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The Syracuse Police Department reported 1,081 police stops from April 1 to June 30, according to data released by the city of Syracuse.

Of the 1,081 stops, 839 were Black people, making up 77.6% of stops. According to recently released 2020 census data, 35.4% of Syracuse’s population identified as at least partially “Black or African American.”

Proportionally, “Black or African American” people were potentially stopped at a rate 2.2 times their demographic presence in Syracuse’s population.

Stops in which the person was white saw the opposite trend. Of the stops reported by SPD, 203 were identified as white, representing 18.8% of police stops in Syracuse. According to the 2020 census, 55.6% of the city identified as at least partially white.

Police officers stopped people identified as white by their “apparent race” at a rate of 0.3 times their demographic representation in Syracuse.

The vast majority of the police stops registered by the SPD were purely vehicle and traffic stops, comprising 73% of the stops. The second largest category was “Other – Describe” at 11.8%. Within the dataset provided, the SPD did not provide descriptions for these encounters. 

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh issued an order in June 2020 revising the Syracuse Police Department’s policy to “ensure the principles embodied in the New York City Right to Know Act are incorporated,” the order said.

The Right to Know Act reformed the New York City Police Department by mandating that police officers state who they are to citizens, provide information regarding consent with searches and document search requests.

Part of this revision included requiring SPD to publish stops to the public for each quarter.

“Posting of this data online is another step forward in improving police-community relations and enhancing police accountability,” Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said in a press release.

SPD recorded 17 cases of “Use of Force” during the quarter. Of these cases, 13 were “Black,” three were “white,” and one of the cases did not identify the race. Four of the cases involved teenagers as young as 16. Two separate 53-year-olds were also identified in “Use of Force” cases.

In the report, SPD divided the city into four different districts: Airport, North, Southeast and Southwest. There were 57.1% of the police stops in the Southwest district of the city.  

The 20-29 age group saw the highest rate of stops with police officers, making up 44.8% of the stops in which age was noted by the SPD. People between 10 and 19 year olds made up 14.6% of police stops, and those who are 30 or older made up 17.7% of the stops made by SPD.

Maya Goosmann | Digital Design Director

Part of the SPD’s new policy with “Right to Know” is an altered procedure for “general public contact procedure” where police officers must provide business cards to those they work with in the public.

Over the SPD’s 1,081 stops, 812 were offered a business card, according to the data. Of those 812, 62.8% accepted and 37.2% declined the offer. In 205 cases, the members of the SPD did not offer a business card to those that they stopped.

In the city’s email release on the data, SPD Chief Kenton Buckner thanked the police department for their work to get the data to the public. 

“Accountability and transparency have been a main priority for my administration, and I believe this moves us in the right direction,” Buckner said in the press release.

Published on September 12, 2021 at 11:41 pm

Contact Kyle: kschouin@syr.edu | @Kyle_Chouinard