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Syracuse’s Common Council will vote on a law that would increase transparency in police officers’ interactions with the public in its next legislative session.

The council’s Public Safety Committee voted to move the legislation, called the Right to Know Act, to the floor at a virtual meeting on Tuesday. This move comes 18 months after community organizers pushed for the legislation to increase accountability in the Syracuse Police Department’s encounters with city residents.

“The way that it’s drafted, it encompasses 99, 100% almost of what a police officer would do when they’re talking with an individual,” said Ronnie White, the Common Council’s attorney.

The law was also part of the People’s Agenda for Policing, a series of demands 15 local activist groups issued to the city in June to reform SPD. In responding to the groups’ demands in July, Walsh agreed to implement the act in practice but deferred to the council to pass legislation approving it.

The Common Council’s lawyer then revised the legislation for it to be voted on. Walsh has indicated that he will sign the legislation once it reaches his desk.

The law would require SPD officers to identify themselves while interacting with the public, obtain consent to conduct unwarranted searches and record their interactions while making stops. SPD would also hire on-call translators for interactions with residents who are not fluent in English.

Under the Right to Know Act, officers would also need to offer their business card at the end of interactions that do not end in an arrest. The cards would provide information for how citizens can file complaints to the Citizen Review Board, which reviews grievances against SPD officers and can recommend discipline.

The city would also post quarterly reports on the total number of investigations.

Councilors at the meeting questioned the differences between the updated legislation and the Syracuse Police Accountability and Reform Coalition’s original proposal, how officers would implement the guidelines in fast-moving interactions and what consequences officers would face if they don’t follow the guidelines.

“Some of the things, as (SPD Chief Kenton) Buckner stated are not that hard to do because of the paperwork there already,” said council President Helen Hudson. “It should’ve been done. So it’s just to make sure that the implementation (occurs).”

The legislation stems from New York City’s Right to Know Act, which the city enacted in Oct. 2018 after outrage over the New York Police Department’s disproportionate use of stop-and-frisk searches on Black and Latino residents.

Community organizers first brought the law to Syracuse’s City Hall in July 2019, but it was never passed. Yusuf Abdul-Qadir, director of the central New York branch of the New York Civil Liberties Union, attributed this delay to the city’s corporation counsel, which handles the city’s legal matters.

“I want to mention just how significant and important this is on an effort of accountability and transformation of law enforcement’s relationship with the communities that they serve,” Abdul-Qadir said in an interview after the meeting. “It’s really important that we center the community in this because this is a piece of legislation that exists out of advocacy and organizing and phone calls.”

Abdul-Qadir said he agrees with “98%” of the revised act — except for a provision that exempts officers from the protocol for instances of property damage.

“Decades of mistrust aren’t going to be undone in a matter of days,” he said. “But what this would do is create additional mechanisms for accountability.”

Published on September 15, 2020 at 11:27 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326