The Reimagining Public Safety Initiative has had different reactions on the city level and at Tompkins County.
"When I became a police officer for the first time, we had our gun, we had a nightstick and a radio. That was that. And I know people that started earlier on than me probably had even even less,” said Tompkins County Sheriff Derek Osborne. “So things really have changed in all areas."
Osborne stepped back into law enforcement after a decades-long career in Cortland and with the county department he now heads.
“I definitely recognized the need to change things. I just never anticipated that the call for such action would occur the way it did,” said Osborne.
Since 2020, the reimagination of public safety has brought about a renewed urgency for training and money to make it happen.
“I think a lot of that came from not knowing what was going to happen,” he added. “And just like everybody else, deputies and people in public safety don't always like change, and it can be scary when you're used to doing things a certain way.”
The sheriff's department joined in early concerns that input from local authorities and experts wasn’t being taken seriously, if at all. With the development of plans has come progress on that front.
“When I took over a sheriff for the law enforcement division, I think our entire training budget was only $10,000. Deputies that have stuck it out, and they've been here through the whole transition,” Osborne said. “They've commented that, you know, they've seen more training in a very short amount of time than they had saw previously during their entire careers. It's really done. It's about face and that's a really good thing.”
Osborne and the county are getting two civilian positions that will be primarily helping with calls from HQ, as their training progresses they will start to accompany armed officers to appropriate scenes. That won’t be nearly as involved as the proposed Ithaca "Division of Community Solutions."
“Maybe not what we initially would have asked for two years ago, but this whole process has kind of forced us to think outside the box, so to speak, and come up with ways that we can increase our ability to do our job in the office and what the community needs from us,” he said. "But maybe just do it in a different way.”
Osborne said the current plan is a win-win, noting that adding two civilian sheriff clerks provides the alternative response that the community is looking for. It also frees up patrolling officers and investigators to keep more focused on their primary tasks.