On July 20, 2020, the City of Beacon City Council voted in favor of hiring the search firm Public Sector Search to conduct the search for a new Chief of Police for the City Of Beacon after Chief Kevin Junjulas announced his retirement effective July 7, 2020.

In response, Mayor Kyriacou appointed a formerly retired officer, William Cornett, to serve as Acting Police Chief for 90 days, a decision that was met with controversy between citizens and the police union. Chief Cornett stepped down after 40 days in the position, and currently, Lieutenant Frost from the Beacon Police Department has been appointed Acting Chief.

The search firm will be paid $24,000, with additional expenses not to exceed $6,000 according to the firm's proposal. Included in the proposal are 2 Facebook Live Community Forums (60 minutes) and 2 community focus group meetings (60 minutes each). Additional forums and group meetings can be billed at $200/hr plus expenses.

For an additional $1,500, the firm was hired to put together a survey of the public, to provide input into what they want in a Police Chief. The survey has been open for a bit and concludes on September 4, 2020. Mayor Kyriacou released a robo-call two weeks ago informing the public of the survey, and it has been mentioned at City Council meetings. For an additional $1,500, a survey can be put together to survey the Police Department itself.

How The Search Firm Will Work

Details of how the search process will work are included in the firm’s proposal which can be found here. The timeline is a projection of 4 months (resulting in a November selection time).

The first month focusing on project management setup and interviews with local government leaders, key personnel, department heads, and other internal or external stakeholders to get a feel for the city’s culture and structure. The next phase is a community engagement report from the survey and any community forums held. The firm will then design a brochure and website landing page to display the job posting.

The firm will then advertise it at recommended locations it made like New York State Association of Chiefs of Police, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Police Executive Research Forum, National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, National Black Police Officers Association, and FBI National Academy Associates. Qualified candidates will then be collected, and the firm stated that it will also rely on its own relationships and outreach to find a candidate.

The candidates will be presented to the Mayor and search committee, after going through a screening process. The Mayor and City Administrator will be given access to a background check report, and Mayor Kyriacou suggested that the search committee head, Terry Nelson, also have access to that background check. Terry accepted. Once finalists are selected, “the search committee work is completed,” according to the proposal.

Appointment Of Citizen-Based Police Chief Search Committee

The creation and announcement of the search committee was fast and not widely publicized. The announcement was made via press release on July 29, 2020, and was initially criticized by members of the public during the Public Comment portion of the meeting on August 3, 2020. Thirteen people were selected, 7 of whom are citizens only and not with any government appointed commission.

Community participants included clergy and school employees, as well as the locally based Beacon4Black Lives organization, which came together at the start of the racial protest nation-wide in response to police brutality and the call to make Black lives matter more.

One of the lead organizers for Beacon4Black Lives, Justice McCray, has been vocal about how the city should proceed with the selection of new leadership, and was not asked to be on the committee. However, one of his fellow leaders, Stefon Seward, was asked by Mayor Kyriacou, but Stefon voiced confusion during the City Council meeting, stating: “I think Justice Would have been a way better fit than me, and I don't know why he's not there.”

A Little Beacon Blog reached out to Justice for comment: "I was on the City Council call when they were voting to spend $24,000 to hire the police chief search firm. I called in and said they shouldn't. A lot of people did. The council voted to do so anyway."

Further communication ensued in social media around a miscommunication between the parties. A Little Beacon Blog reached out to Mayor Kyriacou to clarify what resulted in a misunderstanding about his feelings towards the protests in Beacon ending if a police chief was hired. His response to A Little Beacon Blog was: “No of course not. The call from Terry and me was about soliciting participants for the Chief selection committee. What I said was that selecting a Chief was incredibly important, because if we find the right one who shares the same goals for change, then change becomes easier. As I recall, Stefon put an interpretation on what I said, and I immediately corrected that interpretation. No one person, chief or otherwise, will address all the concerns, protests and need for change that have arisen.”

