Stephanie Miner plans to revamp internal affairs, empower citizen review board and address rude behavior.
Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner speaks at a June 26 event honoring police and firefighters. Police officers boycotted the event because Miner blocked an award to an officer because of a jury's verdict that he had used excessive force against a suspect.Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner plans fundamental changes in police accountability — an agenda that promises more conflict with the department.
Her decision last week to deny the Wallie Howard Award to an undercover police investigator infuriated the police union. But that’s only the start on her mission to reverse a culture of misconduct and acquiescence, according to Common Councilor Bill Ryan, a close ally of Miner’s. Three federal jury verdicts over the past two years helped convince her change was needed, she said.
“I want to be clear,” Miner said in an interview last week. “What has been evidenced by the almost $2 million that we’ve had levied against the city is that management has turned a blind eye to improper behavior.”
Her decision to deny the award to Detective Alp Llukaci was the first in a series of steps she wants to take to curtail a small group of people who have had a negative impact on the police department, said Ryan, head of the council’s Public Safety Committee.
Miner refused to sign the award that was scheduled to be given to Llukaci (pronounced loo-KAH-chee). She cited a federal jury verdict last year that said he’d used excessive force against a suspect in 2001. The jury took the unusual step of ordering Llukaci to pay punitive damages. The city later settled for $17,000.
“The courts have said to us, ‘Syracuse seems to be unwilling to address their problems,’” Ryan said. “The mayor is addressing it as the leader of this city. Sometimes leadership is a lonely position.”
Here’s what else Miner and police Chief Frank Fowler have planned for the department:
• Revamping the internal affairs division.
• Restructuring the city’s Citizen Review Board.
• Instituting new training and procedures for officers — partly to address rude behavior by officers interacting with the public.
Internal affairs is run like it’s 1950, Ryan said. There’s no central database for complaints, so there’s no way of spotting a pattern of alleged misconduct by one officer, he said.
And there’s no feedback with people who file complaints, he said. They never find out whether the department found the allegations true.
Fowler expects to implement the changes for the division by the end of the summer, Ryan said.
“There will be more transparency,” Miner said of the revamped internal affairs. “We will no longer be turning a blind eye to certain conduct, and there will be repercussions.”
Miner hired her predecessor’s former top adviser, Christine Fix, to research citizen review boards in other cities to try to come up with a model that works. The one that’s been in place in Syracuse for 16 years is ineffective, Miner and Ryan said.
Only one police officer has testified before the board in those years. It has no subpoena power.
The board’s director, Felicia Davis, appeared before the council in April and asked that it be given more teeth. Davis complained that the city’s failure to let the board replace its investigator created a backlog of cases.
Miner has other steps planned for the department, Ryan said. He would not identify them.
The city lost three lawsuits since May 2009 filed by female officers who were retaliated against after they complained about sexual discrimination and harassment. The verdicts total $1.1 million and the city has had to pay another $1 million in attorneys’ fees.
To figure out what the department needs, the city hired Bond, Schoeneck & King law firm to review and update the department’s policies, Corporation Counsel Juanita Perez Williams said. The report, due in about five months, will include recommendations for ways to prevent and handle misconduct. The city is paying $25,000 from the police budget for the policy review and recommendations, she said.
Jeff Piedmonte, president of the Syracuse Police Benevolent Association, said he had to convince some of the union’s 490 members last year to endorse Miner for mayor. There were a few who believed she did not like police, Piedmonte said. After her decision on the Wallie Howard Award last week, their numbers grew, he said.
“There isn’t anyone over there now that I’m going to convince that that’s not true,” he said. “Those who didn’t think it before definitely think it now.”
That’s nothing but union rhetoric, said Miner, herself a labor lawyer before she took office. She cited her history, as a common councilor and mayor, of supporting police, including decisions such as supplying them with new cars, drawing praise from officers for her choices for police chief and deputy chiefs, and agreeing to have the city pay Llukaci’s punitive damages.
What’s drawn the criticism is an approach that previous administrations have never taken, Miner said. She said she’s determined to put an end to a culture in the police department that allowed a few cops to misbehave. The last federal court verdict found that retaliation is so prevalent it has become department policy.
For Piedmonte, the rescinding of the Wallie Howard Award was the latest in a series of decisions by Miner that seemed to be singling out police. She cut the number of positions by 34, which was reached through attrition, he said.
And she’s withholding $1 million from the police department’s overtime budget to pay for the jury verdicts, even though the city is appealing those rulings and the money probably won’t be needed until next year, he said.
The Wallie Howard Award decision has left some cops wondering if Miner will have their backs when a controversy erupts, Piedmonte said.
“Our concern is, if that happens here, is she going to take the side of the police, or is she going to take the side of the liberal community saying this is horrible,” Piedmonte asked. The officers have no doubt that Fowler and the deputy chiefs will be on their side, Piedmonte said. He said he does not believe Fowler could possibly have supported Miner’s decision to rescind Llukaci’s award.
Fowler refused to comment.
The police department wasn’t the only city agency hit by cutbacks, Miner said.
“The reality is, we are in an unprecedented time of fiscal restraint,” she said. “I’m not making it up that there’s no money.”
The other departments are also cutting back on overtime, she said. The police department will have to bear the brunt of paying the jury verdicts and the cost of hiring a consultant to address its problems, she said.
“Where am I supposed to get the money?” she said. “There are only so many resources that I have. The police department is not being singled out.”
The police union usually has about 45 members at its meetings, but last week more than 100 attended, including Llukaci, Piedmonte said. They’re united in their opposition to Miner, but haven’t decided yet whether to picket her office or protest in other ways, such as radio ads and billboards, he said.
Miner said every decision she’s made about the police has been supporting them.
“But I’ve also been sending a very clear message that I think has been bolstered by the police chief and the deputy chiefs and the overwhelming majority of police officers — that there’s an expectation we have about behavior and responsibility,” she said.
In the case of Llukaci, she refused to sign his award because a jury went so far as to order punitive damages, she said. She knows of no other police officer who’s ever been hit with that, she said.
Previous administrations didn’t try to step where Miner has, she said. They were willing to turn a blind eye to misconduct for years, she said.
“I and my administration are different than the administrations that have gone before us,” Miner said.
--Contact John O’Brien at jobrien@syracuse.com or 470-2187.