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Speakers urge limits on ICE cooperation and seek alternatives to police responses
Summary
Multiple speakers and community groups at the Troy public forum urged the council to restrict local police cooperation with ICE, create civilian oversight with subpoena power, fund community‑based safety alternatives and expand non‑police crisis response teams.
Several attendees used the public forum to press the council on immigration enforcement and policing. Ammani Olubala of Troy for Black Lives called for reductions to the police budget and reallocations to youth programs, mental‑health crisis response and a dedicated community center in North Troy. "A police department that shows no accountability when harm happens...we are literally paying for harm instead of paying for prevention," Olubala said.
Jessica Ashley, president of the Rensler County Justice Center, linked local ICE activity to community harm and urged city officials to refuse local police assistance to ICE even where county agreements exist. "If we continue to take a passive approach to ICE...they will do worse," she said, referencing a recent local homicide and prior reported ICE activity.
Speakers across the forum urged establishing a police review board with real investigative powers (including subpoena power), improving police use‑of‑force policies, creating non‑police crisis‑response teams for mental‑health and neurodivergent callers, and passing ordinances to refuse data sharing with federal immigration enforcement where legal.
No council action on these items was recorded at the forum; speakers asked the council to pursue ordinances and staff analyses to clarify legal authority and next steps.
