Right, Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist speaks during the Jamestown City Council Public Safety Committee meeting about the state police reform initiative. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

The city of Jamestown and its police department is ahead of schedule and on pace with the state’s new police reform initiative.

On Thursday, the Jamestown City Council Public Safety Committee hosted a meeting to discuss the police reform initiative, with Lt. Tim Jackson, interim Jamestown Police Department chief, discussing an online webinar he attended with other city police department officials across the state. Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist said the webinar was hosted by the New York State Conference of Mayors Thursday morning prior to the Public Safety Committee meeting.

Jackson said, based on the information discussed during the webinar, that the JPD is ahead of schedule or on the same pace as other police departments across the state.

“I think the police department in general is overall on schedule with the other departments around the state. In some areas we are definitely ahead of schedule because there are very few polices that we don’t already have that we have to create,” he said. “We might have to change or amend a couple, but very few changes, so in that regard, we are ahead a bit.”

Jackson said the next issue the city has to address to meet the state’s police reform initiative mandate is to form stakeholder groups.

“I think our next step is to form, get together our stakeholder groups and get feedback from them on what they believe should happen with our police department, and what they think the needs are and what they think are the issues in the city,” he said.

Sundquist said there will be several stakeholder groups, which will include business owners, nonprofit agency officials, faith-based groups and people involved in public safety like the county District Attorney’s Office and Probation Department. He said the stakeholder groups could include people who completed a survey on the JPD. He added that 59 people of the more than 200 who completed the survey volunteered to be contacted by city officials, which means they might be candidates to be in a stakeholder group.

Sundquist said there will be between 10 to 15 people in each stakeholder group. He said that members of the Public Safety Committee could lead online meetings with the stakeholder groups to gain their feedback. He added that the stakeholder meetings should be held within the next three to four weeks.

Also during the meeting, Sundquist shared the data gained from the surveys that were completed by Jamestown residents and people affiliated with the city. Last month, city officials posted the survey on its website. The survey had 18 questions, which also included demographic inquires like gender, age range and race/ethnicity.

The first question on the survey was about the person’s residency or affiliation to the city. It was the question that received the most responses, with 480 people providing an answer. Of the 480 responses, half were homeowners who live in the city. Other responses included 23% from people living in the city who rent; 18% are employed in the city, but don’t live in Jamestown; 5% own a business in the city, but don’t reside there; 4% were non-residents who owned property in the city; and 15% answered none of the above.

The rest of the 17 questions didn’t have as many responses, with 224 to 288 people responding to the remaining queries. The second question asked what is the role of the JPD in the community, which was left open-ended allowing people to provide their own response. Of the 288 responses, the most popular answer was to “serve and protect.”

The third question asked what police services are most beneficial. For this question people were allowed to select up to 10 services of 27 listed responses. The No. 1 answer was investigating crimes against people like assaults, which was selected by 84% of the respondents. The second most popular answer was narcotics investigations at 73%

The fourth question asked how can JPD improve policing and build a better relationship with the community. This time people were allowed to select three of eight responses. The most popular was community outreach and conflict resolution at 55%. The second most popular response was schools and youth involvement at 53%.

The fifth questions was if JPD officers should be required to live in the city, with 52% of people responding “Yes.” During August and September, the Jamestown City Council discussed a possible residency requirement for JPD officers. Following the council’s discussion, the Kendall Club Police Benevolent Association executive board came out against the proposed residency requirement for Jamestown police officers.

The sixth question asked people what does equality and social justice in regards to law enforcement means to them. Of the 12 given responses, people were allowed to select five. The most popular response was training and supervision at 62%. The second most popular answer was de-escalation techniques at 57%.

The eighth question asked what are some ways to improve transparency and accountability. People were allowed to select five of 13 given responses. The No. 1 response was body worn cameras at 84%. The second most popular response was in-dash car cameras at 52%.

According to the city’s website, the survey was step one of the timeline toward meeting the state’s police reform initiative. Other steps of the plan include draft a reform plan; host a public meeting on the draft plan; revise draft reform plan; finalize reform plan with the council; and have the council vote on the final reform plan, which is scheduled to happen in February.