Breaking down the proposed Syracuse police reform plan
Wiley Chen | Staff Photographer
The plan outlines steps to reform SPD’s hiring process, response and community outreach, among other changes.
Facebook
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
Syracuse’s Common Council on Monday delayed a vote on a draft of the Syracuse Police Reform and Reinvention Plan until next week. The 76-page plan outlines steps to reform the Syracuse Police Department’s hiring process, response and community outreach, among other changes.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo mandated reform and reinvention plans in June for every municipality in New York state in response to nationwide protests against police brutality. Cuomo required each area to submit finalized versions of the plans to Albany by April.
2:56
WAER s Scott Willis reports on the public s first opportunity to comment on Syracuse s proposed Police Reform plan.
Those demands were sparked by the deaths and abuse of Black people at the hands of police officers. At a recent committee meeting, Councilor Ronnie White Jr. wanted to know what demands made it into the plan.
“If we’re supposed to take this and help improve upon it, I think it might be helpful to know specifically what these groups were asking for. Specifically who was there so we can have our own individual conversations with them and take that information and build upon what you already have presented to us.”
2:14
The CRB says it hasn t been included in Syracuse s draft police reform, despite being the primary local police oversight organization.
Anything related to the Syracuse Police Department, the CRB has jurisdiction. We are the oversight agency for the Syracuse Police Department. How can you do anything policing without including us?
The 76-page Syracuse Police Reform and Reinvention Draft Plan was quietly released late last week, and largely builds upon the mayor’s executive order from last June. The plan is also intended to satisfy the Governor’s executive order that all police departments review use of force, racial bias, de-escalation, among other things in response to protests over police treatment of people of color. Releford with the CRB says the plan seems to enable the board to obtain more information from SPD about questionable police conduct. But she says there still needs to be a change in how people perceive the CRB and its role in the commun