Police Accountability Advocates Demand Change from Nassau County Executive and Legislators

December 10, 2020

Members of police accountability organizations gathered at the Nassau Legislature building on December 10, 2020 to protest the upcoming PBA contract, which they call a “breach of trust and an act of paramount non-cooperation” to Governor Cuomo’s executive order on police reform. Long Island Advocates for Police Accountability, Long Island United to Transform Policing and Community Safety, and Nassau County-based NAACP branches were the groups leading the effort to delay the vote on the PBA contract and repeal the SOA contract until the work on police reform has been completed.

Long Island NAACP Regional Director Tracey Edwards said, “Within the next couple of weeks, the main PBA contract will be coming before the Nassau County Legislature. And if it is the same, through emergency order, it will then bypass any legislative debate, it will provide no opportunity for a public hearing. Every elected official in Nassau County needs to make sure that we have real, meaningful, fair reform.”

Edwards went on to say, “If they intend to go forward like it is our understanding that they are doing, they are shutting off police reform.” Leaders of these organizations sit on Nassau County’s committees dedicated to creating and enacting the reforms outlined in the governor’s executive order (EO 203), and they feel the same as Edwards. Civil rights attorney Frederick Brewington said, “Nassau County has failed. It has failed, and if we want to grade them, they get a big fat F.”

"If law enforcement contracts are signed, any reforms we propose will be stopped, similar to how body cameras were in 2015," stated Kiana Abbady, member of Long Island United Coalition and steering committee member of Young Long Island for Justice. "Our organizations have been resourceful in creating our own reforms despite the lack of cooperation from PACT and CCT. We, the next generation of Long Island leaders, as well as our allies in these organizations, will not stand idly by as our government continues to play with the lives of their voters. We are watching, we are ready and we are not going away."