Welcome to public uh safety committee meeting.

We are here today to talk uh about two agenda issues.

One is we are going to speak on PAL progress.

The other is youth policy and the numbers around it so far.

So here I'm joined by my colleague uh Pat Hogan, uh Rashida Codwell, Martinave, and myself.

Here is Chief Shov and uh Athletic Police Athletic League director, Jimmy Oliver.

Thank you.

So take it away.

And then Deputy Chief Trudell and Sergeant Grimsley will come up and they'll do the youth portion.

They have the they have put a lot of effort into this.

So to be honest with you, they both know a lot more about this than I do, so you'll get a better presentation.

Okay.

And then we went and took it a step further and reached out to other PAL programs to figure out how we should start this.

And we looked at Albany PAL, which have been around since the 1960s.

Buffalo PAL, 1950s, Detroit PAL has been around forever as well.

And they all gave us a clear message when we started this.

It said, start small.

See, you know, get it started.

This is something new that Syracuse is going to be bringing.

Start small.

And so that's what we did.

And I just want to step a little further back.

It came to the desk of the mayor, Ben Walsh, the county executive, Ryan McMahon, Chief Kenton Buckner, the former commissioner of Parks and Recreation and Youth Program, Otis Jennings, brought it to them.

Because if you all remember, during that time, there was a lot of marches in our community, especially what was happening with George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, and all those folks, what happened in nationally, and it started to come into our community.

And so Otish said, hey, if you want to build a connection with your community and the youth, you need to start a PAL program.

Otis Jennings was a part of PAL in New York City.

That's the first one.

The longest one that started in the 1920s.

It was called Play Street.

And so planning, planning, planning.

We decided to go with four one day camps, which we launched in 2021 in July.

Nottingham High School football players, the athletic department, former coaches, semi-pro folks, police officers.

We had about 70 kids there for our first camp.

It was for four hours.

And that morphed into our soccer program.

Must mention Dale Johnson from Tilly's Touch, his team.

They ran the camp for us at Schiller Park.

It was in the pouring rain.

We had the police department, Onadaga Sheriff's Department, the District Attorney's Office, the probation department, the Sheriff's Department, correction officers in the pouring rain, running skills and drills with our young people in this community.

Then we went on to do dance.

We did African Dance.

We did Ninja Warriors.

We had Latino dancing, learning how to do salsa.

We had officers.

Chief Shaft was there serving food.

No, he didn't.

He served the food and we uh um worked with a group, um Don Juan Cafe, which is on the Near West side, who catered that event for us, um, and the kids had a great meal.

Um, and then we closed it out um with basketball.

Um, the uh great um John Wallace, um, who again on this listening and learning tour that I was able to do coming into this new role.

Um, I met him and pal came up, and he's like Syracuse don't have a pal.

I was a part of pal in Rochester, and he started naming off all the officers that impacted his life and made him do push-ups and things of that nature when he was acting up in school, and he said, Hey, if there's anything that I can do to support what you guys are doing there, I'm there.

And so we were looking for a basketball coach.

We had one to run our um camp.

Um they had some issues going on, so I reached out to John Wallace and he came out and ran our camp.

Him and his son, police officers, share of state troopers, up at Upper Higher Onadaga.

Um, that was one of the places that I identified when I was the deputy commissioner of parks and recreation.

We had just revitalized that area.

It wasn't getting a lot of use.

Um, and I felt like that would be the perfect place for us to do it.

And so that's where we did it.

And it was just great.

I mean, all the chiefs were out there, everybody was out there.

Again, Chief Schoff cooking on the grill, flipping hamburgers, hot dogs, having a good time, just having conversations with our young people, but also having the young people do what they love to do in Syracuse, and that's play basketball.

Um, and so talking about those four camps, um, that's why we're able to be here five days, five years later, um, because of people who stood with the police department, stood with the Office of Community Engagement on this new direction of connecting kids, cops, and communities, CFAC, Nottingham High School, Alton Hicks, the coaches, Dr.

Tanisha Jackson, Dale Johnson Tilly Touch, John Wallace, Syracuse University, I can, you know, go on and on and on, um, people who've sown seeds into this mission.

