Terrible Optics

Westhampton Beach Village officials and Police Chief Steven McManus need a lesson in optics.

The revelation last week that a body camera video recorded during the investigation of an off-duty Village Police officer who rolled his truck during a single-car accident in November 2021 was not released to the public for close to a year, despite numerous requests from The Press that went unanswered for seven months, sends the wrong signal about the village’s commitment to keeping the public informed. It was only after a request from an attorney on behalf of The Press that a copy of the video was finally released.

Failure to release the video capped a growing list of what appears to be a mishandling of the release of information relating to the incident, in which the officer, Connor Raynor, was ultimately suspended for 30 days without pay and forced to forfeit vacation hours totaling another 30 days, in addition to undergoing required drug and alcohol testing for three years under the terms of a settlement with the village. That settlement was approved by the Village Board in May 2022 — at a special meeting that was not properly announced to the media, as required by the state’s Open Meetings Law.

The disciplinary action only came to light after The Press filed a routine Freedom of Information Law Request seeking disciplinary actions against police officers — a standard practice in recent years since the state passed legislation making those kinds of reports public. The Press files similar requests with all East End departments.

The video finally released last week shows McManus speaking with Raynor some hours after the accident, and indicating that he smells alcohol on the off-duty officer. To be clear, it appears that McManus took the matter seriously, and the disciplinary charges against Raynor were swift and severe.

McManus and village officials claim that the video released last week was part of an investigation into Raynor’s conduct, and not part of the accident investigation, so it was not released under the initial FOIL request. But once The Press learned of the video and requested it, it still took seven months to release and was done so only after an attorney intervened. Both McManus and Village Mayor Ralph Urban apologized for the delay, stating that the village has a backlog of FOIL requests.

That may be understandable — Westhampton Beach is small village with a small staff. But the nature of the video and the investigation onto the officer’s conduct, particularly given the earlier Open Meetings Law violation, should have prompted officials to put this request on the top of the pile.

Police officers are public servants and must be held to a higher standard than other citizens. They must be accountable to the public they serve. When they make mistakes, it’s incumbent that officials be forthcoming and report those errors to the public they serve.

Village officials must go to great lengths to avoid the appearance that they have something to hide. In this instance, unfortunately, village leaders failed in that regard.