BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz has announced the establishment of the Erie County Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Task Force.
The task force was created at the direction of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's executive order in June following the death of George Floyd. Floyd died while he was being taken into custody by Minnesota police officers.
The executive order requires local governments to review current police force deployments, strategies, policies, procedures, and practices, and develop procedures to address needs of the communities served by served by police
Thirteen members have been named to the task force.
• Joseph Agro, Esq.
• Melodie Baker
• Kevin Barnas
• Ysaias Feliz
• Martin Scott Floss Ph.D
• Jonathan Miles Gresham, Esq
• Town of Eden Supervisor Melissa Hartman
• Holly L. Hubert
• Springville Mayor William Krebs
• Margaret Murphy, Esq.
• Olivia Owens
• Brittany Pemberthy, Esq.
• Keith White
“The individuals who comprise the Task Force come from a variety of professional backgrounds and bring invaluable legal, law enforcement, community representation and governmental experience to the task. I thank them for collaborating as a team on this endeavor and helping to envision and create law enforcement policies and procedures that reduce racial disparities, meet the needs of the community, and promote trust, fairness, and accountability,” said Poloncarz in a released statement.
The Task Force is expected to meet for the first time later in September. They will work to create a plan to adopt and implement the recommendations resulting from their policy and procedural review.