Um, it's it's been it's been great.

Um, and uh, you know, I always say the police department during that time um took uh you know, took a hit um for what was happening nationally.

Um and they swallowed their pride um and was open to this concept to happening.

And what I will tell you is all the other police athletic leagues slash activities leagues across this country, they started based on the lock key um law where parents were leaving their kids home while they were at work, um, and the officers um found out and they said, well, let's start this.

Here in Syracuse, the reason why I believe we're going to be sustainable and continue to grow, is because we decided to do it when it was hard.

It was adversity.

Um people didn't believe that we were gonna be consistent and intentional about what we said we were gonna do, and we were able to do that.

We continue um to do that, and that's why to date the number of participants that have been in our program, 10,000 kids have been through the PAL program.

Um that's duplicated numbers, unduplicated numbers is 8900 kids.

So that's about between 23, 2400 um kids a year.

Um, and that's not just our programs, that's things that we sponsor, events that we do that have kids, school events, and all those different things where we have police officers where we're engaging with those.

How do you track how do you track this image?

So there's a program called um open forums that the city of Syracuse has.

Um and what we do is um, and this was the best, you know, we were doing handwritten applications when we first started, and we came across this uh software um through partners in the city um City Hall.

Um we were able to keep create a QR code.

Um and our parents were able to scan because everybody has a phone.

Um, we're able to scan and this information, once they scan it, um, it goes to this software so we can tell where the kids go to school, what's their zip codes, how much their parents make, um, how many times have they been involved in PAL?

Um, do they enjoy the fact that their kids are engaging with law enforcement?

Um, have their kids met police officers while engaging in what we do.

Um it it it a variety of different things that we do.

Uh gender.

Um we have over uh 74% of our kids are males.

Um percent.

Um are females, and this is something, you know, as we continue to do it, and we're working on different initiatives to try to engage our young uh girls in our program, and you know, whether it's volleyball, whether it's our girls going tech program that's sponsored through Micron, um, really being intentional about how we attract and also asking questions.

We do a lot of surveys with our students that we get from Syracuse University, Maxwell, the Fox School, um, to, you know, uh the community link program where they dive deep into our data um and try to give us um some feedback on how we should do certain things and do we know the average age, Jimmy?

Yep.

Um our average age, uh we go from five um to 16.

Um five to seven is 11%, eight to ten is thirty-seven percent, eleven to thirteen is thirty-six percent, and fourteen to sixteen year olds are fifteen percent.

So out of this fifteen uh uh out of this eleven to thirteen and fourteen to fifteen.

So so say eleven to fifty to sixteen, basically.

When when you look at the data of the youth involved, and we'll talk about this later.

Use it maybe involved with with uh with with officers and law enforcement.

Do we know if we track if if there's a any of this individual in the number of youth, or is it or is it nothing?

Well, what uh what I would say is that we um when we advertise, when we uh recruit, we send it to all of our schools.

Um we have a partnership with um the marketing team at the Syracuse City School District, where every time we put a flyer together, we send it to them for approval, they then send it back, then we then go into the schools and hand deliver it to the schools, and then we send it out via email.

Um we attract a very diverse group of kids.

Um one of the examples I will give you, um, and we brought in in front of the council, um, was our March Madness basketball um tournament that we did on Fridays and Saturday nights um from 8 p.m.

to midnight.

Great turnout.

Great turnout.

Yeah.

Um quite a few uh counselors were there, um, elected officials, community folks.

Um, and I know there was some concern about um uh having kids stay out to midnight, you know, transportation and all of those different things.

And uh I tell you, and you know, in the two and a half years that we did it, um, there was only one incident that we had.

Um, because what we knew is that if we gave, and this was for 13 to 18 year olds.

Um, they came from all across the city, all walks of life.

Um that's one of the requirements you have to be a city resident.

No, you don't.

Um we get so suburban kids can be.

Yeah, suburban kids um can come.

We have kids as far as North Syracuse, um, Skinny Atlas, DeWitt, Fayeville Manlius, um Tully, um, who are hearing about what we're doing and they want their kids to be a part of it.

