The Speaker

A native New Yorker, Elliot Boyce began his distinguished 33-year career with the New York State Police in 1987. In 1996, he was appointed to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation as an Investigator, where he was assigned to the Community Narcotics Enforcement Team, working multiple level narcotics cases throughout much of the Central, Southern and Western New York areas. In 1998, Boyce was cross-designated a U.S. Customs Officer by the U.S. Department of Treasury. In 1999, he completed the New York State Police Basic Hate/Bias Criminal Investigations School to become a Bias Crimes Investigator. He has also served as a New York State Police Recruiter to maintain and increase diversity within the ranks of the New York State Police. In 2004, Boyce completed Crisis Negotiations School to join the elite group of New York State Police Crisis Negotiators. He was deputized as a Drug Enforcement Agent Task Force Officer to assist with major narcotics investigations. In 2005, he started his tenure as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Justice at the State University College of New York at Oswego. In 2015, Boyce was accepted into the distinguished New York State Police Employee Assistance Program and subsequently promoted to Senior Investigator / Director.

Senior Investigator Boyce earned his Bachelor of Science in Public Justice from the State University of New York at Oswego, a Master’s in Criminal Justice from the School of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York at Albany and a Master’s in Public Administration at Marist College. In 2021, Elliot obtained a Diversity & Inclusion Certification from Cornell University.

The Workshop

When Good People Write Bad Policy: Discriminatory Bans and Prohibitions Don’t Work : Wednesday, October 04, 2023 10:30A

Several states and municipalities are proposing to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes. Smoking is bad and tobacco kills in addition to the debilitating effects of nicotine addiction and need to prevent youth from smoking. Prohibitions and flavor bans have been spotlights in the national media. This proposal seems race-neutral. But over 85% of African Americans who choose to smoke prefer menthol cigarettes while most White tobacco consumers prefer unflavored tobacco. To draw up a ban only against products favored by people of color seems not only unjust but also remarkably insensitive. Giving officers even more reason to detain and engage on the basis of a flavored tobacco ban, including menthol, would assuredly lead to encounters that are likely to escalate to the unnecessary use of force, arrests, and possibly deadly force.

The unintended consequences of bans and prohibitions need to be better understood by public policymakers contemplating passing legislation that will directly impact the interactions between members of communities of color and law enforcement officers. This session will explore the laudable intent of the public health community to decrease the use of tobacco products by communities of color, address the serious concerns of youth using tobacco products, and how to stem the tide of youth use of e-cigarettes, and will expound on the lived experiences and expertise of leading Black law enforcement professionals on the unintended consequences of bans and prohibitions.