Mayor Kyriacou went on to say, in response to A Little Beacon Blog seeking clarification on his misunderstood statement: “Private comment not for any publication: it’s incredibly important for any reporter to rely on the speaker making a statement, and not on hearsay, which is what someone else says that someone said. Hearsay just encourages miscommunication.”

A Little Beacon Blog does not grant blanket “off the record” situations by email or phone. We must agree to it first, before the speaker speaks. A definition of hearsay, spoken in response to the act of researching such hearsay, is on the record.

The committee members are as follows:

Chair:
1. Terry Nelson – Councilmember Ward 1

Community Participants:
2. Deborah Felder – school guidance counselor; involved in local NAACP chapter
3. Deacon Marty Mayeski – Saint John’s the Evangelist; Lewis Tompkins Hose Chaplain
4. Pastor John Perez – Faith Temple Church of God in Christ
5. John Rembert – former City Councilmember; retired U.S. Army veteran; ordained clergyman
6. Molly Rhodes – director, Teach for America
7. Stefon Seward – Beacon High School graduate; co-founder Beacon for Black Lives

City Participants:
8. Air Rhodes – Councilmember Ward 2
9. Michael Deane – Chair, Human Relations Commission
10. Sands Frost – Beacon Police Lieutenant (currently the Acting Chief)
11. William Cornett – Beacon Acting Chief of Police (no longer the Acting Chief)
12. Anthony Ruggiero – City Administrator
13. Gina Basile – Human Resources Director

Chair Person Terry Nelson’s Vision For The Police Chief Selection

Terry has been outspoken in his goals for the selection of the new chief, which can include a promotion from within, but seems to be weighted for a broader search. In response to questions from A Little Beacon Blog, Terry explained: “I want the committee to look at the civil service definition of chief, which just lists the minimum requirements and then think about what are some other important characteristics they would want to see in a police chief. Together I want us to come up with a description of what we want to see in a chief.”

Terry expressed during this week’s 8/31/2020 City Council Meeting that one of the biggest problems he intends to solve, or get closer to solving, is helping Black and Brown people and people of color not be afraid to call the police.

Terry further explained in an interview with the Highlands Current: “I’ve had people ask me, ‘Why are they protesting? Why are they bringing this stuff up again?’ But this stuff is my daily life. This stuff is me getting in my car and getting on the highway and being conscious of the speed limit, or having my headlights on, or, am I doing everything right? What if I get stopped? What do I do? It’s a conversation that is long overdue.”

Nation-wide, but in New York State in Rochester, another example of police brutality that happened in March has been revealed this week: Daniel Prude, who was asphyxiated while unarmed and not wearing clothes, after police put a bag on his head, according to this local news report at 13WHAM. “Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Prude’s death a homicide. Under the cause of death was listed ‘complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint,’ excited delirium and acute phencyclidine (PCP) intoxication,” according to 13WHAM.

Police were responding to a mental health call that Daniel’s brother had made. During a press conference held today with Free The People, Daniel’s brother, Joe Prude, was quoted to have said that “he called first responders to get help his brother in the midst of his mental health crisis. In retrospect, Prude says he wishes he’d never made that call. ‘All I was trying to do was get him some help,’ said Prude.

Back in Beacon, the community, like all communities across the country, look to each other for examples of how to reform training, hiring, and cultural mindset, that currently, is playing out quite visually in the form of police violence, which speaks to underlying cultural issues which foster that violence, and normalizing it.

Might it be time for police officers themselves to speak up against other officers, even in other states, as a way to signal cultural awareness, acceptance, and protection? As a way to demonstrate anti-racism? Not just saying “I’m not racist,” but by showing it? Showing the solidarity to the Black and Brown community who watches their own get treated so badly? And therefore lives with a fear that a white person does not know?

What if police officers in Beacon marched in plain clothes in a local march?