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Former United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch provided a full framework and several recommendations on Monday for a Community Review Board that will oversee the Department of Public Safety.

In a 97-page report released Monday, Lynch and her team outlined the structure and powers of the CRB. The board will be responsible for reviewing and commenting on standard operating procedures and reviewing all community-facing functions of the department, according to the report. The CRB will also review complaints against officers and issue an annual report with its findings and recommendations to the department. 

Lynch said she hopes the board’s work, along with a public annual report, will increase the community’s understanding of how DPS operates and how it can improve. 

“People just don’t have clarity into the operations of DPS or why they do certain things,” Lynch said in an interview with The Daily Orange. “When you don’t have that basic understanding of why someone is operating in a certain way, it definitely leads to mistrust, and it has here on the campus community.”

Lynch and her team recommended that the review board be composed of 11 members — including three undergraduate students, two graduate students, two faculty members, two administrators and two staff members, all serving two-year, staggered terms. 

The undergraduate students will be appointed by the president of SU’s Student Association. One graduate student will be appointed by the president of the Graduate Student Organization, and the other will be selected by the president of the Student Bar Association. The chancellor will select administrators for the board, and the University Senate will select its faculty members. Staff members will be appointed by the chief human resources officer. 

The members of the CRB will elect a chairperson and a vice chairperson, who will each serve one-year terms. The two must be from different membership categories, though all members of the board will be eligible for either position. 

“One of the reasons we wanted the CRB to be composed of every aspect of the university community was so that there really would be this 360-degree viewpoint on the actions of DPS,” Lynch said. “We felt it was important to have the most objective and broadest perspective on this most important decision.” 

The CRB will be responsible for evaluating new standard operating procedures and training protocols, which the DPS chief will have the final say on. The DPS chief will have 30 days to respond to the board with an explanation as to whether DPS will adopt the board’s recommendations. 

Maya Goosmann | Design Editor

The board will also review appeals to complaints against officers and conduct an annual report on internal affairs. 

“Typically, you don’t get a lot of transparency into the operations of campus police departments, but you can set up structures to deal with that, and that’s what we feel the Community Review Board does,” Lynch said. 

Members of the community, as well as officers, will also be able to appeal the outcomes of complaints filed against DPS personnel. Upon receiving appeals, the CRB will convene a meeting within 30 days to review evidence and come to a decision on the investigation. The board will either agree with DPS’ decision, recommend an alternative decision or recommend reopening the investigation. 

The CRB will submit its decision to the chancellor or the chancellor’s designee, who will make a final determination on the case within 14 days of the hearing. 

The board’s annual report will include data about bias-related incidents, DPS officer weapons-use reports, completed DPS investigations, CRB appeals, files of any public comments concerning DPS employees and additional topics of concern. The board will highlight any trends or deficiencies it notices.

The report, which the CRB will file by June 1 after its first year, will also make policy recommendations based on its findings. 

“We can make all the great recommendations we want,” Lynch said. “If they’re not put into practice and policy, this report will just be paper, and that doesn’t help anybody.” 

Published on February 22, 2021 at 9:38 pm

Contact Sarah: scalessa@syr.edu | @sarahalessan