Police Reform

In June 2020, the Village of Irvington’s Mayor Brian Smith adopted the Obama Foundation Reimagining Policing Pledge, and in compliance with the subsequent NYS Executive Order 203, the Village of Irvington formed the the Irvington Police Policy Committee (the "Committee").

Plan for Reform and Reimagining of the Irvington Police Department

The 56 recommendations developed by the 29 members of the Committee contained in The Plan for Reform and Reimagining of the Irvington Police Department are the product of a multi-month collaboration between a diverse cross-section of community stakeholders, including law enforcement professionals, public servants, public defenders and concerned citizens. These members were convened to review the current state of the Irvington Police Department and to reimagine it. The Committee further sees this as an opportunity to continue to improve policing and community-police relations through investment in best practices in law enforcement.

The Plan was adopted by the Board of Trustees on March 25, 2021 and filed with New York State on March 30, 2021. In adopting the Plan, the Board adopted an Addendum to the Plan that outlines specific items for follow up after April 1, 2021.

Meetings

The full Committee met regularly between December 2020 and February 2021. In addition to their regular meetings, the Committee hosted a special presentation about Project ABLE (on January 22, 2021) and public forums on February 16, 2021 and March 16, 2021. Videos of these meetings are available on the Village's YouTube Channel.

Community Survey

The Committee conducted a community-wide survey which was designed to meet three of the Committee’s primary objectives: 1) To assess the community’s policing priorities, 2) to evaluate the Irvington Police Department’s current performance in a number of areas from the public’s perspective, and 3) to collect some specific information on police-public interaction to inform future policy decisions.

The survey was launched on January 29, 2021. By the close of the survey on February 28 a total of 1,081 individuals, including Village residents and visitors, had responded to the survey. Of those respondents, 805 were Village residents resulting in a response rate of approximately 16 percent among Village residents ages 14 and over.3 An additional 59 respondents were school district residents residing outside the Village.

Download: Full Community Survey Report

Police Officer Survey

As part of this process the Irvington Police Department conducted a survey of current members of the department and of former officers (those retired since 2015) to gauge their views on a number of important issues. This survey about the Irvington Police Department is vital to the IPD review process. The survey contains 70 questions; 67 multiple choice questions and 3 open-ended questions. The total number of respondents is 28 and 82% of the total completed the survey. 

Download: Irvington Police Department Officer Survey Report