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Deputy chief outlines staffing, new technology and care-team operations at Community Police Board meeting
Summary
Deputy Chief Matt Cown told the Community Police Board the Ithaca Police Department expects several hires and some retirements this year, plans to add in-car video to Axon storage, and described the current care-team assignment and reporting gaps the board requested staff to fill.
Deputy Chief Matt Cown told the Ithaca City Community Police Board that the police department had recently promoted Julian Byrd to sergeant and rehired officer Dan Bechtold, and that the department expects a small cohort of recruits to enter the academy late next month. He said there are approximately 56–57 sworn officers with about nine vacancies; the department also faces five to six possible retirements this year.
Cown described planned technology and evidence-storage changes: the department is moving to Axon for body-worn, in-car and other digital evidence and retention; he said the record-storage migration is intended to centralize digital evidence on Axon rather than city servers. He answered board concerns about the word "redact" appearing in materials prepared for the board and confirmed that, for community police board review, documents should not be redacted and that redaction generally applies to attorney processes.
Board members pressed for details about in-car video and the care team. Cown confirmed the department is adding in-car interior cameras (in-car video) and that the care-team person currently assigned to work with police is a county employee deployed Monday through Friday during daytime hours; that staff member responds to mental-health related calls alongside officers and performs follow-up and referral work. The board asked for a regular written report of care-team activity and a starting snapshot ("by March 1") to show historical progress; Cown agreed he could provide call-volume and participation data and suggested the board email specific data requests so staff can prepare them.
The board pressed for a clear chain of command: Cown said the care-team staff are county employees with a dual reporting relationship operationally tied into IPD patrol when responding to calls and administratively connected to their mental-health employer. He said, "ultimately, it would fall under me as overseeing patrol" for operational coordination with IPD.
Members also discussed policing tactics and deployment: Cown described a two-officer "Class A" car as intended for officer safety and more proactive responses and said that walking beats historically covered the Commons, Collegetown and the West End but those beats have been unstaffed for years because of personnel shortages. The department reported planning a four-beat car system with walking-beat coverage only when staffing permits. On automated license-plate reader rollout (referred to in the meeting as the Flock system), Cown said the system was roughly 70% installed and connected to county systems; he said there were recent installation issues that had been resolved.
The board requested an updated roster and more timely communication about promotions and swearing-in ceremonies; members said they want advance notice so they may attend and introduce themselves to newly promoted officers.
