Nayor was the Director of Research, Development, and Training for the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police prior to serving as chief of police in Ithaca. He also served for over 21 years with the City of Oneonta Police Department.

Nayor came to the job focused on promoting the six pillars of professional 21st century policing by training o cers to focus on crime prevention through building trust and legitimacy with the community. During his time as chief of police, he led the department through months of civil unrest sparked by the murder of George Floyd, police reforms in accordance with New York State Executive Order 203, the pandemic, and numerous high-pro le in-

The City will soon decide who is going to supervise the IPD through the challenging “reimagining period” in its history. (Photo: Josh Baldo)

REVOLVINGDOOR?

Ithaca has had 23 acting or sworn police chiefs in 134 years. at averages out to a term of about six years, which is quite impressive if you just compare it to the typical tenure of two to three years for a police chief. However, included in these numbers is the extraordinary 34 year run in o ce of William Marshall from 1916 to 1950, and the split terms of both Walter Pagliaro and Lauren E. Signer. For a “roll call” of IPD chiefs pictured on the cover and their dates of service see page 18.

cidents including the department’s rst use of pepper spray in recent memory. ese were some of the most di cult periods for the Ithaca Police Department in recent history and may have contributed to Nayor’s retirement in April 2021. However, before stepping down from his position, Nayor said that he wanted to be involved with the Reimagining Public Safety Collaborative e ort that is continuing at the city and county levels.

Myrick has urged that exibility to properly carry out the Reimagining Public Safety reforms should be an important factor in the decision of who would be the next chief of police in Ithaca.

According to Acting Mayor Laura Lewis, the search committee responsible for nding a new police chief consists of “three members that are determined by Common Council, three members of the community police board, a content speci c professional, and a representative from the Diversity Advisory Council.” Lewis told the Ithaca Times that the search committee was going to be meeting shortly.

“ e way it's worked in the past is that we set up a committee with three members of the Common Council, three members of the public, and one outside expert,” Myrick said. “ e search committee [would] interview a bunch of folks and then make a recommendation to the mayor and the mayor [would] ultimately make the hire.”

Alderperson Phoebe Brown, who represents Ithaca’s 2nd Ward on the Common Council, said that the city already “started the process of interviewing for the chief of police,” but that she had no knowledge about who exactly was being interviewed for the position.

According to Brown, the City of Ithaca needs a police chief who is “very knowledgeable about diverse communities: someone who's been on the ground and is really familiar with grassroots organizing. Someone who understands what this climate of policing has been throughout the country and will now prioritize the necessity of making sure that we are acknowledging the concerns of Black and Brown communities and LGBTQ communities. Someone who has been a champion of the people.”

Myrick said that he would like to see the city hire a police chief with a “demonstrated commitment to the kinds of policing that keeps the community safe by making every person in the community feel like the police department's on their side.”

He said that the search committee should look for candidates that have “a strong and demonstrated ability to work with minoritized communities and let them know that our public safety system works for them too.”

Alderperson Cynthia Brock, who represents Ithaca’s 1st Ward on the Common Council, said that quali ed applicants will be pre-screened by the Human Resources Department to “winnow down the responses to those who actually meet all the quali cations that are put forward in the advertisement.” " e interview team will look through the applications and choose the top applicants that they then choose to interview,” she continued. “And they will go through the interview process and then make recommendations to the acting mayor.”

Brock has voted against the Reimaging Public Safety plan citing concerns that the working group tasked with creating the plan has been in uenced by funding from outside sources. However, she said she “ rmly believes that there are changes to be made in policing in Ithaca and that we must move forward in implementing those changes.”

“I believe that the outcome of what the city implements will be something that the community will agree is necessary and will support,” Brock said. “I'm not aware of anything that [the police] are doing to stop the reimagining plan. I nd it very important to mention that the Ithaca PBA [Police Benevolent Association] has said very clearly that they see that the changes can and should be made and they want to be a partner in this process.”

According to Brock, most law enforcement o cers agree that not everything requires a criminal or police response.

“When you have individuals who are struggling with mental health issues, when you have individuals who are struggling with addiction issues, with the burden of the economic crisis—these situations require a response by the community that will support the individual in need,” Brock said.

Brock said that this will require the city to partner with the county and have more appropriate responses in terms of sta ng for mental health and addiction.

“I think IPD [Ithaca Police Department] and the PBA recognizes that there's a lot we can do together. ey want to have a relationship with a community where the community trusts and supports them and they can meet the community's needs,” Brock said.

Myrick has said that the response from police has been a “mixed bag.”

“ ey say they want to do better. ey say they want to earn the trust of the community, and particularly the Black community,” Myrick said. “ eir police union and union lawyers, on the other hand, fought hard against the plan. So, we'll see. It’s hard to say.”

In most police departments, the center of power resides with the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) or Police Union. e purpose of a police union is to engage in political advocacy around "law and order," crime legislation and legal protections for individual o cers. As a result, police unions across the country have come out against e orts to reform the police—and Ithaca is no exception.

