ALBANY COUNTY — A draft of the Albany County Sheriff’s Office plan for reform was unanimously accepted on Feb. 25 by the county legislature’s Public Safety Committee.

“We’ve been a people agency and a service agency for the last 10 years,” Sheriff Craig Apple told The Enterprise on Monday. “That’s our priority: Humans taking care of humans and I think we’ve done a pretty damn good job of it.”

After a period for public comment, the final plan must be submitted to the governor’s office by April 1 in order for the sheriff’s office to maintain state funding.

The more than 500 municipal police departments across the state are to follow an executive order issued by Governor Andrew Cuomo in the wake of the protests after George Floyd’s death. A Black man, Floyd died on May 25, 2020 as he lay handcuffed on his belly under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer with a record of conduct complaints.

The executive order — titled New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative — states that police agencies “must consult with stakeholders” to develop a plan “tailored to the specific needs of the community” to reduce racial disparities in policing.

“We didn’t have to do much to meet their minimums but we’re going way above their minimums and we’re going to continue to go above their minimums,” Apple told The Enterprise.

Apple told the Public Safety Committee, in a meeting held as a video-conference, “We really struggled a lot because, believe it or not, we couldn’t get that much input from the public. We tried and tried and tried.”

He went on, “We were given some good advice, I think some good tips but I also think a lot of folks that know me and the agency that I oversee, we’re very community oriented and I think our staff does a great job. Many things we’ve already banned way prior to the horrific incident that happened with George Floyd.”

Asked how his department tried to get public input, Apple told The Enterprise, “We went out on social media.” He believes the lack of interest meant one of two things —  either the public is content with what the sheriff’s office does or they didn’t want to get involved.

Apple said a “great survey” was developed by the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany. He was disappointed “after pushing it and pushing it,” on the county’s website and through social media, to get “maybe 1,200 responses — very little from rural areas.”

Albany County has a population of about 320,000.

The sheriff’s office held two public sessions in October — one in Clarksville and another in Albany — where participants were given a draft of a reform plan that is nearly identical to the one the sheriff presented to the legislature on Feb. 25.

Asked if this didn’t mean, going into the collaborative process that he already had an idea of what would come out of it, Apple said, “Absolutely …. We were far ahead of the expectations of this reimagination and innovation of your police department. We’ve done so much over the last 10 years …. We’re light-years ahead of what they’re asking for so we only had to modify a few things.”

Apple, a Democrat, became sheriff 10 years ago, in 2011. He started in the department, which has a roughly $77.5 million budget, as a corrections officer in 1987.

Asked by The Enterprise what percentage of the sheriff’s workers are people of color, Apple said, “I don’t have the exact number.” He said his department is constantly recruiting and that “trying to diversify our ranks is a priority.”

The problem with employing a diverse workforce, Apple said, is the Civil Service system.

“While Civil Service is in place, it’s not fair when you hear communities attack your police department or your fire department or government in general about diversification because,” said Apple, “as long as Civil Service is governing those jobs, it’s very hard ….

“If you can’t get folks to take the test, that’s number one and, B, if they take it and they can’t pass it or don’t pass it, obviously, that’s a problem as well. So, if you have just one certain ethnicity that just passes it … that’s what the majority of your rank and file is going to be.”

Further, Apple said, many people think of sheriff’s offices just running jails. He noted jobs in his office include dispatchers, deputies, paramedics, and firefighters as well as corrections officers.

“A lot of it is educating people,” he said. “Then we can get people from the city to take our test, not just the Albany PD test.”

He also said his office had started an Explorers Post several years ago “to bring in young individuals and get them interested in public safety.” His office has just hired a second and third person from that program — a young white male and a young female.

The Explorer Post has youth from Albany, Guilderland, Colonie, and the Hilltowns, Apple said, calling it “a great feeder program for our whole department.”

He also said, “We bring in interns all the time from SUNY.”

Asked if arrests in his department were disproportionately of African Americans, Apple said, “It actually wasn’t disproportional at all. White males were our biggest number.”

He added, “We also predominantly police the Hilltown area so the percentage of  [African American] population is probably less than, my gosh, it’s probably a tenth of a percent. So we don’t have those big numbers as far as arresting African Americans.”

Apple went on, “If we do, most of them come from arrests out of the jail, contraband arrests.”

Sheriff’s deputies have been working with Albany City Police since the unrest that started in June but Apple said of his deputies, “They don’t make arrests. They assist the city PD and the city PD gets the credit for that arrest.”

Apple stressed several times that his plan is “very fluid” and is already being added to. He said, “We’re just going to keep adding to it and hopefully make sure the residents have the best public-safety agency that they can possibly get.”

