Mayor Andre Sayegh, addressing the takeover of the Paterson Police Department by the state attorney general’s office, said that trust between residents and police is an issue that he wants to fix. He said his administration has already taken steps to improve transparency and that he is committed to working with the attorney general to improve things.
“We have implemented measures [such] as the body cameras for trust and transparency. We’ve also done an audit to see if additional training is one way to go and it has been, particularly on de-escalation. So I want to reassure these residents … public safety is a priority of mine and clearly the attorney general’s priority. So this collaboration will hopefully yield very positive results for Patersonians,” Sayegh said.
