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Organizer Jamaica Miles marches with protesters outside Schenectady police headquarters on July 6, 2020, after a police officer was photographed kneeling on the neck of a man he was trying to apprehend on Brandywine Avenue. While many communities wanted to create civilian oversight boards in the wake of 2020\u2019s racial reckoning, only about half of the proposed boards in the Capital Region and Hudson Valley were actually created.<\/p>\n
Lori Van Buren\/Times Union<\/p>\n
More than five years after New York communities promised greater police accountability, only about half of the proposed civilian oversight boards in the Capital Region and Hudson Valley were actually created. And even where boards exist, some have virtually no online presence, rendering them inaccessible to residents, while others lack the power to independently investigate complaints.<\/p>\n
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In 2020, amid a nationwide reckoning with police practices, then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued an executive order requiring law enforcement agencies statewide to work with their communities to adopt reform plans by April 2021 or risk losing state funding.<\/p>\n
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Civilian oversight boards\u00a0\u2014 which independently review and sometimes investigate complaints against police officers\u00a0\u2014 were a popular topic of discussion among stakeholders charged with creating the plans.<\/p>\n
Among 173 local governments with police forces in the Capital Region and Hudson Valley\u00a0\u2014 from Warren to Westchester counties\u00a0\u2014 24 proposed forming a civilian oversight board or similar entity in their reform plans. (Thirteen localities already had oversight boards, or a similar body.)<\/p>\n
At least eight governments did not form the boards they proposed, a Times Union investigation found. Five others had no publicly available information about their proposed boards, and did not respond to numerous inquiries about whether they formed them.<\/p>\n
Of the 12 governments that told reporters they did form boards, three make no mention of the board on their websites, including who serves on it or how to contact it. Two of the municipalities that created boards dissolved them after only a few years.<\/p>\n
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Several governments formed, or committed to forming, entities whose goal was to strengthen relations between law enforcement and community members, but which lack the stronger oversight capacities of civilian oversight boards. For example, the city of Port Jervis and the towns of Bethlehem, New Windsor and Somers formed advisory groups, though the latter two groups are no longer active.<\/p>\n
A few other communities in the Times Union\u2019s analysis resolved to continue discussions beyond the deadline in Cuomo\u2019s executive order. In Poughkeepsie, stakeholders discussed creating a civilian review board for six months but could not reach a consensus. Hyde Park, which decided not to form a civilian review board after further discussion, will revisit the topic in 2027.<\/p>\n
In other places, such as the village of Ellenville and towns of Saugerties and Clarkstown, the outcome of those discussions remains unclear. Officials did not respond to multiple inquiries and no information is posted about a civilian review board online.<\/p>\n
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And even among the agencies that did create\u00a0\u2014 or already had\u00a0\u2014 civilian oversight boards, many lack the authority to independently investigate complaints or hold officers accountable, leaving oversight uneven across the region.<\/p>\n
For this analysis, the Times Union included any proposed boards that had at least some civilian members and reviewed complaints in some capacity, regardless of whether the board had investigative power. The board also had to be listed as a recommendation in the reform plan, not merely discussed.<\/p>\n
To determine if boards were actually formed, reporters contacted government and law enforcement officials and examined government websites. Inquiries about the status of boards were frequently passed from police chiefs to town supervisors and mayors, and vice versa, and confusion reigned about what exactly was proposed and who was responsible for implementing the recommendations, though Cuomo\u2019s executive order did not legally require agencies to enact every recommendation of their plans.<\/p>\n
A promise of accountability<\/p>\n
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Protesters make their way up Congress Street toward the Troy Police Department during a Black Lives Matter rally on June 7, 2020.<\/p>\n
Paul Buckowski\/Times Union<\/p>\n
While civilian oversight boards have existed in cities, even locally, for decades, they were a relatively new concept for counties in 2020. As of that year, only 11 counties nationwide had civilian oversight boards, according to the National Association of Counties<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n There are three main types of civilian oversight boards, according to the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement: review-based models, which review internal investigations already completed by the department; investigation-based models, which hire professional, outside investigators to conduct independent investigations; and auditor-based models, which focus on creating systemic change in law enforcement agencies through policy and trend analysis.<\/p>\n The composition and function of civilian oversight boards vary widely: some have police officers or government officials, while others are strictly civilian. Many are volunteer-based, but some offer stipends.