The Saratoga Springs Civilian Review Board has lost is subpoena power in a move officials say will enable the body to function for the first time since its inception.
The Saratoga Springs City Council voted this week to take away the subpoena power of the city's Civilian Review Board.
Created in 2022 in the wave of national police reform following the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Saratoga Springs' review board is tasked with providing oversight of the city's police department. In that time, the board has been stymied by administrative hangups, lack of quorum and failure to fill vacancies. Members didn't receive the necessary training to operate as a CRB until last year.
Now, after a 4-1 vote Tuesday, the police review body will no longer have legal authority to compel witnesses to come forward or evidence to be brought to light.
Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll, a Democrat who was first elected in 2024 with GOP backing, proposed the measure to remove the body's subpoena power. He said in developing the idea, he met with his own police chief and visited nearby cities to learn more.
“It was my belief that the CRB should not have subpoena power because I believe it’s an intrusive investigative technique and it should only be reserved for law enforcement or lawyers. Also in my review, the city of Schenectady, city of Ithaca, city of Troy do not have subpoena power. In fact, most small cities don’t even have a CRB,” said Coll.
Even with this week's vote, the CRB retains some ability to refer cases to agencies that can pursue a subpoena, like the New York Attorney General.
Democratic Public Works Commissioner BK Keramati was the sole no vote.
“For us to now come and remove that power from them makes a big statement that hey, no, the civilian review board they can come and look at things, they can see whatever we’re willing to show them, but no, they are not going to be able to do any investigation of their own. They have to go get someone to investigate for them. So, having said all of this I would say we need to provide all of the resources to the CRB so it can perform it’s obligations to the community by performing the investigation it thinks necessary at the time,” said Keramati.
Coll says the police review board was defunct when he first took office in 2024. In that year, the New York attorney general’s office released a report that faulted city police and former city officials for violating the constitutional rights of demonstrators by unfairly retaliating against them in 2020 and 2021.
Coll says despite changes to the civilian body's legal power, city-approved charter changes made last month enshrine the CRB in the city’s organizational document -- a development Coll sees as necessary to making the body functional.
“The law requires our police department to turn over all its documents, all its photographs, all its videos, every single thing in its possession. So, if the CRB is saying, ‘you didn’t turn over specific information,’ essentially what they’re saying is [the police department] broke the law. And if we get to that point, I want [the CRB] to have an opportunity to bring in an independent, investigative agency so people have faith that things are being done properly,” said Coll.