The plan

The five-page draft spends the first page-and-a-half going over the governor’s executive order, mentions a survey “already offered to gather input from the community,” and encourages the public to “submit their constructive comments relative to the plan” to [email protected].

The draft then lists nine numbered points. The first explains that the sheriff’s office has been a New York State accredited police agency since 2003 and plans to continue “its efforts to exceed those standards whenever possible.”

Second, the office’s mission statement is to be “updated to formally reflect its established recognition that principled policing practices and training are a core belief and a guiding principle.”

Third, the draft describes the office’s standard policy-based system for receiving complaints or concerns and notes that the agency’s website contains “a description and contact number for the Office of Professional Standards which oversees the internal affairs process for the Sheriff’s Office.”

Fourth, the draft states that the office “will explore possible updates to the current records management and reporting systems to enable greater demographic data collection and analysis capabilities.”

Apple told the committee the current system is “plain vanilla” but his office will start using a new system in April “that will be able to tell us white male, Black male, Asian male, whatever the case may be.”

He went on, “Most things today are data-driven so with our new records management system in place, we’d like to offer it to other municipalities in the county as well, obviously at a shared cost, but we’ll be able to really drill down into weeds.”

Fifth, the draft says the office recognizes “each community has unique concerns” and “all efforts will be made to base decisions on pertinent research rather than just standard, generalized ‘industry wide’ practices.”

Sixth, the draft says that the sheriff’s office “monitors employee performance and addresses any issues or concerns.”

Seventh, the draft states the office “renews its commitment to pursuing innovative training methods tailored towards the needs of its members and the communities it serves” and describes the Sheriff’s Public Safety Training Institute, set up in 2019.

Eighth, the draft says efforts will be made to increase the availability and frequency of already regular in-service training and goes on to describe a number of the training techniques.

Finally, the draft states that the sheriff’s office will continue to provide community programs and support services and adds that the newly created Bias Crimes Unit will “pursue bias crimes and matters involving discrimination alongside the other agency investigative units.”

“Ninety-percent of this is already in place or we’re completing as I’m talking to you right this second,” Apple told the committee members last Thursday.

Committee member Mark Grimm, a Guilderland Republican, praised the plan for being five pages. “It’s not one of these 112-pages things that people won’t read,” he said. He also praised the agency for being accredited by the state, saying, “It’s part of your culture.”

Grimm went on, “The goalposts are moving on what police have to put up with …. I mean, you watch these things where a kid is screaming. He’s nose to nose with a cop who’s just standing there and he’s screaming into his face …. What do police have to put up with now vis-à-vis this current environment and how do you do de-escalation training with that in mind?”

“The easy answer,” said Apple, “is it’s very hard because, again, as many people in the public are learning, now law enforcement are social workers, mental-health workers, crisis counselors, drug-treatment counselors — you name it.

“And I think we offer top-notch training to our recruits, our deputies, top-notch training to deputies that are out on the street, our senior staff, our veterans, and again, to answer your question, there’s a lot going on out there.

“And the sad thing is my worst nightmare,” said Craig Apple, “would be one of my deputies failing to engage because of fear of somebody on the corner catching a quick video and taking it out of context and blasting it nationwide.”

Apple concluded of his officers, “I want them to go home safe at the end of the night and certainly our main job is to protect the public, right? So I think we do a good job training them ....

“So I think we’re taking all the steps that we can take. I’m very proud of Albany County and a lot of people don’t know exactly how far Albany County is ahead of others, especially some of our locals, our cities, whatever the case may be ….

“A lot of people are in bubbles and they don’t see or have to engage with law enforcement and don’t see people in crisis. But those that do should be very proud of the fact that they’ve got a lot of resources in this county that are behind them.”

Citizen involvement

According to people at the sheriff’s Oct. 6 session at the sheriff’s substation in Clarksville — formerly the Clarksville school — about a dozen citizens, including elected representatives, attended along with police officers.

Each participant was given a spiral-bound booklet describing many of the programs carried out by the sheriff’s office, ranging from active-shooter preparedness training to Hilltown Christmas, which “provides toys and holiday spirit to families in the Hilltowns that may not be able to afford Christmas.” Two pages listed a wide range of community events.

The session included a presentation from Apple. Under the heading of “What We Need From You,” on a series of slides pictured in the booklet, it says, “Recognize that Albany County is entering into a groundbreaking collaboration to make real change happen. What we accomplish here in Albany County can be a blueprint for other small communities to follow.”

Participants at the Oct. 6 meeting were also given a five-page draft of the reform plan, which is nearly identical to the plan that Apple presented on Feb. 25 to the county legislators.

