Poughkeepsie Police officers want common council members and the public to consider the department’s progress in community policing over the last three years as they decide how much reform the department needs.

What You Need To Know

  • Despite some progressive new policies at CPPD, some residents and council members are demanding more transparency and oversight

  • Police leaders strongly believe a civilian-police review board should not have subpoena power

  • Chief Thomas Pape said changes that some other departments are planning were already made in his department years ago

While council members battle with leadership of the officers’ union over possible changes in oversight and accountability, Spectrum News joined community policing officer Michael Braren on his patrol Tuesday to learn more about the strides the department made before this year’s nationwide call for reform.

Braren is one of three officers in CPPD’s community policing unit, tasked with maintaining a positive relationship between the public and the department’s 84 officers.

For two years, Braren had been patrolling every Poughkeepsie street by car and foot, and more recently has been incorporating a bicycle. He often finds himself resolving disputes, and finding help for people who struggle with addiction or mental illness. The job has refined his skills in conflict resolution and de-escalation.

“If a call comes in that’s something that requires more tone, that’s where I go,” Braren said. “I can spend the time and sit with them and come up with a resolution that doesn’t require issuing a ticket or making an arrest.”

Sometimes, in response to complaints, Braren asks some local homeless people — all of whom he knows by name — to stop loitering near stores. He also has numerous conversations with people, not for help investigating crimes, but simply to learn more about the community and vice versa.

“People want a softer approach,” Braren said, waving out the window at one familiar face after another as he drove down Main Street. “I think that’s what we’re doing. Today I’m wearing a golf shirt. My shirt clearly says ‘community policing.’ They know that I’m there to handle the problem differently than a patrol officer showing up.”

This “softer approach,” though, is not the standard for all CPPD officers, and not all officers are required to develop the relationships in the way Braren has.

“It is a philosophy. It’s something every officer should keep in mind and practice,” Braren said. “But you have these officers who are answering the radio all day, going from call to call, where they don’t have the time or the ability to dedicate towards doing community policing.”

Though the department has some progressive policies, neighbors and council members are seeking more community policing requirements, more civilian oversight, and more transparency.

Stephanie Peratikos, whose young son Anthony hopes to become and officer one day, said she would like for all 84 CPPD officers to adopt an approach similar to that of the community policing unit. She also supports some council members’ plans to create a civilian board that would review complaints against officers and be afforded the power to subpoena officers for their testimony.

“I think it just has to do with being able to make things honest and able to be trusted,” Perstikos said. “It makes the people themselves be more trusting toward an officer and less afraid he’s going to do something no one’s going to find out about.”

Leaders of the officers’ union, the Poughkeepsie Police Benevolent Association, have been fighting the formation of a civilian review board, saying in a recent statement it would waste time and money.

“Oversight of the police is more valuable to them than preserving the lives and well-being of those being victimized in the streets,” PBA Vice-President Chris Libolt wrote in an August 20 statement, attacking council members who support creation of a civilian review board.

Poughkeepsie Police Chief Thomas Pape said the Procedural Justice Board, which was formed last year, had already been helping modernize the department. Foot patrols have been added. The department also recently started a pilot program, during which a social worker will work out of police headquarters and be available to assist on calls at a moment’s notice.

The pilot program runs through December and may be extended.

Pape takes issue with suggestions from council members that a civilian review board should have subpoena power, saying that neither an officer nor a civilian should be fined or jailed for refusing to testify before the board. Pape said his officers will follow the law, but demands police have a leading voice in forming it.

“If it’s crafted by all the parties and that’s part of it — having subpoena powers — then we all have to live with what we craft,” he said during an interview at his office last month.

Chief Pape said he would prefer to see the procedural justice committee additionally take on reviewing complaints, instead of formation of a new board to vet complaints. The procedural justice board has a mix of civilians and police, and does not have subpoena power.