Despite some rhetorical support on behalf of the police by council members, the police reaction to the reimagining plan has been mostly negative. Joly has expressed frustration over the process and the PBA has subjected it to heavy criticism. e Ithaca PBA posted on Facebook July 21 saying, “ e damage done by the biased anti-worker and anti-police ‘reimagining’ initiative is extensive and will take years to repair.” e PBA failed to respond to requests to comment and further explain their perspective but judging by the language used in the Facebook post, the PBA opposes efforts to reimagine public safety.

It’s not clear how much in uence the Ithaca PBA has over the police chief search committee and the public is in the dark about who is being considered for the position. However, if the PBA does have in uence over the hiring process, it will likely prioritize candidates that stand in opposition to e orts to reimagine public safety.

Alderperson Cynthia Brock “firmly believes that there are changes to be made in policing in Ithaca and that we must move forward in implementing those changes.” (Photo: Provided)

Current Acting Chief John Joly has previously expressed concern about the lack of clarity surrounding the reimagining public safety process. (Photo: Provided) Acting Mayor Laura Lewis has said the search committee was going to begin meeting shortly. (Photo: File) Alderperson Phoebe Brown believes the next chief needs to be someone who “has been a champion of the people.” (Photo: File)

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Dare Wine, a fermented grape juice with its alcohol removed. Atwater advertised the wine in newspapers as a limited stock product that customers would love. A er an initial launch, the faux wine was never mentioned in the newspapers ever again. e seventh tour stop, on the other side of the street, is the clothing shop Petrune. is building once housed Brooks Pharmacy, which was one out of over 300 pharmacies in a chain that covered the New York and New England area until it was bought by Rite-Aid Pharmacy in 2007. During Prohibition, this pharmacy was a hotspot for medicinal alcohol. With a doctor’s prescription, someone could come to the pharmacy once every ten days for a pint of what doctors called “spiritus fermenti”: whiskey, bourbon, vodka or another spirit of choice. e eighth tour stop is Center Ithaca. On this site there was once a speakeasy owned by the Eagles Club, a fraternal organization. At one point the federal government caught on and sent a squad to raid the speakeasy. ere was such a large stockpile of alcohol that the feds couldn’t drag it all back to a warehouse. ey decided to carry the alcohol out to the street and dump it there instead. Suddenly the power to the speakeasy went out, forcing the squad to delay their disposal operation. When they returned the next morning, there was a noticeable decrease in the amount of alcohol. It seems many citizens took advantage of the serendipitous power outage. e nal tour stop is Mockingbird Paperie. is building once housed Platt & Colt Pharmacy, the birthplace of the ice cream sundae (disregard the bogus claims by Two Rivers, Wisconsin). e year before the repeal of Prohibition, the North American Ice Cream Association stated that Americans consumed over 100 million gallons of ice cream. Many believe that a portion of those sales were actually alcohol sales by pharmacies. Perhaps this explains the origin of the avor rum raisin.

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

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of your sense felt experience of moving through the water.”

Shane began this “yoga” journey in his undergraduate studies at college. “A er a year and a half of majoring in confusion, I realized that my golden opportunity at college was to learn how to learn, and that I learned best through movement, not through reading.

“So I got a degree in learning how not to think in words. If we want to learn a movement skill—be it swimming, driving a car, learning how to walk, even sweeping the oor, or climbing the stairs e ciently—the greatest challenge is to ‘navigate from word brain to movement brain’.

“When we lie face down in the water,” Shane explains, “the frontal cortex word brain cannot think us to swim. Instead, this word brain must learn to trust the sensations of our bodies—the gateway to our movement brain.

“Women Swimmin’ is a journey, a passage across the majestic lake,” Shane believes. “ rough their sense felt experience, these women are seeking a smooth and owing passage. is is the essence of e cient swimming. To ow through the water, we must diminish our presence in the water. To do this, we need humility, patience. Many of us seek a smooth and graceful passage from this life to the next as well. We support Hospicare, which provides graceful, owing care when we are most in need of service in the last chapter of our lives.”

Shane has taught a wide range of people, from absolute beginners who are afraid to put their faces in the water, to professional Ironman triathletes. “I love teaching all of them,” he stresses. “With each person, I share the discovery of how we move through the water gracefully. If I am not learning as I teach, then I am not teaching very well.”

When Shane rst witnessed Women Swimmin’, “It moved me to tears, watching the swimmers emerge at the nish, some themselves in Hospicare. As we live in our sensations in the water, we learn to appreciate even more our bodies. No matter what we look like or what our bodies have been through. is too, is part of the healing process.” e swimmers will be traversing Lake Cayuga this coming Saturday, August 13, 2022. Each hopes to raise money for Hospicare, which provides care for those who may no longer swim. As they make their passage from one shore to their destination on another shore, their bodies and minds will lend them power. ey will use this newly embraced power to raise funding for others whose bodies and minds need our support. Hospicare, our local treasure, o ers comfort and support to people of all walks of life, whenever people need care in their passage through the last chapters of their lives.

To support Hospicare and Palliative Care Services, Serving Tompkins and Cortland County, call (607) 272-0212.