Among the participants was Aimie Burnside, a Republican councilwoman from Westerlo who attended with Lisa DeGroff, who chairs Westerlo’s Repubican committee.

Asked why she attended, Burnside said, “I got an invite, a letter from Craig Apple … I openly support the sheriff’s department and the good job they do.”

Burnside described the group of “about 15” who attended the Oct. 6 session as “well-rounded … from all walks of life.” She didn’t know the names of other attendees except DeGroff but said there were “a few from Albany” including “a gentleman from a church in Albany.”

“We had a very open conversation with people asking questions, and Craig and his deputies answering questions,” she said.

Burnside was impressed with the hand-outs and the presentation. “They do so much more than you can imagine,” she said of the sheriff’s office. “Craig Apple made it his mission, long before it became an executive order. He’s very strict with his department, with training and the way they handle calls.”

Burnside was particularly impressed with a simulation room at the Clarksville station that has interactive videos so officers can learn how to de-escalate a situation.

“It’s like you’re right in the middle of this scenario … If you shoot, you can save your life,” said Burnside, describing the experience as “fabulous.” She said, “It teaches control.”

Asked about her interaction with the department previously, Burnside said, “Lisa and I, since all the riots last summer, we’ve been trying to bring a smile to all the departments in the area.” She praised how the officers handled themselves with people at a Back the Blue rally.

Burnside and DeGroff have been bringing pizzas to various departments in the sheriff’s office — in Albany, at Clarksville, correction, and dispatch — as well as at neighboring departments like Schenectady, Albany, Bethlehem, and the State Troopers, she said.

Some of the deliveries have also included iced heart-shaped cookies with a blue line through each heart. Explaining her motivation for the donations, Burnside said, “My husband used to be a cop in the Air Force.”

She concluded of the Oct. 6 session, “Most everything was positive. Even the people that came from Albany were positive. It came out that the Albany County Sheriff is doing more than the executive order. I don’t think there’s a need for change.”

Another Oct. 6 attendee, Karol Harlow of Berne, was disappointed with the lack of collaboration. She emailed Apple after the event, and was told there would be another meeting, she said, which never came to be.

Harlow, a past Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board president and a retired high school principal, said she has learned that the best ideas come from sharing. She was troubled that the officers at the Oct. 6 event stood behind the participants, clustered together rather than gathering with the group to give them a sense of working together.

As a member of the Baha’i faith, Harlow said, she had started over the summer learning about the police-reform initiative and doing research on topics like Black-versus-white arrests and use-of-force policies.

Harlow was disappointed not to be able to look into patterns of inequality, if they exist, in police arrests and asked if she could read a study mentioned by Apple in his presentation. She said none was forthcoming.

Harlow said she also had wanted to find out about the percentage of officers of various races or ethnicities and how that balanced with the makeup of Albany County. She asked for that information but said she received none.

“There was no way to have a conversation with them,” said Harlow of the Oct. 6 session.

She said that, at the end of the hour-and-a-half session, participants were told they could send input to an email address.

“This is not collaborative in any way, shape, or form,” she concluded.

Hébert Joseph, who chairs Rensselaerville’s Democratic committee, was the only Black person at the Oct. 6 Clarksville session.

Born in Port au Prince, Haiti, he served in the United States Army for seven years and works now as a senior engineer for the state’s Department of Public Service/Public Service Commission.

Joseph attended the meeting after being invited by the sheriff, he said.

“Quite frankly, it was an honor for me to participate in such a meeting not only as a party leader here in Rensselaerville but also as a Black man … The Black Lives Matter movement has been creating friction in the Hilltowns so this is the reason why I accept the invitation. I always get support from Craig Apple.”

Joseph noted that county legislators Victoria Plotsky, a Democrat representing parts of New Scotland and Bethlehem, and Christopher Smith, a Democrat representing part of the Hilltowns, were also at the Oct. 6 session.

Joseph said he contacted numerous residents before the meeting to see if they had any issues with encounters with the sheriff’s department. “However, everyone, including myself, had no — zero — significant issues,” said Joseph. “We are happy with the work Craig Apple is doing … He is doing an outstanding job here in the Hilltowns.”

Joseph added, “I represent Rensselaerville so what may happen in a certain area in downtown Albany might be different but in terms of interaction with us in the Hilltowns, I talk to many people, they are very happy with him.”

Asked to describe the most important parts of the Oct. 6 session, Joseph said, “We went to the simulation room. They described some scenarios in the field, you know, what can happen. Things can change very quickly and these guys, they have great training.

“Besides that, there were all the topics that were discussed as well: the use of force, community policing, community forums, just to name a few.”

Joseph concluded, “When I got out of the meeting, I was quite impressed to say the least, very impressed.”