The three declared candidates for mayor of Albany are weighing in on the future of the city's Community Police Review Board.
The Community Police Review Board has had a precarious relationship with Mayor Kathy Sheehan, a Democrat who has said she will not run for a fourth term, and Police Chief Eric Hawkins. Local Law J, passed in 2021, gave the panel extended powers including the ability to conduct its own independent investigations into complaints filed against police officers. The board has since struggled to get cooperation from the city police department.
In November 2023, Chief City Auditor Dorcey Applyrs became the first candidate in the 2025 race. Applyrs says if elected mayor she'll work with the board to cut down "some of the misunderstanding and conflict."
"I am not as familiar with what the mayor's approach is, or processes are when it comes to working with the CPRB," Applyrs said. "What I can say from my perspective, and even thinking about how I interact with them currently as chief city auditor, we have good rapport when it comes to CPRB conducting their business. I do respond promptly to questions that they have. I understand that they are in a very unique position. Naturally, I think given that they are an oversight body and they provide some level of oversight to police misconduct cases, it naturally creates some level of tension. I think that we will be fooling ourselves to say that that innately doesn't create some level of tension between the two entities."
Applyrs says there's more room to have "honest conversations" with the group and she's up for the task.
Candidate Dan Cerutti responded to a request for comment by email, in which he cited the recent “New York Times” article about civilian-run police oversight boards. The newspaper reported Hawkins told his officers not to cooperate with the Albany CPRB on a particular case.
"There seems to be an inconsistency with the 2021 law and the police union contract," Cerutti said. "That in itself is troubling because I would think that would have been sorted out before the law was enacted by the Common Council and the Mayor.”
He adds he would conduct a review of the entire arrangement.
Albany County Legislator Carolyn McLaughlin, who represents the 1st district, decided to make another run for mayor after falling short in the 2017 Democratic primary. McLaughlin is a former longtime Common Council president.
"As one of the architects of the police Community Review Board, if I were mayor, I would hope to reestablish a working relationship with the review board, not to try to pattern it after the current mayor," said McLaughlin. "The board was created to offer an opportunity for citizens as well as the police department to feel that they were getting justice and having their cases heard. We need to follow what the law says as it relates to how the board operates over the past few years. I mean, this is legislation that was initially written in the year 2000. Here we are 24 years later. Everything changes over time. And we should be willing to have conversations that make it a current operating board that meets the goals of a Community Police Review Board."
"We hope that whoever comes in as the new mayor understands the importance of our role and works to engage with us and help us complete our mission, you know, for the good of the city," said CPRB Investigative Chair John Levendosky.
"Our relationship with APD has become more contentious than any of us hoped for," Board Secretary Paul Collins-Hackett said. "As is the case, investigations are taking way too long, you know, there's appointments that you know, aren't kept, investigators have to do tons of driving, it's so much of a waste of time, which ultimately means a waste of taxpayer dollars. And that's not at all we will want to see, when we're working on a limited budget, as it is."
The mayoral primary will be held in June 2025.
