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A year-long review of the Department of Public Safety led by former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch found that DPS didn’t adhere to its own operating procedures while investigating hate incidents on campus. 

The 97-page report, which explores how the department interacts with members of the Syracuse University community, was spurred by campus protests that began after a series of racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic incidents at or near SU. 

Lynch’s review of documents from those investigations found that “there were at least some respects in which the documentation did not evidence full compliance” with DPS’s standard operating procedures. Lynch and her team also reviewed other DPS procedures to identify weaknesses. 

Here’s a breakdown of what the department’s standard operating procedures do and the how Lynch and her team recommended DPS change them: 

What did Lynch and her team review? 

DPS utilizes more than 160 standard operating procedures to guide officers and other department personnel about how to conduct operations. The procedures cover a wide variety of topics, including use of force, internal affairs and terrorist incidents. 

In consultation with a community policing expert, Lynch and her team chose 26 procedures to review in depth.

Of those procedures, Lynch and her team made 10 specific recommendations about ways to better enforce the procedures or to overhaul them entirely. 

What are the recommendations? 

Of the recommendations related to operating procedures, the most wide-reaching addresses access to department policies and documents. Currently, department policy dictates that DPS manuals and documents are confidential. Lynch and her team recommend that the department make nearly all of them publicly accessible. 

The team also recommends that DPS update its operating procedures relating to hate crimes and bias incidents to expand the list of protected characteristics so that they align better with New York penal law and the university’s Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity Policy Statement. 

DPS should also update its policies for dealing with campus protests and unrest to diminish the amount of subjective decision-making involved, the team recommended. 

Lynch and her team also made recommendations related to officer discipline and internal affairs investigations. DPS should update its policies to reflect how it actually deals with discipline matters, which Lynch and her team found often differed. The team also suggested that DPS include rude and unprofessional behavior by officers, which was previously investigated as a quality of service complaint rather than an internal affairs complaint, as violations of department policy.
The department should also modify its policies to mandate that officers report excessive force to their supervisors and intervene when they observe excessive force by another officer, Lynch and her team said. 

The team recommended officers receive trauma-informed sexual assault reporting training so they can respond more appropriately to survivors of sexual violence. 

What happens next? 

Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a statement Monday that he accepts the report’s conclusions and has directed the appropriate campus leaders to implement its recommendations. Actions by the university and by DPS have, at times, exacerbated fear among members of the campus community, he said. 

“We let you down,” Syverud said. “I am committed to ensuring we do better to rebuild and strengthen trust and mutual respect among our campus community.”

In an interview with The Daily Orange, Lynch said that SU is working with Chief Ronald Davis of 21CP Solutions to help implement the recommendations in her report. Davis has served in various policing positions for 30 years and was appointed executive director of former President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

Syverud has said he will provide additional information in the coming weeks about how the university plans to implement the recommendations. 

Published on February 24, 2021 at 8:07 pm

Contact Michael: [email protected] | @MichaelSessa3