Members of the Newburgh-Highland Falls Chapter of the NAACP want to see the City of Newburgh Executive Order 203 Oversight Committee to do more before the April 1 deadline.

The order mandates that every police department in New York look into their policies alongside community stakeholders, and enact reforms that work toward ending systemic racism and improving police-community relations. Departments have until April 1 to work with their communities and present the changes to continue to receive state funding.

“We have asked for more engagement, more collaboration, and more transparency to engage the very people that the executive order asks,” said Malvina Holloway, who oversees communications and technology for the Newburgh-Highland Falls NAACP Chapter.

After the order was signed in June and Arnold Amthor was named police chief, Newburgh formed a 203 Committee in August. NAACP Chapter President Ray Harvey was named chair of the committee, but resigned last week due to personal reasons.

Still, the group is playing a large role. NAACP Vice President Kyle Conway says from the beginning, he wanted to see data on any potential discrepancies in police hiring and arrests.

“We needed data. Data was critical to determine what is needed to address the relationship the police have with the community,” Conway said.

Amthor says some of this data isn’t available because stops that don’t end with a summons or an arrest aren’t logged. He hoped to gather some of this information during implementation of the Right-to-Know Act earlier this year, but the collection of personal data of those interacting with police was stopped after public concern about profiling.

“The form that I created, that certainly would’ve helped," Amthor said. "Compiling the crime analyst information to put on the website for the month of January - how many people were stopped under non-arrest, non-custodial circumstances, what was the nature of the stop, and the other demographic information that I was being asked.”

The NAACP would also like to see greater promotion of this process, with more detail on the city website and more public forums.

“Stakeholders are deliberately and intentionally written into the executive order. To ask the questions and to provide the narrative of what experiences have been in Newburgh with law enforcement,” Holloway said.

Amthor says they’ve done what is required by the state guidelines. He’s not sure if there will be any more public meetings before April 1, but he wants them to continue having them after that date.

“Whether these community meetings and different things take place before April 1, or they’re certainly going to take place well beyond April 1, I can say that,” Amthor said.

The chief has a list of changes being made directly related to 203, including new body cameras, additional training, new civilian complaint forms, and other changes to the way police patrol the city.

But still, the NAACP wants to see more, and for Newburgh to be an example for other committees.

“Newburgh, because the NAACP and other organizations have demanded to be at the table and be part of the process, Newburgh has been engaging with Executive Order 203. Other places have not because…there isn’t enough awareness with what’s going on with Executive Order 203,” Conway said.