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 board to decide whether to hold hearings. Council members pressed CRB leaders on how staffing, access to evidence and budget lines will affect the board's ability to meet statutory or procedural timeframes.

Board staffing and budget lines discussed

Johnson said all five funded CRB positions are currently vacant and that he has been filling multiple responsibilities in the interim. He described a plan that combines an internal hire for an investigator and supplemental contract work. The CRB budget lines discussed included a $20,000 contract investigator allocation and a $65,000 investigator salary line (the budgeted investigator salary appears as about $68,000 in the requested fiscal-year column, reflecting a roughly 3% cost-of-living increase noted during the hearing). Councilors and board members discussed using those funds to hire an investigator quickly while the new administrator is onboard.

Councilors asked for a status report on the backlog and for more detail on case timelines. One council member asked, "How many of those 160 cases are nearing their closeout?" (Johnson answered that about 25 were at the 18-month cutoff and confirmed he has requested a report from Chief Cecil's office to correlate closed and pending cases.) Johnson said he had met with internal affairs and expects a report from Chief Cecil to help determine which cases can be closed and which should be resurrected for review.

Administrator hiring and data access

CRB members told the council the hiring committee will interview two finalists and forward a recommended candidate to the full board; Johnson said final interviews were scheduled in the days following the hearing. Council members and CRB leadership repeatedly emphasized the urgency of hiring an administrator because some case files and police evidence require an administrator-level request for access. Johnson said the board had temporarily designated him to obtain files from the police department while the administrator position remains vacant.

Video and records retention

The CRB discussed a prior budget allocation for a data retention and video-management software package and whether the board should instead use the Syracuse Police Department's evidence hosting service, evidence.com, to retrieve footage and other large files. Johnson said evidence.com could let CRB staff log in to pull video and data directly, reducing local storage needs. The hearing also referenced Lexipol as a law-reference resource and NACo/NACO training options for board members.

Training and transition plans

Board members said they plan to bring a training vendor (identified in the hearing as the same outside investigator contractor) to provide investigation training to board members so they better understand investigative processes and the threshold for hearings. The board also discussed internal pay and title adjustments for staff who are performing beyond current job classifications while positions remain vacant.

Next steps and requests

Council members asked Johnson to provide a detailed report on the status of the remaining backlog (the council requested a breakdown of where the roughly 60 cases stand in the process). Johnson said he would follow up after receiving the police department's report. The CRB hiring committee expected to complete final interviews and recommend a candidate in the days following the hearing.