by David Escobar
After the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in 2020, New York became one of several states to pass legislation aimed at reforming local police. Then-governor Andrew Cuomo issued Executive Order 203, requiring local municipalities to work with their police departments to review policing practices and address racial bias in policing.
Some police departments adopted the principles of community policing, in which law enforcement agencies work alongside the communities they serve to find solutions to problems and build trust between officers and civilians.
Since the state mandate, more than 400 officers in the Adirondack Park have participated in a community policing training program sponsored by the Adirondack Diversity Initiative (ADI), a project of the Adirondack North Country Association.
In 2021, ADI contracted RENZ Consulting, LLC, which leads community policing workshops nationwide, to jumpstart the training program.
RENZ Consulting founder Lorenzo Boyd has led dozens of trainings for 12 law enforcement agencies across the North Country, including state troopers, DEC forest rangers and village police officers. While violent police encounters are rare in the Adirondacks, Boyd said many local officers feel that their departments’ reputations are inextricably linked to the violent actions of police officers around the country, creating a source of tension in Boyd’s initial conversations with officers.