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Civil rights attorneys have sent a letter with more than 300 signatures to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, asking to push back the April 1st deadline for communities to complete their police reforms. They say municipalities have not addressed the underlying issues of systemic racism and police misconduct.
The governor’s Executive Order 203 the Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Plan requires local police agencies to modernize their strategies and programs based on community input. Orange County-based attorney Michael Sussman says implementation of the order has been uneven and generally leaves out the voices of people most affected.
“In our letter to the governor et. al., explicates exactly the problem a top-down approach, a non-transparent approach, an exclusionary approach and an approach which refuses to look square-eye at the issue,” Sussman says.