Um and I and I can tell you what the percentage, I mean, 86% of the kids are cities of Syracuse residents.

Um and um, you know, you had to be there um to see it.

Um, you know, they're vi you know, they're vying for yeah, they're vying for a t-shirt that says champion on the back.

Um, this is something when I went around the community um and asked them what they wanted.

Everyone remembers the Southwest March Madness Umurnament.

Everyone remember the boys and girls club March Madness program that we used to do back in the day.

And so we brought it back.

Um, I mean, you go from the first week, you know, we have a police van that has Syracuse police on it, and because we got to take kids home.

We want to make sure kids get home safe.

And so the first couple, you know, times we did it, you know, we probably had three or four kids um that wanted to ride with the uh police in the police van, and they wanted to make sure that we dropped them off a block before we got to their house because you know, at the time they didn't want to be seen.

Um, but by the uh end of the week, we're dropping kids off in front of their house.

Um they're laughing.

Um there's detectives taking kids, you know, because they're hungry at the end of basketball, they're taking them to McDonald's, they're taking them to Taco Bell, they're having conversations about what they want to do.

Um that's not with me in the room.

That's one-on-one with an officer having those conversations in the office saying, I didn't get home till three o'clock and all.

I'm like, what do you mean you get home until three o'clock?

She was like the kids were hungry.

And I'm like, what?

And McDonald's was closed, and then they went to Taco Bell, and it was just like, I didn't, you know, it was just amazing.

And every week, and then, you know, Sergeant Hillman, um, you know, he came and he was taking kids home.

And, you know, he's getting in the kids were running to the vehicle.

They they no longer wanted to be in the van.

They wanted to be with those specific officers to take them home.

And I just that little bit of time, um, it goes a long way to changing perceptions and things of that nature.

And yeah.

Can I say this?

And I'm just gonna say sentiment of everything you said.

I went to multitude of uh what Pal has done.

And there are kids from all across, which I loved.

The March Madness, you know, I love that.

I was there volunteering.

Um I have nothing but say thank you, kudos, and we gotta continue to build those relationships with our kids.

Have one request, and I don't know if it's possible.

When I think of police, pal program, the police athletic program, the relationship with the police, and I don't know if it's possible.

If it could be like police fire, P F A L.

Like there's any way we can bring that on because our fire department are first responders in the city of Syracuse.

So those are the sometimes the first people that children are seeing on emergencies going into the homes into the communities.

If we could build that into corporation of PAL, I think it would even take us.

I think it would be a model that we would start that other people will want to be a part of, um, especially with us having the fire um program at PSLA with our youth being a part of wanting to be, you know, into fire.

So I, you know, I I love what the pal does.

I love the programming, I love the diversity.

And a lot of times these are kids that are not playing high school sports, or they're these are kids that just want to be kids, and they're playing, and that part just makes my heartbeat.

So, like, I you got thumbs up for me with that.

You know what I mean?

And I and I appreciate that.

I I really do.

Uh I think that we could, you know, collaborate um with the fire department.

And as anybody who lives in the city of Syracuse, the fire department, everybody loves the fire department.

You know, the kids and you know, all the things that they have been doing historically.

Um, and I recognize that because a lot of folks said that when I was going around this community.

Um, but I really wanted to have this for the police department.

The the police department deserves um to have something like this.

Um, and you know, it's coming around.

We're we're doing so much that we don't advertise.

You know, the leadership in the police department um has been open to anything and everything that we do.

Um, and I think we're now starting to see the return on investment.

I love it.

I just want collaboration because collaboration is gonna be so supportive for our community that they see that we're one, we're not different.

Yeah, we're all first respondent.

Well, I'm not, but you guys have first respondent, and we're a team, so I love like I said, I love the PAL program.

I think it's phenomenal.

Um just adding that piece would be great.

No, it's a great.

Especially even finances because fire have research and money that police sometimes, you know what I mean, coming together can probably bring more and more supports and finances to the program.

Yeah.

So and I I I you probably don't know.

