In light of recent events following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department, and the all too common occurrence of the murder of unarmed black men in this country by people in positions of power, Yonkers City Council Majority Leader Corazon Pineda-Isaac plans to introduce a series of resolutions to increase accountability within the Yonkers Police Department with the aim of giving citizens of Yonkers a better sense of protection under the law.
Majority Leader Pineda-Isaac will introduce a resolution supporting the repeal of 50-A, which would allow the public to access police personnel records. Currently, police personnel records are confidential, which makes it extremely difficult to investigate instances of police brutality. She will also introduce a resolution supporting the use of body cameras within the Yonkers Police Department, which she initially introduced in January of 2016. Although she was unsuccessful at getting that resolution passed in 2016, she is confident the current City Council will be more receptive to the idea of body cameras in Yonkers.
Majority Leader Pineda-Isaac is also proposing the creation of a Civilian Review Board within the City of Yonkers, which would serve as an independent entity and be tasked with investigating complaints of misconduct within the YPD. The Yonkers Police Department has already taken proactive steps in implementing some of the reforms listed in the “8 can’t wait” policies that would restrict the use of force, such as banning chokeholds and banning shooting at moving vehicles. In addition, YPD now requires 8 hours of implicit bias training for all new officers entering the Yonkers Police force, an initiative which was started three years ago. The new reforms being proposed by Majority Leader Pineda-Isaac would improve on those already underway.
This package of legislation will be introduced at the June 16th Rules Committee Meeting of the Yonkers City Council.