BLEA says City Hall’s handling of the Lackard controversy is damaging the reputation of hardworking Mount Vernon police officers and undermining an opportunity to demonstrate strong Black leadership in law enforcement.
By Black Westchester Magazine
MOUNT VERNON, NY — Blacks in Law Enforcement of America is accusing the Mount Vernon Mayor’s Office of providing false information about who hired former Deputy Police Commissioner Jennifer Lackard, saying former Police Commissioner Glenn Scott was wrongly blamed for an appointment the organization says he did not make.
The accusation follows a New York Post article in which the Mayor’s Office reportedly identified Scott as the person who hired Lackard when questioned about how she came to serve in a high-ranking position within the Mount Vernon Police Department.
BLEA says the administration’s account is false.
“That statement is false. Commissioner Glenn Scott did not hire Jennifer Lackard,” the organization said in a statement released by Damon K. Jones, its New York Representative.
The dispute adds another layer to the controversy surrounding Lackard and raises a fundamental question that City Hall should be able to answer with documentation: Who actually hired Jennifer Lackard?
“Mount Vernon operates under a strong-mayor form of government. Commissioners serve under the authority of the Mayor—they do not hire and fire one another. The responsibility for appointing a Deputy Police Commissioner cannot be shifted to another commissioner. City Hall must answer the fundamental question: Who authorized Jennifer Lackard’s appointment?”
“Glenn Scott Was a Policeman’s Policeman”
BLEA’s response is particularly strong because the organization says it knew Scott both personally and professionally.
“Former Commissioner Glenn Scott was a policeman’s policeman,” BLEA stated. “He understood policing, police leadership, command responsibility, and the importance of having qualified and experienced law enforcement professionals in positions of authority.”
Scott also had a direct connection to the organization.
According to BLEA, Scott was a former member of the organization during the period when it operated under the National Black Police Association. That history, BLEA says, gave its members firsthand knowledge of Scott’s standards and approach to police leadership.
“Glenn Scott would never have recommended placing an individual with no policing background or police experience into the position of Deputy Police Commissioner,” the organization stated.
BLEA rejected any suggestion that its defense of Scott was simply speculation about what the former commissioner might have done.
“That is not speculation. We knew Glenn Scott, we knew his professional standards, and we knew what he expected from those entrusted with police leadership.”
“Do Not Use a Dead Man as a Shield”
There is another reason BLEA says the Mayor’s Office’s reported explanation is particularly disturbing: Glenn Scott is no longer alive to defend himself.
Scott cannot respond to City Hall, provide his version of events, produce documents or publicly challenge statements about decisions supposedly made during his tenure.
BLEA called that unacceptable.
“Commissioner Scott has passed away. He cannot hold a press conference. He cannot issue a statement. He cannot call the New York Post and correct the record. He cannot defend his name,” the organization stated.
Then came one of the strongest accusations in the statement:
“The Mayor’s Office should not use a dead man as a shield from accountability.”
If Scott did not hire Lackard, the issue should be relatively simple to resolve.
Produce the records.
Who Hired Jennifer Lackard?
The controversy should not become a battle of competing political narratives.
Employment records, appointment documents, personnel actions, and other official city records should establish how Lackard entered city government and how she ultimately obtained a senior position within the Mount Vernon Police Department.
BLEA is demanding answers to several questions: Who initially brought Lackard into city government? Who recommended her? Who approved her appointment? Who reviewed her qualifications? Who authorized her elevation into police leadership? And who was responsible for supervising her?
Those questions have become more significant following Lackard’s arrest and the serious criminal allegations against her.
Lackard, like every person accused of a crime, is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and the charges against her must be proven in court. But her legal rights do not prevent residents, journalists or law enforcement organizations from examining the government decisions that placed her in a senior public safety position.
The criminal case and the administrative accountability question are two separate matters.
A court will determine Lackard’s criminal culpability.
City Hall must answer for City Hall’s decisions.
BLEA: The Rank-and-File Officers Deserve Better
BLEA’s statement goes beyond the dispute over who hired Lackard.
The organization says years of controversies involving Mount Vernon police leadership are unfairly damaging the reputation of the rank-and-file officers who continue to report to work and serve the community.
“The men and women of the Mount Vernon Police Department deserve better than the leadership they have received from City Hall,” BLEA stated.
That distinction is important.
Police officers on patrol do not make appointments to Deputy Police Commissioner. They do not determine the qualifications required for executive positions. They do not select police commissioners or deputy commissioners. They do not make the political and administrative decisions coming from City Hall.
Yet when those decisions result in controversy, the reputation of the entire department can suffer.
