George Floyd’s 2020 murder sparked a wave of protests in Ithaca calling for police reform and a citywide effort to address racial inequality.
In April 2021, Ithaca’s Common Council passed “Reimagining Public Safety,” a resolution that included 19 initiatives to improve overall public safety, including racial justice. Four years later, while many of these initiatives have been implemented in part, others have been delayed or cancelled.
Amid the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) signed Executive Order 203, which required municipalities to adopt a police reform plan that “maintain[ed] public safety while building mutual trust” between the police and the community.
Ithaca’s joint plan with Tompkins County included initiatives such as the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, an alternative to jail for people with substance abuse problems, and a Community Justice Center focused on community healing and bridging gaps in accessibility, such as providing aid with government forms.
The plan also called for reforming the Ithaca Special Weapons and Tactics team, developing a community healing plan and strengthening civilian oversight over police.
While some of the proposed initiatives, such as the Community Justice Center, de-escalation training and healing plans have been successful, community leaders and even managers of public safety programs admit that the initiative has taken longer than expected.
‘Justice Delayed’
With no timeline for implementation, many initiatives have been delayed, while others were implemented quickly. Some, like replacing the Ithaca Police Department with a public safety force and reducing its size, have fallen entirely to the wayside.
An unarmed police alternative response force proposed in “Reimagining Public Safety” has still not gotten off the ground, four years later. Deputy City Manager Reckkio believes the delay is because the unarmed force was not “traditionally in place,” but added that other cities’ examples could serve as a model for implementation. For example, Camden, New Jersey has not had an armed police force since 2013.
However, shortly after the passage of Reimagining Public Safety, IPD ended its policy of using no-knock warrants, which allow police to enter places without announcing themselves, and redesigned its SWAT vehicle to include different colors and designs.
The CJC, one of the largest portions of Reimagining Public Safety, was approved in 2021, but due to issues in funding and staffing the center only began operations recently — three years after it was proposed. The CJC also faced $124,000 in cuts earlier last year during Ithaca’s budgeting season, leading to a reduction in services.
“Reimagining Public Safety” emphasized the already-existing Community Police Board, which hears complaints concerning police officers and their actions. The Common Council considered adding subpoena power, but decided against it — meaning that the board cannot pursue any legal measures following complaints unless the offense was criminal. As seen in the Board meeting’s December minutes, the board now primarily serves as a place for public comment.
Alderperson Phoebe Brown feels that this system of public comment is insufficient for true oversight, finding that the board has long been a place for sentiments, not action.
“The Board doesn’t have the teeth it needs — it can’t say, for example, ‘this officer should be removed,’” Brown said.
‘We Continue to Wait’: Community Response
Brown isn’t the only one who has expressed frustration with the implementation of initiatives and the slow pace of change.
Jordan Clemons, president of the Unbroken Promises Initiative, a nonprofit founded in 2020 to address the economic problems of “systemic oppression [and] intergenerational scars on the people of West Hill,” feels that Ithaca has been slow to implement its racial equality efforts.
“You said you would do it, you have not done it. We’ve been waiting, and we continue to wait,” Clemons said. “And at this point in time, as Martin Luther King has put it, ‘justice long delayed is justice denied.’”
While Clemons believes there is work to be done on community healing, one of his demands seems to have been met.
In his organizing of UPI, Clemons called for more community input with the police. Since Ithaca’s BLM protests, which Clemons helped lead, he has discussed community members’ response to different D.A. initiatives with Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten. In these regular meetings, they discuss community members’ responses to different D.A. initiatives such as the Data Dashboard, which allows visitors to the site to see statistics on police response to 911 calls.
“I wanted to connect with the community more at the ground level,” Van Houten said. “Hear things not just coming from a white man’s perspective.”
Van Houten said those conversations with community leaders like Clemons was one of his “proudest achievements.”
Regarding delays, CJC Director Monalita Smiley said the “pace has gone a lot slower” than she had initially expected. She attributed that to a “lack of participation, and [citizens] not really believing in the cause.”
Smiley heralded some of the CJC’s successes, including reduced disproportionate minority contact with the police, community healing and “bridging the gap [people] have with law enforcement.”
In an interview with The Sun, Deputy City Manager Dominick Reckkio attributed the delay in some initiatives to a “lack of capacity” in staffing.
“When I started working on this four years ago, I did think we’d be further along with all the different initiatives.” Reckkio said. “What we’ve all really learned is that it is a monumental task and there are some real progresses that have been made.”
“Reimagining Public Safety’s” Successes
Reckkio says the CJC has been an overall success.
“They have increased engagement between community and law enforcement,” Reckkio said. “They’ve also supported the police department with recruitment initiatives.”
The CJC has community hubs that serve as a catch-all for free resources, community healing and law enforcement relations with Ithacans. Visitors can access the internet, receive help with forms to get services and benefits and take important phone calls, according to their website.
If visitors need aid during a crisis, the CJC is intended to help them navigate their situation, essentially serving as a social work aid. Beyond the main Ithaca location, the CJC has expanded to Lansing, Slaterville and Ithaca’s West End neighborhood.
Further, the LEAD initiative, designed to provide alternatives to incarceration, currently has almost 400 participants, according to the Data Dashboard.
LEAD helps those with substance abuse problems to “reduce harm and increase equity by reorienting the systems that shape health and safety,” according to their website. This serves as an alternative to incarceration for those with substance abuse issues.
According to Ithaca’s Demographic & Trend Analysis, 38 percent of LEAD participants are Black, 50 percent are White and Native American and Latino participants each make up approximately three percent.
The Data Dashboard and traffic stop data — which shows how often and where police stop people — have been successfully implemented, and are available for anyone to view on an interactive website. However, the traffic stop data is unable to show racial data on stops.
Moving Forward
Reckkio said that the proposal for the alternative to police would likely be introduced during the 2026 budgeting process, which is usually during October.
However, Ithaca’s budget process was unusually contentious this past budgeting season, with stark divides between councilmembers about what to cut and how much property taxes would have to increase to account for shortfalls. Ultimately, property taxes faced a hike of 2.8 percent.
Stalls in resolving these budget discussions have resulted in delayed personnel additions. The deputy city manager position, designed to oversee public safety initiatives, was only filled in late December after another budget dispute regarding the necessity of the position. Dominick Recckio, the appointed deputy city manager, had been working on “Reimagining Public Safety” from the county level before assuming the position.
Tompkins County Sheriff Derek Osborne said he was generally in favor of Reimagining Public Safety’s changes, although he expressed concerns about the county’s budget.
“We don’t have nearly enough resources as it is,” Osborne said, referring to a five percent budget cut for the county police department in 2024.
According to a statement to The Sun from IPD Chief Thomas Kelly, IPD has “worked diligently on the Reimagine Public Safety Initiative…train[ing] the principles of de-escalation into everything we do. One of the most important components to come out of RPS was reconnecting with the community,” Kelly said, adding that he “believe[s] there is still a lot to do but we are committed.”
Clemons said that in the minds of many Ithacans, Black Lives Matter has faded.
“People get distracted – it's back to business as usual,” Clemons said.
But, Brown thinks the reforms are some “good baby steps” towards progress in Ithaca, even if they are coming slowly.
“If [BLM] didn’t accomplish anything else, it did uplift young Black and brown people for a generation,” Brown said.
Atticus Johnson '27 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at aj639@cornell.edu
