Residents can share sheriff experiences

SCHUYLER COUNTY--Under direction from the state and despite his objections to the process, Schuyler County Sheriff Bill Yessman is asking Schuyler County residents to fill out a survey to share their experiences and opinions of the department. The survey itself is part of the New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative, and while Yessman has said the department would follow the reform directives, he has also stated he feels they are punitive in nature.
"This feels like a punishment for things that other police departments in other parts of the state have done," Yessman said. "The governor released a reasoning behind his reform that listed police actions that resulted in loss of life. None of them happened in upstate New York, most happened in New York City and many cited were even out of state."
Yessman added he also disagrees with the process that created the survey and said he feels many stakeholders in the police reform process have been left out.
"It's not that I have an issue with the questions that the survey is asking, I understand that," Yessman said. "It's the way many of the answers, which are multiple-choice, [have been] worded that bothers me. For one question about racial profiling the only options close to 'never' is almost none or I don't know. The answers seem designed so that any answer indicates that yes, there is racial profiling."
While Yessman has said there are issues with police departments in other parts of the state and country, he was adamant that is not the case in his experience in Schuyler.
"There has not been a complaint about racial profiling in Schuyler County in (over 20 years)," Yessman stated.
Yessman added the survey is just the first step in the process the county is supposed to go through as it analyzes department policies and actions.
"This is going to take a while, and with COVID going on, it is going to be that much more difficult since we can't have meetings with the public to discuss some of these issues," Yessman said.
Despite his objections to the process that created the survey, Yessman said he has every intention of abiding by the reform laws that have been put into place.
"If we discover something during this process that we need to address or change, we will do that," Yessman said.
The survey is currently available online and can be accessed through the Schuyler County Sheriff Department's Facebook page or tinyurl.com/schuylersheriff.