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The Syracuse Common Council passed the “Right to Know Act,” a key piece of police reform legislation, at a meeting Tuesday.

The legislation, which councilors voted for 7-1, is designed to increase transparency in interactions between Syracuse Police Department officers and city residents. The law will require SPD officers to identify themselves while interacting with the public, obtain consent to conduct unwarranted searches and record their interactions while making stops.

Passing the act is one of nine demands of the People’s Agenda for Policing, a set of police reform demands 15 local activist groups issued to the city in June. Demilitarizing SPD and removing school resource officers from Syracuse schools are among the other demands included in the agenda.

The law will require officers to provide their name and rank to members of the public they approach and offer their business card at the end of interactions that don’t end in an arrest. The cards will provide information on how residents can file complaints with Syracuse’s Citizen Review Board, which reviews complaints against SPD officers and can recommend discipline.

The city will also have to post quarterly reports detailing the number of searches its officers conducted, breaking down the data by race, gender and age. The reports would note how many people denied consent to be searched.

SPD will also have to provide on-call translators for interactions with residents who are not fluent in English.

The legislation stems from New York City’s Right to Know Act, which the city enacted in October 2018 after residents expressed anger over the city police department’s disproportionate use of stop-and-frisk searches on Black and Latino residents.

Community organizers in Syracuse first brought their version of the Right to Know Act to Syracuse’s City Hall in July 2019, but it was never passed.

Councilors had delayed the legislation as recently as a Sept. 30 council meeting, citing concerns from SPD Chief Kenton Buckner that the legislation’s good intentions could be overshadowed by “poorly-written, dated parameters.”

The council also passed a resolution Tuesday challenging the Department of Justice’s attempts to dismantle the city’s police and fire department consent decree related to hiring and demographics. The decree between the city, county, state and DOJ is meant to rectify historic racial and gender imbalances within both departments.

The decree, which has now been in effect for 40 years, was the result of a lawsuit the city and its police and fire chiefs filed in 1978 against the New York State Civil Service Commission and Onondaga County. Syracuse argued that civil service exams were discriminatory and culturally biased.

The DOJ has sought to end the decree, arguing that it has accomplished its goals. As of June, Black officers made up just 9% of the police force in Syracuse, which is 30% Black.

The city will argue to U.S. District Court, Judge David Hurd, that the Consent Decree should not be eliminated at this time because the original objectives of the decree have not been met.

Other business

The council approved an ordinance to abandon a portion of the 1000 block of South Clinton Street and the 100 block of Cortland Avenue. The area will be transformed into a campus with sidewalks and landscaping for the new 5G factor operated by JMA Wireless.

Published on October 13, 2020 at 11:19 pm

Contact David: Dmstebbi@syr.edu