Syracuse council hearing: CRB officials cite 60-case backlog, contract investigators and hiring as budget priorities

Don Johnson, vice chair of the Civilian Review Board (CRB), told Syracuse City Council members during a budget hearing that the board is managing a backlog of complaint investigations and is relying on contract investigators to catch up. "We probably have about a 60 cases that needs to go before an investigator," Johnson said, adding that roughly 25 of those are at or nearing an 18-month cutoff.

The backlog has prompted the CRB to expand use of an outside investigator contractor identified in the hearing as "Freeland" (also referred to as a freelance investigator) to conduct most of the investigative work. Johnson said the contractor is "willing to take on the heavy lifting of those, overdue cases so we can get that caught up," and that the board expects to funnel more cases to the contractor — from an estimated 3–4 per month previously to about 10–15 per month while the backlog is addressed.

Why it matters: under the CRB process described in the hearing, the Syracuse Police Department assembles reports and video evidence and sends that material to the CRB administrator, who reviews and packages files for the…