Members of the Community Advisory Board who were tasked with developing a police reform plan met with the City of Norwich Common Council on Wednesday night and discussed different aspects of their plan. (Screenshot by Zachary Meseck)

NORWICH – As part of New York State’s push towards police reform, the community advisory board handling the Norwich Police Department gave a presentation on Wednesday night discussing their plans for the future of the local police department.

According to Community Advisory Board Representative Adrienne Zornow, there were several major objectives laid out by the state for the board to accomplish including reviewing the needs of their community, assessing the Norwich Police Department, and creating a collaborative plan that must be adopted, certified, and sent to the state budget director by April 1 of 2021.

“Since September of last year the CAB has met weekly for discussion and work groups,” said Zornow. “As a first step, we conducted internal polling to prioritize the 13 topic areas covered in the guide book that was provided by the governor’s office.”

“Of those 13 we still have four areas that we have not yet finished our discussions including citizen oversight and external accountability, internal accountability for misconduct, reducing racial disparities and building trust, along with data, technology, and transparency.”

Zornow said although the plan is not 100 percent complete the board felt it was very important to get feedback from the council and the community so that they can still make adjustments prior to the deadline.

She said the board also conducted two anonymous surveys one for the community and one for the police department to help guide their decision making.