BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

The St. Lawrence County Legislature’s Finance Committee unanimously passed a resolution opposing a state bill requiring police officers to maintain personal liability insurance, and remove them from indemnification by the state. They also unanimously supported a bill discouraging local governments from defunding or abolishing their police departments.

The resolutions will have to go in front of the full board in August to be made official.

The respective county bills are to voice opposition to a state legislature bill, and for calls by some anti-racist protesters to spend less money on policing and reappopriate it elsewhere, or abolish police departments altogether.

The bills come two months after large Black Lives Matter protests in Potsdam and smaller ones around St. Lawrence County took place in conjunction with civil rights demonstrations that started in the United States and spread around the world. In the interim between the protests in early June and the county committee’s resolutions passed Monday, July 27, New York state lawmakers have passed, or are considering, numerous police reforms. Among them is the bill that would require officers to insure themselves. That bill would also expose officers to civil liability for allegations of misconduct on the job, rather than shifting the cost of settlements to governmental bodies.

In addition to the unanimous vote, Democratic and Republican county legislators spoke and said they support law enforcement and think that the liability reform goes too far.

“I think that it’s a good resolution. The removing indemnification from police officers is going to have a chilling effect on how they do their job, or don’t do their job, or won’t be doing their job,” said Legislator Joe Lightfoot, R-Ogdensburg. He is a retired state police investigator.

“I support this resolution. I don’t think we should ask people who put their lives on the line to have to pony up the money for this insurance. It seems like maybe this is something that wouldn’t apply to our area as much. I have great respect for law enforcement in St. Lawrence County, and generally,” said Legislator Margaret Haggard, D-Potsdam.

When the second resolution came up, the one where legislators took a stance against defunding or abolishing police, Haggard proposed an amended version.

She moved that the board strike the bill’s original opening paragraph which read, “Whereas, recent incidents of injuries to and deaths of civilians in encounters with law enforcement officers have justifiably drawn attention to the organization and funding of police departments and some advocates for change are going beyond calls for reforms, however, by demanding local police departments be defunded or abolished.”

Haggard said she feels that paragraph politicized the motion. So she moved for its exclusion, seconded by Legislator John Burke, R-Norfolk. The amended resolution is the version that the committee went on to approve.

“I really hate this term -- defunding the police. Unfortunately, it’s taken on some kind of meaning. It just doesn’t make sense,” Haggard said. “I think we have a great opportunity to show a unified board. If we were to remove the first whereas, it would remove any politicization of the resolution, and it doesn’t advance in any way the issue of not defunding the police. I am in favor of the resolution, but ask we consider eliminating the first whereas.”

Finance Committee Chair Kevin Acres, R-Madrid, sponsored the bill and said he included that paragraph because he “thought [the paragraph] would make it more amenable to bipartisan support.”

“If we’ve got the opportunity in front of us to show our support as a board for law enforcement agencies, I think it’s a good idea,” said Legislator Larry Denesha, R-DeKalb. “There are bad apples in every profession, every race, every religion … the actions of a few bad apples shouldn’t be used to judge everyone else.”

“I’m not sure where they're coming from in thinking they (law enforcement officers) should have their own liability,” said Legislator Rita Curran, R-Massena. “They run into burning buildings to save us and dive into the water … I think it’s an unreasonable attack on them.”