Amended plan calls for creation of Police Reform and Reinvention Plan Oversight Committeeto monitor implementation of plan
Syracuse, N.Y. – The City of Syracuse today released its updated Police Reform and Reinvention Plan addressing input from community members and the Common Council. The plan, in response to Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 203 issued regarding the New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative, is available for review at http://bit.ly/syrpolicereform2021.
As stipulated by the state executive order, the City of Syracuse and communities across New York State are required to prepare a plan in response to the Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative. The draft Syracuse plan was released for public review and comment on Jan. 28. The document was available for public comment online and was the subject of a Syracuse Common Council public hearing and Public Safety Committee meeting.
The update Syracuse plan includes an expanded “Moving Forward” section (pp. 25-29) covering actions in Transparency and Accountability, Community Engagement; Policies and Procedures; Training and Wellness; Diversity in Hiring and Advancement; and Alternatives to Policing. The 79-page document provides additional details and timelines to achieve the new actions recommended in the plan. It also has a more than 180-page addendum including multiple Syracuse Police Department policies and other documents related to policing.
Based on feedback from the public, the updated plan includes the creation of a “Police Reform and Reinvention Plan Oversight Committee” to monitor implementation of the plan. It recommends the committee be comprised of the Deputy Mayor and a designee; a Department of Law representative; a Chief’s Office representative; the CRB Administrator, the Common Council Public Safety Committee Chairperson; and two members of the community, one appointed by the Mayor and one by the Common Council. The Deputy Mayor will be responsible for the operations of the committee.
The City participated in the Onondaga County Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative along with other municipalities in the County. City representatives contributed to the work of five sub-committees. Input for the draft plan was gathered from the work of these sub-committees, as well as from online public forums hosted for City residents by the Collaborative. Additionally, the City conducted meetings to gather input from a variety of community stakeholder groups. The City of Syracuse plan also builds upon prior public engagement on policing in the City of Syracuse; Mayor Walsh’s 16-Action Executive Order on Syracuse Police Reform last June; actions taken by the Syracuse Common Council on police transparency; as well as the City’s response to demands by community stakeholders last summer.
The Governor’s order requires adoption of a plan before April 1, 2021.
