New York, Sep 26 (IANS): New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and state Governor Andrew Cuomo have clashed over reforms to the New York Police Department (NYPD), it was reported.
On Thursday, Cuomo demanded that every city and town in the state submit a plan to overhaul the police department, while slamming de Blasio for not starting work on the proposal, even as shootings have spiked in the city, Politico news reported.
According to the Governor, 146 other jurisdictions have initiated their plans, which must be implemented by April 2021 or it will lose state funding.
Cuomo's executive order was signed in June amid protests over the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man on May 25 in Minneapolis.
But in response, the Mayor on Friday told the WNYC public radio station that Cuomo "doesn't have his facts straight".
"If he wants to make personal attacks, he can do that. But he does not have his facts straight. Seven years of non-stop reform, and it's time we have an honest conversation about this and stop these games," de Blasio was quoted as saying.
He also cited a series of NYPD reform initiatives that have been implemented in his two terms in office.
The city had 180,000 fewer arrests last year than in the final year of the Bloomberg administration, Politico news quoted the Mayor as saying.
The jail population has fallen to levels not seen since the 1940s.