Right, Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist discusses state police reform initiatives during a meeting of the Jamestown City Council Public Safety Committee Tuesday. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

The first steps have been taken toward New York state’s police reform initiatives in the city of Jamestown.

On Tuesday, the Jamestown City Council Public Safety Committee held a special meeting to start working toward the police reforms Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for in June following the death of George Floyd Jr. Floyd was an African-American who was killed during a police arrest by a white officer who pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.

Brent Sheldon, Ward 1 committee chairman and Public Safety Committee chairman, said the meeting Tuesday will be the first of several on police reforms.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist said state officials have indicated to city officials that the police reform initiatives must be implemented by each municipality or jurisdiction with a police force.

“We as a city have our own unique challenges that we need to address and make a part of our reform initiatives,” Sundquist said.

The Public Safety Committee will create the report on the police reforms following stakeholder meetings with members of the public, Sundquist said. He said the report needs to be created and approved by the council by April 2021. He added that state officials have said if a police reforms report is not created, state aid could be withheld from the city.

Lt. Timothy Jackson, interim police chief, said the stakeholder groups should be a diverse section of people that would include businesses owners, city residents who have various occupations and include people from different races and faith-based groups.

The committee discussed how each stakeholder group should be classified, how many people should be in each and how often they should meet. Sundquist also discussed that an online survey could also be created to get feedback from city residents on police reform initiatives that could also be used in the report.

The committee also discussed how the Jamestown Police Department already has several of the police reform policies implemented. Jackson said the JPD already has policies like use of force, resisting arrest, racial profiling/discrimination practices, minority recruitment, how to investigate hate crimes and use of a taser.

“It’s a really good thing as mayor of Jamestown, as people ask about current policies, that we are further ahead of many cities,” Sundquist said about the many polices the JPD already has implemented.

During the meeting, Jackson also provided some statistics that have occurred between 2015 and August 2020. He said there has been 900 charges of obstruction of government administration in the last five plus years. He also said there has been 371 charges of resisting arrest.

Jackson said during the last five years, 76% of people arrested are male while 24% are female. He said 72% are white, 27% are black, .9 are Native American or Alaskan, and .1% are Asian.