Newburgh officials are turning to a homegrown professional to reshape its police department’s procedures and policies, while working alongside its new chief.

Robert McLymore both a Town of Wallkill police officer and Newburgh pastor will become the police department’s part-time senior advisor, a contract position just created by the city council.

Arnold “Butch” Amthor formerly a Newburgh Police deputy chief, and most recently the Town of Montgomery police chief, will become NPD’s chief following the April resignation of now-former chief Doug Solomon. 

McLymore, who does not have enough experience as a high-ranking officer to be considered for a chief position, said he is excited about the city’s unusual new leadership structure to modernize and diversify the police department.

A major facet of McLymore’s job will be to foster meaningful, and at times, uncomfortable discussions between officers and local families.

“The chief, the PBA president, and even the police officers all have to come together to make this community better,” McLymore said during an interview outside his church Sunday. “If not — I have to be honest — it’s going to be difficult.”

McLymore has already begun forming a police-community council to give residents some oversight of police, access to police records, and the ability to make formal policy recommendations to the city council.

He is also planning a new community policing program that will require additional foot patrols, and force more conversations between police and neighbors.

McLymore envisions a program like the neighborhood stabilization program he helped create in the Town of Wallkill. He said the program significantly improved police-community relations and increased cooperation from neighbors.

“It allowed me to go into these neighborhoods to try to establish that relationship and that rapport, and it was done,” McLymore said. “I think if we can do that here — have officers walk and talk to people, and interact with people — it can work.”

More conversations and cooperation are key elements in improving crime-solving abilities and preventing crime, he said.

Newburgh Police Benevolent Association Vice President Michael LoScerbo told Spectrum News, he had not met McLymore, but that he keeps “hearing great things about him.”

LoScerbo said, though, the department has always valued foot patrols, community events and conversations; and that McLymore’s ideas are “nothing new to us.”

“We’ve always done our job, always had a great relationship with people, and always had transparency,” the union VP said when reached by phone Monday afternoon. “We’ve always done everything right ... We just have to keep doing what we’re doing, and do the right things.”

Mayor Torrance Harvey’s excitement about McLymore was audible during a phone conversation Monday afternoon.

“It will be big for us,” Harvey said of the McLymore deal. “Ultimately, I see him reimagining police so that transparency is better, community relations are better and we get diversity in the rank and file ... so that in the future, new people can become [department] leaders someday.”

Council members have been supportive of the new leadership arrangement, especially since McLymore, 43, is from Newburgh and is a stakeholder.

Growing up, he lived at homes on Dubois and Chambers Streets. He is currently the lead pastor at Life Restoration Church which was founded by his father, Michael McLymore Sr. in 1990. His children all attended or still attend Newburgh schools.

And it was during a criminal justice class at Newburgh Free Academy that McLymore himself decided to pursue a career in law enforcement. He is all-in.

“I never want to leave my community. Never. I’ve always wanted to invest in my community. I thank God he’s allowing me to do so.”

Both McLymore and Amthor officially start working for the city on August 1. Per an order from Governor Andrew Cuomo to all police agencies in the state, McLymore and Amthor must finish their policy overhaul by April 2021.