City residents asked to take brief online survey to help officials respond to Cuomo's police reform order
Press release:
The City of Batavia and the Batavia Police Department (BPD) are extending an online survey that is asking city residents to assist in formulating the department’s response to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203, which requires police departments across New York State to submit reform plans to the state by April 1.
The online survey can be accessed here. The survey takes about five minutes to complete.
“We have approximately 500 completed surveys which is a good start, but we really want to double that number and in particular, we need more responses from our Black and minority residents and those in economically distressed neighborhoods, where there tends to be more engagement with the police,” said interim Batavia City Manager Rachael Tabelski.
“The Governor’s Executive Order is very specific in that our plan needs input from residents in neighborhoods where engagement with the police occurs is most common.”
At the Batavia Stakeholder Group on Dec. 10th, members discussed various ways to enhance outreach in these neighborhoods. For instance, the Batavia City School District committed to issuing a text alert urging parents and guardians of students to go online to fill out the survey. Other members will be pushing the survey link out through their various social media channels.
“The response from the stakeholder group members who represent and work with residents in these neighborhoods at our meeting where we made this request was tremendous,” said Batavia Police Department Chief Shawn Heubusch.
“It sparked a great dialogue as we work collaboratively to put a plan together that we all agree is just the start of our efforts in sustaining open communications with the community and the police now and in the future.”
