Even the smaller cities are being pressured to have police stand down, copying the larger dem cities

Syracuse NY

The Syracuse Police Accountability and Reform Coalition returned to city hall today with a clear message for Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh and other city leaders.

"Our demands have not been met," said Yusuf Abdul-Qadir, Director of the CNY Chapter of the Civil Liberties Union.

On July 2nd, SPAARC gave nine demands called the "People's Agenda for Policing", calling for sweeping police reform in Syracuse in a meeting at city hall with Mayor Ben Walsh, Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens, Chief of Police Kenton Buckner, city school district superintendent Jaime Alicea and Schoolboard President Katie Sojewicz. They can be found on SPAARC315.org and are also listed at the end of this article.

Throughout the nearly four-hour-long meeting, SPAARC members made it clear that they were demanding that all nine were implemented as written. Two weeks later, a date which was agreed to during the forum, Mayor Walsh delivered paragraph-length responses to each demand, saying he agreed with four, agreed with conditions on three, and deferred to other governmental bodies in the city on the last two.

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They are also looking for multiple demands to be met by September 1st, less than two weeks away, which include;

• Providing an inventory of all "military equipment"

• Applying recommendations from the Ferguson Report

• List of all training and cost of training for SPD

• Cost of police presence between the dates of May 28th and June 6th. This was the first week of protests in Syracuse in response to the killing of George Floyd.

Coalition leaders say they've also been doing other work in addition to creating this document in recent weeks, including canvassing neighborhoods to raise awareness and try to build support behind the demands. They say their petition to remove School Resource Officers from Syracuse City Schools has achieved 1,400 signatures.

The group's next steps will include registering people to vote. They say their supporters will likely make decisions at the polls based on what city leaders do from here.

"We're providing you the opportunity to be on the right side, if not, we'll hold you accountable, and we'll vote you out," said Abdul-Qadir.

Today the coalition featured new members - The Syracuse Clergy.

"We are also those that are called to visit, to advocate for the disenfranchised for the marginalized," said Bishop Dr. H. Bernard Alex, pastor of Victory Fellowship Church.

Alex and other clergy members said supporting the movement is a moral imperative, and are calling for immediate action.

The original list of demands is below.

SPAARC DEMANDS

1. Taking additional action to revamp SPD's new use of force policy as detailed by SPAARC's analysis and provided to the administration in July 2019

2. Enhance the SPD body camera policy to require officers to turn cameras on at the beginning of their shift, for data and footage from body cameras to be FOILable and not highly redacted and prohibit officers from reviewing body camera footage when writing their reports, among other needed changes.

3. Publicize the PBA union contract as is, while engaging in a community-driven and centered renegotiating process to include recommendations for discipline by the Citizen's Review Board when they sustain findings of misconduct.

4. Pass legislation to strengthen and enhance the Syracuse Citizens Review Board such that its recommendations for sustained findings are enforceable while maintaining the board as a citizen-driven accountability board.

5. Demilitarize the SPD and use the Ferguson Report as a guide and minimum standard.

6. Redirect resources away from SPD to reinvest in human and other services, and reduce the oversized role policing has in our community.

7. Research, draft, introduce, and pass legislation for public oversight of surveillance technologies, including but not limited to a ban on biometric and facial recognition technologies.

8. Work with the Syracuse City School District to remove all school resource officers (SROs) out of schools and invest savings in counselors and other support staff.

9. Pass the Right to Know Act, which would require officers to tell people their privacy rights during encounters with police and provide those stopped by police a notice laying out why they were stopped.

https://cnycentral.com/station/our-demands-have-not-been-met-spaarc-addresses-citys-response-to-police-reform-demands

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