The Syracuse Police Department is working with the Common Council to allocate $150,000 toward the repair or replacement of security cameras in high-crime neighborhoods throughout the city.

At a Public Safety Committee meeting following the Common Council study session Wednesday, several councilors and Syracuse Police Department officials addressed an initiative to improve security cameras in Syracuse.

While the committee meeting was open to the public, handouts about the initiative were not shared with anyone outside of the Common Councilors and SPD officers because they contained “semi-sensitive information.”

SPD recently installed about 10 cameras on Euclid Avenue and approximately 100 cameras on the Northside of Syracuse. From these cameras, SPD has made arrests and solved crimes, said Joe Cecile, deputy chief of SPD.

At-Large Councilor Joe Nicoletti cited a 2014 arson on Butternut Street as a case that would not have been solved without the security cameras.

SPD Chief Frank Fowler echoed Nicoletti and said the crime was a “great case to hold up as an example” of the security cameras working well. The arson, he said, occurred early in the morning and the witness to the crime saw two black men walking away from the burning house.

But when reviewing the security camera footage, SPD discovered that an 80-year-old white man set the fire, and the two younger black men arrived at the scene later to see what was going on.

“Without the cameras, they could have been charged,” Fowler said. “But the man who did set the fire is in prison where he belongs.”

Fowler added that footage from the security cameras has helped SPD build solid criminal cases multiple times.

Daily Orange File Photo

The money for these security cameras has never come from the city of Syracuse’s budget, Cecile said. All of the funding has either come from New York state or, in the case of Euclid Avenue, private funds.

Now, SPD is looking to repair or replace some of the older cameras in the Near Westside and Southside neighborhoods of Syracuse.

At this announcement, one audience member stood up and clapped loudly in support of the plan, cutting through the quiet Common Council chambers of City Hall.

The four Common Councilors in attendance for the committee meeting expressed their support of this initiative.

Nicoletti also approved of the program. He thanked SPD and New York state for working to improve security throughout the city.

“We can’t get this done unless we all work together,” Nicoletti said.

District 5 Councilor Nader Maroun said the $150,000 price tag for this initiative only applies to this year and would not necessarily be the annual cost moving forward. He said a cost assessment will be made every year to determine how much money the city needs to allocate toward camera repairs and replacements.

Currently, the Westside of Syracuse is the most important area for camera repair and replacement, Fowler said, but the Southside is also a priority.

This drew more applause from one of the Syracuse residents in attendance, who later said he lives in the Westside area.

The next step for this security camera initiative, Fowler said, is collecting a list of spots across the city that need camera repairs or replacements.

SPD officials at the meeting could not give an exact date for when these camera updates would occur, but they said it is being fast-tracked so the city will see improvements soon.

At the end of the meeting, the Common Councilors opened up the floor for residents to express any comments and concerns on the initiative. The same Syracuse man from the Westside who applauded the initiative spoke up and said he thought the Westside area was not being covered enough by these security measures.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir, director of the Central New York chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, also spoke at the end of the meeting to express concerns with the initiative.

While the security cameras are intended to keep Syracuse residents safe, Abdul-Qadir said the NYCLU is concerned the cameras could possibly violate residents’ right to privacy.

The NYCLU wrote a letter to the city of Syracuse in August 2016 about their concerns and since then, Abdul-Qadir said, the NYCLU has been repeatedly brought up as an impediment to the initiative. He added that the NYCLU is not trying to stop the initiative, but they do want to be a part of the conversation.

“Transparency about the security cameras and policies — that’s what the NYCLU wants,” Abdul-Qadir said. “We just want dialogue on this topic.”

Published on September 24, 2017 at 9:12 pm

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann