NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. — Governor Andrew Cuomo says policing in 2020 needs to be redesigned with input from individual communities across New York State.
In order to redesign the police force, the governor says every community needs to put their pens to paper and enact systemic reform. Cuomo says police departments across the state need to be redesigned, reformed, and remade.
The governor added that the state will not tell communities how policing should be redesigned. Instead people in each community should express what they actually want their police force to look like.
Cuomo says people in every county and city across the state should express what police force they want, adding that each area may want something different.
The governor says no police department can function if it does not have the trust and/or respect of the community. He added that no community will pay for a police force they don't want, saying the police force is a function of what the community wants.
"We heard you, you're right, we agree with you protesters," Cuomo said. "Now tell us what the police force should look like. And let's do that over the next nine months."
Cuomo says it takes nine months to give birth, and New York State is going to birth a new vision for a police force in each community.
The governor signed an executive order on Saturday requiring police agencies to sit down with their community and pass reform plans by April 1, 2021; local governments that do not comply will not receive state funding.
"How do we know they'll do it?" Cuomo asked. "If you don't do it, local government, you won't get any state funding. Period. We're not going to tell you what to do, but we'll tell you that you have to go through the process. And you have to pass a law with your redesigned police force."