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Public safety has been one of the most important issues in the Syracuse mayor’s race so far. 

The Daily Orange spoke with each of the five candidates for mayor and asked them what the city needs to do to improve safety.

Police reform

In February, the Common Council and the mayor’s office approved the Syracuse Police Reform and Reinvention Plan, a 76-page document outlining the city’s vision for the future of policing. It lists changes to the police use of force policy, outlines new initiatives to improve police-community relations and lays out plans for a new police reform oversight committee.

The Syracuse Police Accountability and Reform Coalition was one of 14 advocacy groups that presented nine demands last summer to reform SPD as part of the People’s Agenda for Policing. SPAARC said the city’s new plan ignores several critical issues in police reform.

How effective do you think the SPD reform plan is, and what are the next steps for SPD reform?

Tom Babilon (R):

“Common Council and the mayor — they seem to think that placing additional rules on the police is somehow going to make them act differently. What they fail to recognize is that discipline is incredibly difficult to enforce under the current union contract. If you want to look at changing the culture of the police department you’ve got to look at the union contract and change that first.”

Khalid Bey (D):

“I don’t constitute restating what’s already in the rules as police reform. It seems to be more ceremonial than anything. It really takes a mayor who understands what needs to happen in terms of police reform. You need a top-down approach to policing to assure that we are making a valiant effort to make our neighborhoods safe.”

Janet Burman (R):

“I am a little bit skeptical because the premise going into developing that plan was that police are bad. (SPD) needs to be fully funded. They need to have a fully staffed level of officers so that we can afford to bring officers out of active engagements and provide them with the training and the interactions with the public that are going to improve relations, improve understanding between both groups.”

Michael Greene (D):

“I don’t give a lot of weight to the plan. I think it was a written summary of things that are already in motion. I don’t think you compare this to what happened to Ithaca, which was truly a reinvention of the (police) department. I’m not necessarily saying that’s what we should do in Syracuse, but at least there was an effort there to really truly think things (through).”

Ben Walsh (I):

“Police reform and accountability is a dynamic process. Well before the murder of George Floyd and the civil unrest that followed, we were working very hard on the issue of police reform. But what happened in 2020, for me, made those efforts more urgent. And so rather than lean on what we had accomplished to date, we accepted the challenge of the community to do more and to do it faster.”

Absent landlords, safe housing

A 93-year-old was murdered in the Skyline Apartments on James Street in March. The apartment building, and others like it around the city, have increasingly become magnets for crime. 

Skyline Apartments have 19 open code violations with the city, according to Syracuse Director of Code Enforcement Jake Dishaw. The city is threatening to take legal action against the landlords unless they address them soon. 

In response to the murder, Common Council approved a nightly SPD patrol of the building to deter crime, but the buildings’ owners have since reduced patrols in lieu of private security.

What would you do to help resolve the issue of poor landlords and buildings with frequent crime?

Tom Babilon (R):

“There are (ways) to address problem properties called the nuisance abatement ordinance. It’s something that I don’t believe Mayor Walsh has used effectively. I actually prosecuted nuisance abatement ordinance properties, and we could get a property (fixed) within a matter of a month or two. It never went to the point where it was a problem like you see with the Skyline (Apartments).”

Khalid Bey (D):

“I already wrote the law to deal with that, and what you need to do is enforce it. We have to put action where our words are. We have to do the job so that people know that we are for real about improving our housing stock and making landlords responsible.”

Janet Burman (R):

“We have to take a very tough stand, and one way to help is to work with local landlords and support them in meeting code restrictions and requirements and creating more adequate housing within the city. I call upon the mayor to consider setting up temporary housing in spaces that we have in the city in order to give a safe and sanitary environment to families that are currently living in really horrible conditions.”

Michael Greene (D):

“We’ve been a city that has not been very tough on slumlords. Oftentimes it feels like the mayor doesn’t even know what’s going on in a lot of these houses.”

Ben Walsh (I):

“We need to invest in code enforcement. When you look at the budget that we’re proposing to the Common Council right now, it’s proposing a significant investment in our code enforcement operation.”

Published on May 4, 2021 at 8:48 pm

Contact Nick: [email protected] | @NickRobertsonSU