Every day, Mount Vernon officers respond to emergency calls, domestic disputes, violent crimes, traffic incidents, mental health crises and countless other situations. Many perform that work professionally without ever becoming the subject of a newspaper headline.
BLEA argues those officers should not have to carry the burden of management failures made above their pay grade.
“That is a failure of leadership—not a failure of the hardworking police officers of Mount Vernon,” the organization said.
A Predominantly Black City Should Be Setting the Standard
BLEA also raised an uncomfortable but important issue about Mount Vernon’s significance as a predominantly Black city with a majority-Black Police Department.
That combination should present an extraordinary opportunity.
Mount Vernon could be demonstrating nationally what professional Black political leadership, Black police leadership and accountable community policing can accomplish when they work together.
Instead, BLEA argues that repeated controversies have overshadowed that opportunity.
For generations, Black law enforcement professionals fought to enter a profession from which they were once excluded. They fought for promotions, command positions and executive leadership opportunities while confronting stereotypes suggesting Black officers lacked the intelligence, temperament or qualifications necessary to lead major law enforcement organizations.
Those racist assumptions were wrong then, and they are wrong today.
But BLEA warns that leadership failures in a predominantly Black municipality can nevertheless provide ammunition to people already looking for reasons to attack Black leadership more broadly.
“We reject those racist stereotypes completely,” BLEA stated.
The organization then made an important distinction:
“The problem is not that Black people cannot lead. The problem is that bad leadership, regardless of race, has consequences.”
That may be one of the most significant points raised in the entire statement.
Black representation alone cannot be the final measurement of progress.
Representation must be accompanied by competence, professionalism, accountability and results.
Holding Black leadership accountable is not an attack on Black leadership. In many respects, accountability is necessary to protect everything previous generations fought to achieve.
Black Leadership Cannot Mean Lower Standards.
There can be a temptation within Black communities to view criticism of Black elected officials or Black public-sector leadership as somehow harmful to the larger community.
But accountability cannot work that way.
If anything, predominantly Black municipalities should demonstrate that Black leadership means maintaining standards, not lowering them.
“Black leadership does not mean lowering standards. It does not mean protecting incompetence. It does not mean refusing to hold Black officials accountable because they are Black,” BLEA stated.
That principle applies directly to policing.
Executive police positions carry enormous responsibility. The individuals occupying them influence policy, training, discipline, supervision, officer safety and public trust.
Those positions cannot simply be political appointments on an organizational chart. The people occupying them must be capable of performing the responsibilities attached to them.
For BLEA, this is why the question of Lackard’s appointment cannot simply disappear now that criminal charges have become the bigger headline.
The public still deserves to know how the appointment happened.
The Officers Should Not Pay for City Hall’s Decisions
One of the dangers of continuing controversy is that the public can begin viewing an entire Police Department through the actions of a few people at the top.
That would be unfair to Mount Vernon’s officers.
Many of those officers have spent years serving the city. They have families, careers and professional reputations of their own. They should not be treated as responsible for political appointments they did not make or administrative structures they did not create.
BLEA argues City Hall has an obligation to provide those officers with competent leadership, organizational stability and professional management.
“They deserve competent leadership. They deserve stability. They deserve professionalism. And most importantly, they deserve a City Hall that does not make their jobs harder through poor management and failed leadership,” the organization stated.
The goal should be bigger than simply surviving the latest controversy.
Mount Vernon should have a Police Department that other predominantly Black communities can look toward as a model of effective policing, accountability and professional Black leadership.
The city has the officers and the community to make that possible.
What it requires is leadership willing to establish standards and accept responsibility when those standards are not met.
The Mayor’s Office Can Settle This Question
The immediate dispute remains remarkably straightforward.
Who hired Jennifer Lackard?
BLEA says it was not Glenn Scott.
The Mayor’s Office reportedly told the New York Post otherwise.
That disagreement does not need to remain unresolved.
City Hall can release the appropriate records showing who recruited Lackard, who authorized her appointment, when she was appointed, what position she was initially appointed to, and who approved her subsequent advancement.
Transparency would end the speculation.
If the Mayor’s Office provided inaccurate information, it should correct it.
If there is documentation supporting its version of events, it should produce it.
What should not happen is for the name of a deceased police commissioner to remain at the center of a controversy he can no longer personally address.
BLEA closed its statement by demanding that City Hall correct the record, provide documentation surrounding Lackard’s appointment and accept responsibility for decisions made under the administration.
“Mount Vernon deserves leadership that accepts responsibility—not leadership that rewrites history,” BLEA stated.
And for an organization that personally knew the former commissioner, there is one final point it says cannot be negotiated:
“Commissioner Glenn Scott’s name and legacy should never be used to protect anyone from accountability.”
