After the deaths of Detective Christopher Ridley( pictured left) and NYPD Officer Omar Edwards, Governor David Paterson created the Police – on – Police Shooting task force.
The Police-on-Police Shootings Task Force is examining the issues and implications arising from confrontations in which police officers have mistakenly shot other officers, especially those in which officers are mistaken for criminal suspects. The task force will make findings and recommendations with the aim of preventing such shootings.
Assisted by a professional staff drawn from the research, law enforcement and civil rights communities, the Task Force will identify the root causes of police-on-police confrontations. Specifically, the Task Force will examine the range of operational, sociological, and psychological factors that may contribute to such shootings and how training, tactics, policies and procedures, and technology might help prevent them. The inquiry will also take account of the responses to these incidents by governments, the law enforcement community, and the public at large.
The most outspoken organization on these issues; especially the Detective Ridley Case have been the Westchester Chapter of the National Black Police Association. The National Black Police Association has been requested to be formal advisors to New York State Task Force on Police-on-Police Shootings.
The Task Force has reach Damon K. Jones, Executive Director, Anthony Mitchell, Vice President of the Westchester Chapter, as well as Roger Abel of the Northeast Region and the NBPA’s National Executive Director, Ron Hampton. The NBPA is a crucial constituency in this research. And on the police practices and research side, the task force have also reached out to the Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity, whose members include notable black scholars such as Philip Atiba Goff, Jennifer Eberhardt.
Please join us in the support of our fallen Officers We Finally get to tell our story!
Friday December 4th, 2009
Westchester County Center (tentative)
1030am to 1pm
The Police-on-Police Shootings Task Force announces that the Westchester County public hearing has been extended.
The hearing will take place on Friday, December 4th from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m., at the Westchester Countycenter – 198 Central Avenue in White Plains, NY.
If you have a story to share, please contact us at feedback@policeonpolicetf.ny.gov