Syracuse Police Department: No Blacks Allowed

BY RODNEY BROWN

The Syracuse Police Department Basic Academy welcomed 22 new recruits and one Fulton police officer to its force during graduation ceremonies held at the Palace Theater located on 2384 James Street.

The new recruits completed 26 weeks in the academy and will begin 11 weeks training in the field.

The graduates consisted of 19 men and 3 women, all of Caucasian descent. In response to their being no African American graduates, the Syracuse Recruitment Division stated, it's a major problem. "I totally disagree with everything that went down," an official in the department said. "We bust our butts to bring in qualified African American candidates."

In 1980 the Government issued a Federal Consent Decree ordering the Syracuse Police Department to diversify its force. The department was required to have at least 10 percent of minorities represented at all levels of the police department. According to the recruitment division out of 511 police department personnel 35 are African Americans which equals to 6.8 percent of the force. After more than 30 years since the Federal Consent Decree, a recruitment official said, "The low representation of African Americans serving on Syracuse's Police Force is an embarrassment and unacceptable."

Many within the City's law enforcement divisions and leaders in the African American community expected "change" with the election of Stephanie Miner as Mayor and her appointment of an African American Chief of Police, Frank Fowler.
After City Hall announced the cancellation of the April 2010 Academy Class and said that all recruitment would be put on hold indefinitely serious doubts and questions began to resurface. The Syracuse Recruitment Division expected more than half of the April graduates to be of African American descent.

The Mayor's Communication Director, Lindsey McLuskey redirected questioning on the matter to Chief Fowler. "I am not able to hire new officers because we don't have enough money in the budget," Chief Fowler said. "We have to crunch some numbers but I am still unsure when we will be able to hire any additional officers. I can't give you an answer when we will or if we will."

In response to the funds New York Sen. Chuck Schumer incorporated in the Federal Stimulus Package to help police departments throughout the State cope with budget shortfalls Chief Fowler implied that the money is still available but it can't be used because the police department is not at full strength. "We have to fill 10 open vacancies within the department in order to be qualified for the money," said Chief Fowler.
In addition Chief Fowler stated, "I need more officers on the street. We are understaffed and undermanned."

President of Syracuse's local NAACP Chapter Preston Fagan is concern that the Mayor is sacrificing training and hiring new recruits by replacing the process with lateral movement of officers from the City to surrounding communities and towns.
Fagan strongly emphasized that he will be contacting the Mayor regarding her position. "I am not sure if it's true," Fagan said. "But if so, pressure have to be put on City Hall- hot and heavy. "Lateral movement of officers is unacceptable and an insult to African Americans who want to serve as police officers in Syracuse."

In addition he stated, "Lateral Movement of police officers is out of character for the Mayor. This is not what she campaign on and brought to the community. If this is true, we are going to challenge this move."
A lack of diversity and discrimination has been rampant in Syracuse's City departments. In 2008 Former Mayor Matt Driscoll released a plan to address race, gender and sexual harassment in City government after a white firefighter recruit tied a noose and showed it to other firefighters including a black woman. Driscoll, while in office planned to use the Onondaga County Human Rights Commission to combat racial discrimination.

According to most demographic studies, African Americans comprise 28 percent of Syracuse's population and occupy a little over 6 percent of its police force. Syracuse Police Force is required to develop and maintain a racial and ethnic composition within the department that mirrors the demographic composition of the City of Syracuse.

In 2005 then Sgt. Fowler advocated throughout his early career for more diversity within the Syracuse Police Department and accused higher administrative officials of discrimination when qualified African Americans were not promoted to ranking positions. He argued that no one has forced the upper level to comply with the Federal Consent Decree. "If no one is going to force your hand, then what's the incentive?" he said.
According to statistics from February 2005 there were 468 officers and personnel on the Syracuse Police Force. More than 80 percent was white males.

Before becoming Chief he also founded the Central New York Association of Minority Officers (CAMP 415) to increase promotion opportunities for black officers as well as improve community ties by forming outreach programs with the Southside of Syracuse.
Chief Fowler now feels the "process" to implement diversity within the force has been extremely successful. "I know this is hard to comprehend after we recently welcomed a class of new recruits that consisted of no African Americans," Chief Fowler said. "But after the written exam, physical agility test, background investigation, medical screening, psychological test and academy training, - qualified African American candidates are few in numbers."

Fagan complied that diversity is not present but doesn't think the reason stems from not being able to find qualified African American candidates. He intends to sit down with Chief Fowler and find out how many people of color took the test verses those who have been hired to make sure no one was overlooked. "It was mindboggling to find out the March 2010 recruiting class didn't have one African American among them," Fagan said. "There's a problem. The City is not respecting the Federal Consent Decree."

The Syracuse Recruitment Department is in direct contrast with Chief Fowler's statement. "We have always submitted well-qualified candidates," a recruitment official said. "We go as far as Philadelphia. We have submitted applicants with Master Degrees, lawyers, educators' -etcetera."

A prominent African American leader of the Syracuse Community stated off the record that Chief Fowler is in a precarious position. "Chief Fowler is reluctant to say too much regarding his position because he doesn't want any distractions from problems that plagued the police force in the past to incapacitate the new direction he's trying to steer the department.

Chief Fowler acknowledged he can't change the past but now he's in position to usher in change. "It's a systematic problem," he said. "We got to start from scratch."