For Sanjay Hiranandani and his son Arjun, chess is a way to connect.

“I used to play it as a kid, never as a serious player. But it’s definitely that comes back very quickly, and something you end up bonding over,” Sanjay said.

Brighton has been Sanjay’s home for the last 12 years.

“I’ve spent 25 years in the corporate world working for large companies as an executive, and have a number of relationships in town,” Sanjay added.

He says he tries to be an active member of the community. He’s one of five that sits on the Citizen Interview Panel, which makes recommendations on the hiring of Brighton Police Officers in an effort to eliminate bias.

“We have to participate as much in the community, and engage with the community, to solve these problems as we do expect the community to solve them for us,” he said.

The diverse panel is one of the many changes which came from the police reform plan Brighton P.D. put forward, as ordered by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203 for state funding.

“It was an opportunity to look at what we could do better,” Bill Moehle, Brighton town supervisor, said. “How we could more effectively engage with the community, how we could more effectively communicate with people across a spectrum.”

The order came in August of 2020, following months of protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. Police departments had until April of 2021 to adopt the plan.

“It brings trust to the process, and I think that’s the most important thing. Because I think there was a serious degree of mistrust between the community and police in general after these incidents,” Sanjay said.

Chief David Catholdi had only been in charge for a short time when the order was announced, but more than two years later, he’s proud of the changes his department has made.

“The core of our policing mission is based on community-oriented policing. We have the ability to do that, we have the time to do that. It’s been a priority in the department,” Catholdi said.

Seven of his officers are non-white, and seven of his 40 officers are female. Many of the female officers in leadership positions.

Those numbers are higher than they were before the reforms, and are also slightly higher than their respective national averages of about 13%.

“That was one of the recommendations, to have a department that better reflects the community,” Catholdi said. “So I think we’re doing pretty good with that, I don’t think we’re quite where we need to be yet. But that’s a work in progress.”

Last year, he says his officers far exceeded the 21-hour training requirement for annual accreditation. And as part of the reforms, all his officers are now trained in crisis intervention.

“I think it’s going to make the department better because I’ve learned we can never stop growing. The next crisis is just around the corner,” Catholdi said.

And the Citizen Panel is only the beginning of Brighton PD’s goals for community outreach, with a lot more work left to be done.

“Law enforcement is a constant, nothing should ever stop,” Catholdi said. “You should never be stagnant, with or without an executive order 203 plan. We should always be looking for ways, and I do always look for ways as Chief of Police, on how to provide better service.”

Sanjay says what the process has really brought is transparency.

“I probably am biased, I live in this community, I value it, but I enjoy living in this community. And I think we have really built something special in this community that I hope is a model for other communities and beyond,” he said.