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Syracuse tries again for police body camera grant, Common Council signs letter of support

Tom Magnarelli
/
WRVO News
Councilor Steven Thompson (right), a former Syracuse police chief at a Common Council meeting.

The city of Syracuse has applied for a pilot program that would equip the Syracuse Police Department with 15 body cameras. Currently, the department does not have any officers with body cameras.

This is a different federal grant for body cameras than the one the Syracuse Police Department applied for last year, which it did not receive. The amount of body cameras applied for this year is far less than the 222 body cameras the police department applied for the previous year. There are more than 400 police officers in the department. Also different, the Syracuse Common Council has submitted a letter of support which they did not get the opportunity to do the previous year.

Councilor Steven Thompson, who is a former Syracuse police chief, said most people have cameras now on their phones and body cameras for police could be the best indicators when an incident occurs.

"It will help officer safety, it will help accountability and it will help stem the tide on some of the complaints that occur," Thompson said.

Councilor Jean Kessner said the letter of support will give the city a more likely chance of winning the grant.

"Let's say you've got the money, and you're giving out the grant," Kessner said. "You get it and the city of Syracuse says, 'we want to get these,' but the government itself doesn't say, 'sure, we think it's a good idea,' that application is not going to get very far. Very often, you're applying for money and there's a matching part of it. You're thinking 'well, if the government is not going to match it, how much good is that going to be?' So, this makes a stronger application."

The funding is through the U.S. Department of Justice, Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. The grant is for $27,000 and the city is expected to hear if it has received the money by the end of September.      

Tom Magnarelli is a reporter covering the central New York and Syracuse area. He joined WRVO as a freelance reporter in 2012 while a student at Syracuse University and was hired full time in 2015. He has reported extensively on politics, education, arts and culture and other issues around central New York.