Peace-maker: Chief would reach out
After six months on the job, Syracuse Police
Chief Frank Fowler took time to reflect on his
performance, giving himself a report card on
dealing with the challenges he inherited and
his position on the current conflict between
the Police Benevolent Association and the
Mayor.
If you were giving yourself a report
card, how would you grade your first
six months on the job?
Let’s go with a number. I’d give myself
about a 90.
If your parents asked why you didn’t
get 100, how would you explain?
This is the first marking period, a time
of reluctance for giving out high grades
because you always want to leave room for
improvement, and there’s a lot to be learned.
A teacher would point out that the assignments
are likely to get more difficult, and
you don’t want to set up a kid for failure
by saying they were perfect. So if you can
maintain a 90, that’s excellent. If you drop
below that, it’s almost expected because of
the challenges ahead.
What were the high and the low points
of the six months?
Let’s go with the high point. The high
point was traveling down to Washington
D.C. back in June. We had two police officers
winning the national Top Cop Award. These
gentlemen got invited to the White House.
I went along with them and got a chance to
shake hands with President Barack Obama.
That was great, but what impressed me was
we have a little under 500 police officers,
and we brought down more than 70 police
officers. We were the talk of the town for a
national police event. That says that the esprit
de corps we have within the Police Department
is galvanized.
One of the things, and I wouldn’t categorize
it as being the low point in my career,
but because it’s just happening and we’re
still making our way back from it, is the issue
with the Mayor and the presentation of
the award. Right now it sits as a distraction.
We’re working hard to get past that, and we
will get past that. I think that a lot of the
police officers were affected by that. It came
at a point when I feel that morale was up at
a very high level. It came at a point when
we were rounding significant corners in
addressing issues as a new administration,
when the summer was just beginning, and
the [Post-Standard] had a feeding frenzy
with it, almost every day.
What will it take to get past it?
I think that the people involved-and
I’m confident that at some point they will sit
down together-need to be able to express to
one another their points of view. They’re either
going to agree or agree to disagree. And
they’re going to do it in a respectful manner.
I’m confident that that’s going to happen,
and I look forward that happening.
Who needs to talk to whom? Who
needs to make a move?
I don’t know who needs to make the
move, but I know the people that need to be
in the room. Clearly, it’s the Mayor and the
Union will have to sit down and have a conversation.
In time, both sides will likely cross
whatever threshold that’s before them.
As Chief, could you be the one to broker
that?
I’m absolutely willing to do that if that opportunity
makes itself available to me. I will
do everything that I can do encourage that.
But I don’t want to identify myself as being
the broker for that, because that would mean
that I’m assuming that I have some power
and authority over a situation that I’m not
certain that I do have. I would love to see
that happen, though.
The issue involves lawsuits regarding
treatment of women on the force.
A lot of those things happened quite a
while ago, and changes were made. Changes
were made by the previous administration
under Chief Gary Miguel, and those changes
are continuing to occur. Under my administration
we are looking at this very closely.
One of the unique things about my administration
is that I hired the first female Deputy
Chief of Police. The reason I hired her is that
she is extremely intelligent, very smart and
tough. She knows this business. Fortunately
for me she happens to have a background
in EOC work [equal opportunity employment],
and was the person in the department
who did EOC work the right way.
It was unfortunate that we lost the lawsuits,
and because they are still pending, I’m
not going to offer up any opinion about them
because they are under appeal. I’ll leave it
at that, but it comes at a very unfortunate
time, and even though it’s our problem to
fix, it’s tough to have that issue to deal with
right now.
If you had a magic wand, what three
things would you change tomorrow?
The first thing I’d change is to rewind the
clock to a better time, a better fiscal, better
financial time. When I sat down in my seat
in January, it was with the understanding
that with the Stimulus Grant that was made
available to me, that I would hit the streets
in the summer months with 520 police
officers to go out there and conquer the
problems that exist in this great city of ours.
Now I understand these budget cuts-they
were across the board. But I don’t work at
DPW. I don’t work at Parks and Rec. I don’t
work at Codes. My focus is the Police Department.
So I would rewind the clock to a
better financial time, with those officers to
hit the streets.
Number two is still financial. There is a lot
of equipment out there that I could pursue
for my people. We are getting our share of
grants. However there is some equipment
out there that is just nice to be able to give
your people.
Three, I would wave the wand to reduce
the level of violence in the city significantly.
Our officers are going out there and recovering
a gun a day. A gun a day. What that says
is that every police officer can reasonably
assume that some person they encounter
in the course of a day is in possession of a
gun. As Chief of Police I have lofty goals, lofty
expectations. Not pie-in-the-sky stuff. Just
stuff that I’m prepared to grind my teeth and
work real hard every day to make happen.
We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. But if
I had the wand, we would be the safest city
in America.
What’s one thing you never would
have imagined, but discovered once
you got in that chair?
Getting in the chair itself. You can watch
a police officer develop, and know that he or
she will be somebody special. I never once
looked at myself like that because I was so
grateful to be a police officer in the first place
that if I had just spent 30 years as an officer,
it would have been an awesome career. But
after 21 years I’m the Chief of Police. It’s
simply amazing.
You organized Camp 415 so that African-
American officers could speak to
the powers that be. Now you are the
powers that be. Is there still a need for
Camp 415?
Absolutely. I think we still need Camp
415. I think that everyone deserves to have
a voice. One of the main reasons I formed
Camp 415 was that I saw quickly that the
African-American police officers didn’t have
a collective voice. When it came to issues
that I felt African-American officers should
either be a part of, or should be consulted
with, or should be included in on, we were
not. How do we go about doing that? There’s
an old adage that says there’s strength in
numbers. I’m a firm believer in that. I’m
very reluctant to speak for people without
their permission.
Do women on the force have a collective
voice?
A collective voice? No. There’s no organization
I know of that’s specifically for
women.
Would it be helpful to have one?
I grew up in a household with nine
women-eight sisters and a mother. I’m not
going to speak for a woman. I know better.
That’s a question that would be best posed
to a female police officer.
You got your report card grade, but
there is always that section that says
“comments.” What are the comments
on your report card for the first marking
period?
Fair. Consistent. And hard working.