So if you could, because I'm looking at around impact, you know, larger impact than the front, right?

Larger inf impact in the sense that as youth go through this program and are engaged.

Is it is it is it creating like a snow effect in terms of their larger life?

So between, like I was saying earlier, between age 11 to like 16 in the city, you know, as you keep track of you know, youth that are you know, involved, justice involved, you know, how many of these pal are there?

I are they not there because that that could also be a good you know credit to the department, saying that, you know, if you look at our youth, those that are involved, there is that chances that once they are involved with pal, you know, it affects their larger life as well.

In which we don't have to deal at the back end with with justice and involve you, you know, because they are not because they see something more than just you know what I mean.

So so see see if you can dig into those numbers and compare it, whoever of those kids that are just as involved as any of them been through pal.

Because do when you take that number, do you take the names as well?

Yeah, we have their first class names, so that would be a lot easier for you.

But if you're just asking, even um more to that um for the long term, uh you able to break out, well, I'm pretty sure you are, but maybe giving us the numbers out of that 10,000, the individuals who have gone through your direct programs versus events.

So, yeah, that would be helpful because then that's a separate group, people who you who are in a program with you for weeks versus people who have attended, you know, occasional events.

Yeah, we have we have all you know, I'll definitely get that information to you.

Um, you know, we're very young.

Um, but what I will tell you is four years from now, um, the kids who started with us in 2021 will be graduating from high school.

Yeah.

Um, and um we'll get a chance to see whether they become police officers, um, go off to college, become entrepreneurs, because what we're doing, I want people to understand that you see police athletic.

That's not all we do.

Um, when you talk about literacy in our schools, we are doing a literacy league that we've been doing for the last three and a half years where we have SU students reading with our kids, writing with our kids, and then and we're doing that right at the police department on the on the fifth floor where we have a gym, where we have classrooms.

Um when you talk about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics since 2021, we've been going up to Syracuse University working with the engineering department, the mathematics department, the physics department, the engineering department, kids from six to 13 been on campus a week long.

We've been going to ESF for the last four years, six to 13-year-olds that are learning the environmental side of STEM.

We've been doing that.

You know, um again, when I was the deputy commissioner of parks and recreation, what we identified is that in one of your former colleagues, um, councilwoman Grinnell, um, said, how can we start um investing the in the kids who live, eat, sleep, play here to become lifeguards.

That that was that that was a that was a directive to me.

So I, you know, I oversaw the aquatics department, so I went to those folks in the aquatics department, because every one of those individuals who was in our aquatics department were recruited at Corcoran, Nottingham, Hinneger, and uh ITC.

And I challenge them to go into our community centers and start engaging in our young people so that we can start building our base, because every single year we have to put in a waiver to get folks outside the city to come and be lifeguards, and then they are not familiar with our young people, and there's discrepancies.

And so I started that there, and we started doing that at all of our community centers.

And then when I came over to the police department, for the last four years, we've had over 400 kids who we've been teaching how to swim.

And some of them are lifeguards and our bulls.

And because what we recognize is that our kids don't know how to swim.

Our parents don't know how to swim.

And they were afraid, because we're doing it at Nottingham.

They're big Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Imagine a six-year-old, we talk about impact.

You talk imagine a six-year-old who is afraid of water, never been in water before, and go up to Nottingham to go into that pool.

They're crying, they're screaming, they don't want their parents to leave.

But the team and curl and his team of lifeguards built relationships with our young people, encouraged them, took them step by step, moving them inches and inches and inches closer to that water.

And then they got them in day five, Friday, that same kid is jumping off the diving board in 16 feet of water and swimming over to the uh ladder.

That's what the Syracuse Police Department is doing.

That's what we've been doing, because we recognize there was a problem.

How do we get more lifeguards?

And that's what we've been doing the last four years.

And science, like I said, graduations, like I said, the next in four years, we will see that first group of kids.

And again, they're from all over the city.

You know, they're at the city schools, they're at private schools, they're outside the county, but those kids have been with us since 2021 and have been a part of our program.

And if I could just go a little step further, go ahead.

