Public Safety

“Providing for the public’s safety is the legal responsibility of municipal government and is one of its highest priorities…The primary goal of local public safety and crime prevention efforts is to ensure that the nation’s cities and towns provide a safe, healthy environment in which residents can live.”

Background

The City of Syracuse Police Department operates within a 26-square-mile urban setting and serves a population of approximately 147,000. The 500 sworn officers and 88 civilian employees are assigned to five Bureaus: Uniform, Administrative, Investigations, General Services, and Community Policing.According to the Police Department’s Personnel Section, the Uniform Bureau, which conducts all patrol operations, consists of 215 officers, and the Community Policing Bureau 76 officers. In 1999, the operating Budget for the Department was approximately $27 million dollars. Serious crime was down 13.7% that year. There were nine homicides in 1999 and 20 in 2000.

The Police Department is partnering with the U.S. Treasury Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) to track all guns used in the commission of a crime. The current Chief of Police is John J. Falge, a career Syracuse Police Department member. His father served for many years as the Onondaga County Director of Emergency Management Division under County Executive Nicholas Pirro, a Republican. Chief Falge himself served inside City Hall under former Mayor Thomas Young, a Democrat, and completed his law degree studies during this same time frame. Under the present Mayor Bernardi, a Republican, Chief Falge initially was reassigned to the Department as a Deputy Chief and subsequently as Chief. Syracuse has a Citizen Review Board without subpoena powers, limiting its effectiveness. Officers have refused to cooperate with the Board.

Public Safety is Tied to Economic Growth – And Decline

In the last ten years, the Central New York region, including Onondaga County and the City of Syracuse, did not share in the national economic boom. This lack of opportunity, combined with the national epidemics of urban youth gangs, increased drug use, increased violent crime and the associated social ills, resulted in middle-class residents and white-collar businesses abandoning the City. Alienation between a mostly white police force and an increasing minority population further exacerbated the problems. The City of Syracuse found itself in a classic cycle of urban decay. The lack of economic opportunity caused entrepreneurial residents to relocate, which in turn further eroded the City’s economic and tax base. This resulted in an increase in the percentage of the population requiring social services, thus placing an even greater financial strain on the City. This further limitation of City finances resulted in even less opportunity, motivating more residents to leave. Opportunity, and therefore the middle class, will not return to Syracuse without a dramatic improvement in the quality of life within the City. One basic and absolute element that contributes to the quality of life in any community is public safety and the perception of public safety.

The Lewis Administration will focus on developing a strong community policing program, while simultaneously building up communities through economic development, educational reform and neighborhood revitalization. The police will not only continue in their traditional role of law enforcement, but will be trained to take a comprehensive, pro-active approach to problem solving and crime prevention. This broader involvement within the community will achieve more than an incremental reduction in crime; it will bring about a decrease in crime to below the national average.

Objectives

The next Mayor of Syracuse must energize all of City government’s resources to create opportunity for the middle class so that they choose to live in the City. The Syracuse Police Department must dramatically decrease the level of crime, especially serious crime.

Methods of Achievement

The Lewis Administration will transform the entire Syracuse City Police Department into a “Community Policing “ model. I will expand the principles of “Community Policing” beyond the single existing Bureau to encompass the whole force. My Administration will develop long-range and permanent plans to restructure recruiting, training and actual police work. I will replace the classical military-style of law enforcement with one far more community-oriented. I will utilize police personnel not only to enforce the law but also to coordinate the delivery of City services through constant needs analysis and problem solving within, and with, the community they serve.

Community Policing as a standard operating procedure for the entire Police Department is a relatively new concept. Community Policing, while appearing very practical, is often opposed by the traditional law enforcement establishment. Command Officers who believe in and support Community Policing are in the minority. In most cases they are looked upon as radical within the law enforcement fraternity.& Consequently, there are few experienced senior Command Officers with successful Community Policing experience. The candidate pool for Chiefs of Police with this background is small and the concept so new that few cities have converted to a complete Community Policing policy.

New Haven, Connecticut, is one exception. In 1990 Nicholas Pastore, currently a research fellow in police policy for the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, became Chief of Police in New Haven. A new city administration with a reform agenda had just taken office and Pastore was recruited to transition the police department to a full Community Policing approach. New Haven is a city similar to Syracuse in population size and economic makeup. Increased crime and middle class flight were perceived as major social problems for the City in 1989 and resulted in the election of a Mayor committed to change. Between 1994 and 1998, under the new Community Policing program, crime in New Haven fell 33%. In 1999 it fell by 21%. Pastore remained Chief through two separate City Administrations before resigning in 1997. According to the Mayor’s Office, New Haven is more committed to Community Policing today than ever before because of its effectiveness.

