BLEA Says Changes to Police Residency and Civilian Review Raise Questions About Community Policing and Accountability
Blacks In Law Enforcement of America (BLEA) is raising concerns about policing policy in Syracuse under Mayor Sharon Owens, arguing that recent decisions involving police residency and the city’s Citizen Review Board deserve greater scrutiny from residents, elected officials and advocates of community policing.
Owens made history when she became Syracuse’s first Black mayor. But BLEA says that historic representation should not prevent Black organizations from examining policies that could affect police accountability and the relationship between officers and the communities they serve.
At the center of the organization’s concerns are two issues: Syracuse’s temporary suspension of its five-year residency requirement for newly hired police officers and the controversy surrounding the investigative authority of the city’s Citizen Review Board.
Syracuse Moves Away From Police Residency
Syracuse has temporarily suspended its residency requirement for new police officers as officials attempt to address recruitment and staffing challenges. Under the previous policy, newly hired officers were required to establish residency in Syracuse and remain city residents for their first five years of employment.
Police Chief Mark Rusin has argued that expanding the pool of potential applicants could help the department address staffing shortages. Mayor Owens has also acknowledged that she fundamentally believes residency is beneficial for new officers but has supported temporarily relaxing the requirement because of current recruitment challenges.
BLEA says those concerns are legitimate but argues that the discussion cannot end with recruitment numbers.
Residency has historically been viewed by some community-policing advocates as a way of strengthening an officer’s connection to the municipality being policed. Officers who live within the city may become homeowners and taxpayers, send their children to local schools, shop at neighborhood businesses and experience many of the same quality-of-life issues as other residents.
Residency does not guarantee better policing, just as living outside a city does not make someone a bad police officer. The larger question, according to BLEA, is what Syracuse intends to do to preserve strong police-community relationships if residency is no longer required.
Questions Surround Syracuse Citizen Review Board
The second issue involves Syracuse’s Citizen Review Board, which provides civilians with an avenue for complaints involving alleged police misconduct.
Independent CRB investigations stopped in April after city attorneys interpreted an appellate court decision involving Rochester’s Police Accountability Board as limiting the investigative authority of Syracuse’s board. The Owens administration followed that legal interpretation.
The distinction is important: Mayor Owens did not abolish the Citizen Review Board. However, the legal position supported by her administration resulted in the board temporarily being unable to conduct independent investigations, one of its most consequential functions.
Members of the CRB and Syracuse Common Council subsequently challenged that interpretation. In August, the board moved to resume investigations, with CRB leadership arguing that responsibilities established by city law could not simply be suspended through a legal opinion from the administration.
For BLEA, the controversy raises a broader question about whether residents will continue to have meaningful independent civilian participation in the police-accountability process.
Jones: Accountability Cannot Depend on Political Party
Damon K. Jones, New York Representative for Blacks In Law Enforcement of America and a 33-year law-enforcement veteran, said police staffing and recruitment are genuine challenges but should not be addressed at the expense of policies intended to strengthen public trust.
“After 33 years in law enforcement, I understand the challenges police departments face with recruitment and staffing. But we cannot solve one problem by weakening the principles that help create trust between police and the communities they serve,” Jones said. “For Syracuse’s first Black mayor to move away from residency while her administration supported stopping independent CRB investigations should concern us. Accountability cannot depend on whether a Democrat or Republican occupies City Hall.”
The organization’s position also raises a politically uncomfortable question: Would these policies receive the same response if they were implemented by a Republican mayor?
BLEA argues that Black communities cannot demand civilian oversight, police accountability and stronger community relationships when Republicans are in power but become less critical when similar policies are implemented under a Black Democratic administration.
What Did National Police Reform Recommend?
BLEA points to recommendations developed during the Obama administration as evidence that its concerns are not anti-police.
President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing recommended that law-enforcement agencies consider residency incentive programs, including Resident Officer Programs, as part of broader efforts to strengthen trust and legitimacy.
The Task Force did not call for mandatory residency requirements nationwide, an important distinction. But it did recognize encouraging officers to live in the communities they serve as one potential strategy for strengthening police-community relationships.
The Task Force also addressed civilian oversight, stating that some form of civilian oversight of law enforcement is important to strengthening trust with the community, while leaving individual communities to determine the structure most appropriate for them.
That makes the Syracuse debate more complicated than a simple argument between being pro-police and anti-police. Recruitment, adequate staffing, civilian accountability and community relationships are all legitimate components of professional policing.
Representation Cannot Replace Accountability
Owens’ election remains historically significant for Syracuse. But BLEA argues that Black political representation must come with the same level of scrutiny applied to any other administration.
The organization’s criticism is not that Syracuse should ignore its staffing problems or disregard legitimate court decisions. Instead, BLEA is asking what safeguards will replace policies that were intended to strengthen connections between police officers and residents.
If Syracuse suspends residency to attract more officers, what will the department do to ensure those officers develop meaningful relationships with city neighborhoods? If courts limit certain forms of civilian oversight, what legally sustainable mechanism will guarantee residents an independent voice when allegations of misconduct arise?
Those are questions that transcend political party.
BLEA says supporting good police officers and demanding meaningful accountability are not contradictory positions. Professional officers benefit from credible accountability because unchecked misconduct damages public confidence in every officer wearing the badge.
As BLEA stated in its release, “The badge should never be protected by politics, and accountability should never depend on political party.”
For Syracuse’s first Black mayor, that may ultimately be the larger test: not simply making history by occupying City Hall, but demonstrating that recruitment, public safety, community policing and police accountability can exist together.