And I just want to pass you guys this because this will, you know, we just hosted, you know, our inaugural awards ceremony about a year or so ago, um, where we wanted to highlight police officers, our kids, our partners, um, because had it not been for them, um, we wouldn't be where we are.

And we hosted that event up at Burnett Park in the indoor ice skating rink.

And that'll give you just a little, you know, a little story of just of our partners or our just our reach and what we've been doing.

Um, and then I brought this basketball for me.

No, this is we actually use this on Saturdays for our basketball league.

But this basketball has significance.

Um, it's not a Wilson, it's not an NCAA basketball.

Um, but again, when early on when I started in 2021, um, just trying to figure out what was gonna set us, you know, aside from other folks that are working with kids, and how could we illuminate other programs and businesses across this country that are doing the same similar things or just getting their start?

This young man and his father in Atlanta, Georgia, um, 14 years old.

This is his basketball that he created because him and his father recognized that other businesses were monopolizing and the cost and things of that nature.

And so the police department was their first order, first order in 2021.

Their first order, our kids use that ball, have been using that ball for the last four years in our basketball league.

Um if you if you go, this is the article.

I don't think you're getting that ball back.

That's the article on the organization, the website is at the top.

You guys can keep that so you can see.

Um, but that's as far as the police department and PAL goes, you know, in other states.

And then the final thing, um, we talked about we talk about reading and literacy and building relationships and things of that nature, is this book.

Um Derek Dotson wrote this book called The Police and Me.

Um, I was up at 3 a.m.

in the morning, couldn't sleep, you know, scanning CNN online, and I came across this book.

One of the things is how can we start having those conversations at zero instead of having them at a hundred?

And this book gives us the opportunity to go and read this book to kids and pass it out to kids.

PAL brought the author here to Syracuse and went around to schools, met with the Chiefs, met with the mayor, met with the district attorneys, met with the school district.

Um, and what this morph, this this seed that we were able to plant is the Syracuse Police Department is going around to every one of our elementary and middle schools and reading this book.

And the impact of this is that when I guess when you sell over a thousand copies of a book, you know, the New York Times sends you a letter saying you sold, this author, because of what we did in the Syracuse Police Department, got that letter.

And we're doing that consistently.

And it just talks about if you get pulled over, what are the do's and don'ts, what are the different roles and responsibilities in the police department, our team, our leadership, um, have tasked folks in the I think we purchased somewhere around 1,500, 1,500 copies of this book.

So that's, you know, another one of the impacts.

And then I have one final thing.

Because we don't have a building, because we can't, you know, be in front of the kids consistently Monday through Friday or Monday through Saturday, like we want to be.

We have to use our partners like the community folk art center.

And this summer, our kids were able to do poetry, effective speaking, a variety of different things where we put our kids on stage and they get to go up in front of that microphone, and you know, my name is such and such, and this is what I love.

But they also, what is PAL mean to me?

I've always wanted to know, you know, because we never asked, we never had time to do that.

Well, you know, what does PAL mean to the kids?

And one of our young ladies wrote a poem about PAL this summer.

And she says, we love Pal.

Her name is Yusung.

Um, she's third year in PAL.

And she says, when attending PAL camps, everyone feels like a champ.

Living the dream, overseeing the storm, valuing friends in every form, encouraging everyone to be peacefully through play, and always loved and appreciated every day.

This is one of the kids, she's in uh third grade.

She wrote that poem over the summer, and one of the um instructors gave that to me, and it's a whole bunch of them that they gave, but it it blew me away because this is something that I always wanted to know.

Well, we kind of designed, you know, because it was gonna go in our newsletter, but I I didn't want to put it out there because I really wanted her to be able to do it.

Um, but she wrote it, and like to see the kids get up there on that stage and you see their personality, and for C Fact and their team to do that on behalf of us was amazing.

Um, and it was, you know, um emotional um because that's how the kids feel.

That's not what Jimmy's saying, that's what they're saying.

We're about, and that's what the police department and PAL's been doing.

Well, thank you, Jimmy.

Uh anybody?

I want to make a comment.

I was at an award ceremony last year.