Converting to comprehensive Community Policing is a complicated process. Some Department members and the Union are likely to oppose any change to the status quo, especially coming from a new City Administration. Also, decades of a traditional paramilitary approach to the occupation where functions are defined by terms like “patrol territory” and “The War on Drugs” represent significant obstacles to changing the mindset. Implementing a total Community Policing model will require a totally new approach directly involving senior staff in the Mayor’s Office.

The effectiveness of Community Policing depends on the officers believing they are part of the community. Arresting city residents becomes their least-desired option. Each individual police officer needs to be well-versed in all the social and governmental services available to residents so they can make the appropriate referrals. The officers are still equipped and fully trained to enforce the law, but they now have the additional responsibility of being the eyes and ears for all City agencies. The City takes advantage of police manpower, training and talents to not only enforce the law, but also to conduct needs analyses within the community they serve. When needs are identified, police officers make referrals to the appropriate city agency. The Mayor’s Office coordinates all interagency cooperation to maximize effectiveness.

The Lewis Administration will assemble a Task Force comprised of police, elected officials, clergy, community activists and administration personnel to review all existing Police Department policies and operations. A senior Mayoral Aide reporting directly to the Mayor will head the Task Force. This Task Force will investigate and develop state-of-the-art procedures to implement the conversion to a Community Policing model. Some, but not all, of the issues this Task Force will consider are:

• Recruitment of new officers who are interested in providing a service to the community as a constructive and helpful part of the community.
• Successful recruitment of more minority officers.
• Development of means to provide incentive for officers to live in the City.
• Replacement of the police academy military school model with university model that tests for academic skills, original research, communications skills, promotes critical thinking and teaches community development.
• Increasing the scope of police work beyond traditional law enforcement will require higher-skilled individuals. The minimum age and educational levels for becoming an officer would therefore need to be reviewed.
• Recruitment of higher-skilled police officers which will require a complete salary and wage review within the department.
• Redesign of all in-service training to reflect not only traditional law enforcement skills but also the problem-solving skills needed for effective community policing.
• Movement of officers out of their cars and placing them back on the street.
• Creation of police substations throughout the City.

The day after taking office, the Lewis Administration will begin a search for candidates with Community Policing command experience in an urban setting to compete for the position of the next Police Chief of Syracuse. Ideally, the successful candidate will have already participated in the conversion of a police department to comprehensive Community Policing.

The successful candidate must also commit to the following:

• Support for the Citizens Review Board to solve the issues that have prevented the Board from functioning effectively.
• Review of all Police Department operations to determine where interdepartmental cooperation and consolidation may increase operational and cost effectiveness.
• Assisting the Mayor’s Office in the development of a Zero Tolerance Program for illegal guns within the City of Syracuse. New York State already has the strictest laws regulating the ownership and use of handguns in the nation. Violent crime, especially homicide, has grown to unacceptable levels in our city. The situation requires a priority on the strict enforcement of those existing laws to reduce the numbers of illegal guns in our community. The new Chief will work with the ATF and other agencies to develop an enforcement Task Force. The mission of this Task Force will be the reduction of illegal guns within the City of Syracuse to include their importation from outside the city.

Over the long term, the Lewis Administration will develop a plan to divide the City into several precincts and thus decentralize the Department operationally. Officers will continue to move between different assignments as their skills increase, for example, from patrolman to detective, but within the same precinct.

Expected Results

For Community Policing to be successfully implemented department-wide, personnel must first maintain the normal workload generated by complaints or “Calls,” plus begin problem solving. This can mean knowing how to diffuse an argument between a couple, to keep it from blowing up into a violent confrontation, to encouraging someone with a record of noise complaints to be respectful of neighbors and avoid eviction, from referring an addict to treatment, rather than making an arrest, to working with parents whose children are out late to keep the children at home and occupied.

Eventually the problem solving results in fewer complaints, or “calls.” Once the complaint or “Call” load decreases, then officers can concentrate more on the problem solving and eventually bring real benefits to their community. The first indicator, or benchmark, that Community Policing has been successful will be when there is a significant decrease in calls.

Where Community Policing is effective, crime rates drop and the delivery of governmental and social services improves. With lower crime rates in place, economic development is made possible because people once again want to live and work and shop in the city. Opportunity is available and the community consequently grows, generating even greater opportunity. The real benchmarks of success will be a drop in crime and a subsequent rise in the numbers of citizens who choose to work and live in the city.