At the Shawangunk Town Board meeting on March 4, it was announced that Leif Spencer, a retired Town of Newburgh police sergeant, has been named chair of Shawangunk’s Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative.

This decision was made, as Spencer has experience reforming a police agency’s policies and procedures, a task he completed for the Town of Newburgh Police Department. In addition, Shawangunk Chief of Police Gerald Marlatt was removed as the chair of the committee, as Valk felt the position was inappropriate for him. Marlatt will continue to contribute to the committee as one of its members. He noted that Spencer has done a good job in his new role.

“Leif has just been doing a phenomenal job just putting all the information together and really keeping a good accounting of the issues we’ve come up with and the policies that we need to look at,” Marlatt said. “Eventually we want to get to all the policies but there’s select policies that he [Spencer] thinks need immediate attention.”

Spencer stated that the group has done well to reform the Town of Shawangunk Police Department’s policies and procedures.

“The committee has really worked well together. You have individuals with varying backgrounds, some in law enforcement and some with other community projects,” he said. “We all came together, everyone has ideas… We’re formulating good policies and plans for the Town of Shawangunk PD.”

He added that prior to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203, the town had solid policies and procedures, they just needed to be updated.

“It hadn’t been updated since 2001,” Spencer said. “Laws and attitudes change and the police need to adapt and conform to that and that’s really what we did.”