<\/p>\n While some boards can receive and investigate complaints directly from the public independent of the police agency they\u2019re charged with overseeing, others review complaints that have already been investigated internally. Some boards can recommend disciplinary actions, while others are limited to policy and training recommendations. Some boards even have subpoena powers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n But for many local agencies in the Capital Region and Hudson Valley, civilian oversight boards never became more than a talking point.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Greene County was one of only two counties in the region whose plan explicitly called for the creation of a body to review complaints. But asked about its status five years later, County Administrator Shaun Groden said he was unfamiliar with the proposed \u201cCommunity Advocate Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf Community Advocate Committee means Police Review Board, I believe the committee did not feel that was warranted,\u201d Groden said in an email. \u201cThe presentations by the various law enforcement agencies to the community describing operations, trainings, protocols, satisfied the membership.\u201d<\/p>\n The town of Woodstock and villages of Catskill and Mamaroneck also did not establish oversight boards as proposed in their plans.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in Catskill, the Village Board began to oversee complaints regarding the police department\u00a0\u2014 though it has received none, Village Board President Natasha Law said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Although White Plains does not have a board yet, the city\u2019s Department of Public Safety is reviewing potential guidelines for a board that \u201cwould provide service fair to both the community and the police department members,\u201d Commissioner Wade Hardy said.<\/p>\n \u2018A thorn in our sides\u2019<\/p>\n But creating a board was only the first hurdle.<\/p>\n Some communities struggled to get their boards operating; others failed to keep them operating, while several provide residents little indication online that civilian oversight exists at all.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Saratoga Springs, whose police department has been criticized in recent years for its treatment of protesters, established a civilian review board in 2023. But by the time members received mediation training, their terms had expired, and new members had to be appointed. Since the board became operational last year, it has received one complaint, Commissioner of Public Safety Tim Coll said.<\/p>\n Since Saratoga Springs\u2019 civilian oversight board became operational last year, it has received one complaint, Commissioner of Public Safety Tim Coll said.<\/p>\n Jim Franco\/Times Union<\/p>\n New Rochelle\u2019s civilian review board has faced similar challenges getting up and running. Established in 2024, the board didn\u2019t hold its first meeting until this July. Initially, city officials told the local publication Talk of the Sound<\/a> that the board couldn\u2019t meet until members had been trained, but emails the publication received from a records request revealed the board could meet, just not review cases until training was complete.<\/p>\n Co-chairperson Damon Maher reported at the July meeting\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a recording of which was uploaded to the city website\u00a0\u2014 that members still had about 12 hours left of training to complete. City Manager Wilfredo Melenez did not respond to an inquiry about why the board\u2019s training is not complete.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n One reason communities have a hard time establishing boards is due to pushback from police unions, New York Civil Liberties Union Assistant Policy Director Michael Sisitzky said. \u201cIt takes a lot of political will, sometimes political courage, to push for the establishment of these boards.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael O\u2019Mera, president of the Police Conference of New York, which represents 150 law enforcement unions comprising some 150,000 members, described civilian oversight boards as \u201ca thorn in our sides.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey serve no good purpose except to inflame public sentiment against police officers,\u201d O\u2019Mera said. \u201cI think they\u2019re a detriment to good order, and they should not be empowered to oversee any police officers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But other law enforcement officials see the potential benefit in review boards\u00a0\u2014 as long as their authority is limited.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cCivilian review boards can be an effective tool to increase public confidence and promote transparency and accountability by providing independent oversight of police conduct,\u201d New York State Association of Chiefs of Police Executive Director Patrick D. Phelan said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n To Phelan, the best type of review board is one that maintains \u201cprofessional law enforcement expertise in the investigative process,\u201d gives officers due process, complies with labor laws and sets \u201cappropriate limits on the board\u2019s authority.\u201d<\/p>\n Shadow boards<\/strong><\/p>\n In some communities, boards exist on paper but can be difficult for residents to find, raising questions about how effective a civilian oversight board can be if no one knows it exists.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Internet searches for Columbia County\u2019s Citizen Review Panel point to a 2024 news release about<\/a> the panel\u2019s formation two years earlier, but no information about the panel appears to exist on the county\u2019s or the sheriff\u2019s office\u2019s websites.