And we're gonna I'm gonna share this story.

You know, last year we lost to Ashton Day Kenzack, and he was a member of Pal.

He got to the ball games, and I saw your love, and it was a tearful funeral that day.

And I said we see it together, and we know that was harder on you, because he was like a son to you.

And if people don't know, you know, sometimes you want to save everyone.

But sometimes they get older, we can't control what goes on the home.

We don't.

And I know how we felt that day.

If we could only have saved him, and it wasn't possible.

But you did everything you could with pal and and so much love that you give to kids who don't know what love is, and many of those kids see you as a their father in their situations when you may not see it, Jimmy.

They love you as a father, and you give them love because they don't get it at home.

So I want to say thank you.

And I want to thank you, Chief Shaff.

I've known you for many years.

You've always been there with our neighborhood watch meanings going back when you were a surgeon, and the service that you have given our community.

I can't say thank you enough.

I can't say thank you.

Thank you for all you've done for our community as well as and I hope Jimmy will you will continue doing what you do great.

But thank you.

Thank you.

I had one question.

I know you have the um like pals in the parks type of things.

It are those like on the same dates every year, or is it or close to?

Yeah, we try to um in the summer, um, our summer camps, which is longer than our other, but we try to do everything the same time because you know we want to keep the schedule on the parents' schedule, and we're very, yeah, so that's what I wanted to do.

Yeah, all right.

And can you make sure to send that schedule to um our office so that we can have it as well?

Yep, absolutely.

Who do I send that to?

Um Nathan, uh Nada or Native.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um, I mean, that that's a great point because I was gonna um ask, you know, to have maybe a schedule for if you do anything weekly, especially around winter, kids uh inbound, and to see if you guys are doing anything, you know, we can spread that around the neighborhoods and making sure that they get it.

So it is it like weekly or is it seasonal?

It's seasonal.

Seasonal.

We would love to do it weekly.

Okay.

Um if we had a space to do it weekly.

Um, you know, if that's one of the things that when we were planning this, something that we need.

Um, and I think we're, you know, we may be inching closer.

We have some folks who have approached us um about certain things, but we would love to do it weekly.

Our parents would love to have their kids dropped off at our center and do homework and do these different things.

We would love it because we're already doing it with our limited capacity, but we would love to.

I mean, we would have a filled place, you know.

Um partnership with school district because you got you got all this gym in every school.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, we do.

We partner our part, you know, we partner with Tom Ferr.

And you know, Chantel um at the school district.

We host our basketball leagues at Ed Smith, you know, we do our Christmas celebrations at Roberts at Hinneger at Nottingham, all over the place.

We do that.

But the thing is we have to be able to separate.

They're in school eight hours a day.

That's 40 hours a week.

They need a space to disconnect from that, but also being able to reinforce what they're doing in the classroom.

But it needs to be separate.

I would love to use a school, but it I want them to be removed from that.

We want them to be removed from that.

So Jimmy, you you looked at other buildings or anything like that.

That's your next step just to get away.

Yeah, you know, it's just you know, um, to be quite if I had to be frank, uh, you know, we need to build something from the ground up.

Um, you know, we looked at the boys and girls club, um, which I think would have been a perfect place for us because we had done a lot of programs there, unfortunately, that has passed uh us by.

Um, but there's some folks that we're in early conversations with that want to sow a seed into our community.

Um, and they have approached, you know, approached me and win those conversations for we'll definitely bring you all in and the leadership in.

Um, but I'm hesitant to mention those folks because other folk, once they hear, they wanna, oh, how can we help?

You know, and so I think you know, um, we could build something for you know, four million dollars that would be efficient for every kid in this city to be able to come to.

Um we identify locations that would be um neutral um for everyone.

Um, but I strongly believe um that we could bring kids from the east side, south side, west side, north side in one space, but you have to have the individuals um running that space who have relationships with kids who are gonna hold them accountable and set the expectation to where it needs to be because our kids can mix and mingle together.

That notion that we can't is false.

So speaking of the grant you got the good speaking of the grants, um, and so so pal has been funded by ARPA for the last what three, four years, right?

