TROY – A bipartisan delegation of City Council members met Friday with the state attorney general’s office to discuss recommendations in its report on an investigation of a 2016 fatal police-involved shooting.

The 70-minute meeting in Albany came as the Troy Police Department is undergoing a change in its top command and promises have been made at every level of city government to improve community relations with the 130-member police force.

Republican City Council President Carmella Mantello said Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman’s staff couldn’t deal with some issues due to the pending June 20 trial of Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove for his handling of the grand jury presentation of the April 2016 case.

DWI suspect Edson Thevenin was killed during a traffic stop when Sgt. Randall French shot him. Abelove presented the case to a county grand jury with French testifying without waiving his immunity from prosecution. Abelove was indicted by a special county grand jury on felony perjury and two misdemeanor counts of official conduct for his handling of the shooting case.

The attorney general’s staff could not answer questions about what Mayor Patrick Madden has called factual errors with the report because the city has not indicated what they are, Mantello said.

“They never heard from the mayor. They’re standing by the report,” Mantello said about meeting with the attorneys and investigators involved in writing the report.

Madden has refused to explain what the factual errors are in the report citing, the pending federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Thevenin’s estate and his widow in U.S. District Court in Albany.

The attorney general’s recommendations came as a result of the grand jury probe into investigation of Thevenin’s shooting. The attorney general became involved under an executive order signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that has the state take a role in investigating police fatal shootings of unarmed civilians.

The attorney general's report called for the city to outfit police officers with body cameras and to mount dashboard cameras in patrol vehicles; to change its policy of allowing officers to fire at moving vehicles; to properly train officers in the evaluation of bullet-trajectory and other evidence; and for the department not to prejudge evidence in cases.

“We met with the Troy City Council today to follow up on the recommendations outlined in our report. We are hopeful that today’s meeting provided them with the information they need to work with the mayor and police department to implement these vital reforms,” said Amy Spitalnick, press secretary for Schneiderman.

Mantello accompanied Democratic Councilman David Bissember, the council's Public Safety Committee chairman, and Democratic Councilman Anasha Cummings, the council’s president pro tempore, to the meeting in Albany. Mantello requested the meeting in a January letter on behalf of the City Council.

“We must continue to improve community relations with local law enforcement and today’s meeting was a welcome opportunity to better understanding the specific measures outlined in the report," Bissember said.

“We got a better sense of what’s happening in different parts of the state,” Bissember said..

The Public Safety Committee will meet in a few weeks to discuss the report’s recommendations and the results of conferring with the attorney general’s staff, Bissember said. It’’s important for the city to look at adopting the recommendations, particularly on the body cameras and ensuring that the city’s homicide investigations put the same emphasis on collecting evidence and maintaining public confidence.

Bissember and Mantello said that with Chief Brian Owens now leading the department they anticipate an improvement in community relations and policy changes.