Around the nation, America is mourning the death of George Floyd, as well as countless others who have died at the hands of the police who were tasked with protecting them. We must utilize the national conversation to change the political and judicial institutions that shape our society. While our local community has not witnessed the atrocious level of violence that others around the country have faced, we still feel that our community is nowhere near perfect yet: there is a lot of progress that can be made for our justice system to reflect the community that it protects.  We must say as a community “Enough is Enough” and commit to being anti-racist and treat our members of the community with the equal respect and dignity that they deserve.

Although our local police department’s actions have not dropped to the level of the Minneapolis Police Department, they have significant problems regarding race, gender, and the use of force. Even if we did live in a perfect community, we would owe it to the people whose lives would still be impacted by police brutality in other parts of America to set a precedent that changes in the police system is possible. Below is a list of institutional changes we must implement at the municipal level for Closter, Demarest, and Haworth.

1. Civilian Review Board: 
We, as a community, feel that the creation of a CRB (Civilian Review Board) in each borough would be effective to hold police accountable for their actions. This board would be made up of town council members and members of the community and would meet at least monthly to investigate claims of police misconduct with complete transparency to the public and they would publish their findings. 
The CRB will need to have the authority to: 

• Compel presence and testimony from officers who witnessed the alleged incidents 
• Refer cases to appropriate judicial bodies
• Fire police officers if there is cause to do so
• Pass on findings of investigations to other police departments 
• Request line-item budgets for all Police Department spending 
• Perform routine and randomly selected background checks on officers 
• Administer disciplinary action when police protocols are found to have been violated 

2. Police Protocol:
We, as a community, feel that transparency between our police departments and our community is crucial to a functioning society and to building trust between the community and the police. Therefore, we ask that all police brutality accusations, internal investigations, findings of those investigations, and subsequent consequences should be made into a database that is accessible to the public. 

We also feel that it is important for every police officer in all three boroughs to be equipped with a dashboard-mounted camera and body camera (which both record audio) that should be turned on every time they engage with a citizen. Specifically, these cameras must be actively recording every time a police officer pulls someone over and/or makes an arrest and/or administers a ticket. Officers who do not comply with this must be held accountable by means of discipline by the police chief and will be subjected to a potential investigation and disciplinary action by the aforementioned CRB.

We feel that it is important for both the police and the civilian to know who they are dealing with. Under the New Jersey Safe Stop Initiative, all cops are required to provide his or her badge number and name when requested. We ask that the towns back up this initiative by enacting a policy that will require all cops to introduce themselves with his or her badge number and name at the start of all interactions with civilians. 

The first line of defense when holding cops accountable is their fellow cops. We as a community feel that cops who witness police misconduct and fail to report it should be subject to investigation by the CRB and potential disciplinary action by the police chiefs and Board. 

The money awarded to victims of police brutality in the form of legal settlements, awards, fines, etc. and legal costs incurred by the community for these cases (civil and criminal) should be paid in part by the police union retirement fund. A portion of the aforementioned awards, fines, legal fees, etc. must come from the police union retirement fund. This would be an effective way to ensure the police hold each other accountable in cases of misconduct.

We request that all police departments come up with a plan to diversify their forces so that by 2025, a minimum of 30% of officers will be non-white and 40% will be female. 

Lastly, any police officer who demonstrates racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, or any other discriminatory ideology will be investigated by the CRB and subject to disciplinary action by the Board and police chiefs.

3. Training Requirements:
We, as a community, feel that the training undergone by police is not sufficient enough. We feel that additional training is necessary in order to ensure that our police force is ready to handle all situations thrown at them properly. The additional training requirements that we are asking for are: 

• 2 days per year of de-escalation training
• Participate in the CIT (Crisis Intervention Training) Program provided
• by the State of New Jersey, which is a program designed to develop and provide a safer and more effective response to people with mental illnesses who are in a crisis
• 2 days per year of sensitivity training in each of the following areas: 
  • Race
  • Gender
  • Religion
  • Sexual Orientation

We call on all municipal politicians and police departments to condemn the actions of the 4 policemen involved in the murder of George Floyd: Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao. 

The road to bettering relations between law enforcement agencies and their communities is by no means an easy path. This petition is designed to start a conversation between our communities and our police forces in order to help us both move forward towards a brighter and more harmonious future. As we look at our nation now, we may believe we are better than other cities and towns that have deeper divides between their law enforcement agencies and their communities. But, we are by no means a perfect society: just like all others, we have our flaws. In taking the steps to address these issues and open a dialogue about affecting change between our police and communities, we can show the rest of the country that change is possible.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to valleyforchange@gmail.com