<\/p>\n Former Hudson Police Commissioner Gary Graziano, who chairs the board, said in an emailed statement that the four-person panel has received one complaint, but it was for an outside agency. The panel handles complaints regarding the sheriff\u2019s office, the village of Philmont and the towns of Greenport and Stockport police departments.<\/p>\n Similarly, no information could be found about the boards for Hoosick Falls, Windham or Port Jervis.<\/p>\n By contrast, all Kingston police commission meetings are livestreamed to the city\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>. The five-person board, comprising four civilians and the mayor, has been active for at least 30 years. In addition to reviewing complaints, the board looks at every use-of-force incident and periodically reviews and updates the Kingston Police Department\u2019s policies and procedures, Police Chief Egidio Tinti said. The police department receives about six or seven complaints per year, the majority of which are unfounded, Tinti said, or lead to the accused officer\u2019s exoneration.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Kingston Police Chief Egidio Tinti with Gov. Kathy Hochul during a news conference on Aug. 25 at the Capitol in Albany. Tinti said the Kingston Police Department\u2019s policies and procedures are informed by its police commission.<\/p>\n Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n In the years since George Floyd\u2019s murder, public outcry about police misconduct has died down, and some of the boards created with the promise of holding police accountable have dissolved.<\/p>\n Originally established in 2003, New Paltz\u2019s civilian police commission was disbanded in 2015 before being reconstituted in 2022. But the revival was short-lived.<\/p>\n In July 2025, the Town Board abolished the police commission following the advice of its attorneys. At the time, then-Town Supervisor Amanda Gotto told Hudson Valley One<\/a> that the board intended to reestablish the commission and, in the interim, the Town Board would provide police oversight. In April, Town Supervisor Tim Rogers said<\/a> the Town Board would serve in that capacity for six to nine months.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In December, the Dutchess County village of Millbrook repealed its 2021 law establishing a community review board, replacing it with a personnel complaint policy drafted by Lexipol, a private company that provides state-specific policies for law enforcement. The new policy is noticeably absent from the village website, and the review board had never \u201cbeen utilized,\u201d Mayor Peter Doro said at the December meeting.<\/p>\n Doro and Millbrook Police Chief Keith Dworkin said they could not elaborate on what they meant by the board not being in use, as it predated their appointments.<\/p>\n A patchwork of laws and disappointment<\/p>\n For boards that made it past inception, legal battles and political pushback have left some of them unable to function as powers are stripped away and disheartened members resign in protest.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n A civilian board that oversees Albany Police Department internal affairs investigations has existed since 2000. But a law approved by city voters in 2021 empowered the board to conduct its own investigations and issue subpoenas\u00a0\u2014 even if a complaint has not been filed.<\/p>\n Questions about the board\u2019s autonomy<\/a> began to rise when the Albany Common Council voted to make it a city agency and moved the body from the Albany Law School to the council\u2019s chambers. The power struggle has led the board to file lawsuits against the city<\/a> and pushed several board members to resign.<\/p>\n Resignations from frustrated board members are not uncommon, said Michael Gennaco, an attorney with OIR Group, which consults with local governments and community members on police practices and the civilian oversight of law enforcement.<\/p>\n \u201cThey get discouraged about what they\u2019re able to do, and what they\u2019re able to do isn\u2019t much,\u201d Gennaco said. \u201cThey start to feel like what they\u2019re doing is just window dressing.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Nairobi Vives, former chair of the Albany Community Police Review Board, speaks at a news conference on April 27, 2021, about police actions against protesters who had been camping outside the South Station.<\/p>\n Paul Buckowski\/Times Union<\/p>\n Frequent turnover and attrition among Albany\u2019s nine-member board have often left it without the quorum necessary to review some complaints<\/a>. The board has 120 days to review a complaint after the police department\u2019s Office of Professional Standards finishes its review. In August, the board had 153 open complaints, nearly three-quarters of which cannot be reviewed because the 120-day window has closed.<\/p>\n Saratoga Springs\u2019 review board has also struggled to maintain its independence. Coll, the public safety commissioner, recently proposed stripping the board of its subpoena powers<\/a>, which he argued will \u201cincrease efficiency and effectiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n But board members worry it will instead severely limit their ability to conduct independent investigations. After public pushback, Coll included a provision that the board could refer the matter to another law enforcement authority or the Saratoga County district attorney.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Boards that lack subpoena power may have their investigations stonewalled if the police department refuses to produce records or allow officers to be interviewed, said Sisitzky, the NYCLU assistant policy director.<\/p>\n But members of some of the region\u2019s longest-standing boards disagree that a more powerful board is a more effective one.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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