And three, four year olds, three, four years, three, four years.

And then as we go into 2025 to 2026, I think grants are picking up, right?

Over our part to cover, right?

So we I think we have currently have a grant.

How much is that?

It's 450,000.

450,000.

Okay.

And just to give you some context on the ARPA money, um, that 300,000 that we got, yeah.

Um, that was for like infrastructure, getting us started and things of that nature, marketing and you know, those type of things.

Um, and so that was for six to twelve year olds.

That was our first phase, that's where we wanted to start.

Um, our second phase, which this 450,000 is for, is for our 14 to 19 year olds.

In my opinion, those are the individuals who need us the most.

Those are the ones that are being attracted to, you know, the vandalism, bringing in cars, all those different things.

I know a lot of people don't tend to want to work with that, but that's the demographic.

So the second phase was for that 14 to 18, and that's what that 450,000 dollars will go through.

14 to 18.

And how many years is it?

19.

How many years is that?

Three three years, four years.

Three years.

Yeah, three years, four years.

Okay.

And then our third phase will be 20 to 25.

So we want to be able to help our kids from six to twenty-five.

Because when you get to 2025, I'm getting my first job, I'm graduating from college, buying my first house.

I don't know how to do that.

What if I haven't been exposed?

I want them to be able to come back to us and ask those questions, and we'd be able to guide.

And I really took that idea from when I was in Virginia.

We tend to when our kids flourish at the age limit, we kind of push them out and say yeah on your own, and then they struggle and blah blah blah.

But we want to be able to do that.

And I think we're able to do that.

We'll see a lot of different um impact stories and missing moments.

What about you know, we we have exalt program coming in?

Have you looked at where you could collaborate with Exalt?

They're gonna be a different yeah, I uh it's gonna be different.

I've researched um Exalt.

Um was brought to my attention maybe like a year and a half or so ago.

Um I know they're housed in New York City.

Um they work with at-risk uh youth who are I think 14 to 20 or something to that effect.

Um I think where we could partner um is having um that program come and be like um peer mentors um because I see the success stories that they've had in New York City and what they're trying to do.

I get you know, um weekly newsletters from their CEO to my uh personal um email um and seeing what they're doing.

Um they have some fantastic kids, they have some fantastic, I think there's room for um improvement and and I know it's starting early here in Syracuse, um, but I think once we get to the level of where they are in New York City, I do believe that they could uh be mentors to our kids and people and I'm asking that Jimmy because you know we knock on wood that none of our pal kids get to be just as involved in in any way, knock on wood, right?

But it if in case that happens, right?

It'd be a good collaboration because with with uh with exalt, you know, is it's a recommendation.

You're not forced to it.

You're not forced into the program.

Is it a recommendation?

So with with if we can catch those youth early and and be able to say, okay, you were in PAL, you know, you bit you've been great here, the other level to take you up because with Exalt, it they are pushing them into a professional world, yeah, right.

Yeah, and and it's a would be a great bridge if there were those those kids involved in those spaces to say exalt take over, we are here to support.

So I guess that would be some space of collaboration in a sense, but knock on wood, let's make sure none none of our kids go through.

Well, let's talk offline because you know the parts I got some stuff to give you offline, you know what I mean?

Oh, you see, yeah.

Okay, one more question.

Yeah, one more thing.

Um, so as far as the phase two and phase three, what about staff capacity?

Yeah, that's a great question.

Um we would love to, you know, um have staffing, love to have you know, six part-time staff, um, an assistant director, um, a director of communication and marketing, because I believe that's where we are.

Um person who can oversee uh our grants um as well, because I currently am the one who does that and reporting and things of that nature, and person who can go and find other opportunities for us, which I'm really not a big fan of grants because they run out, and then you got to find another grant.

Um, I prefer individual donors because you can get a variety of those folks.

Um, but yeah, we we need a staff of if we want to do a building, it's gonna be a staff of 20 to 25.

Um, if we keep it where it is now, we're gonna need um a staff of 15.

Um, because currently the staffing that I use is myself and my interns that I get from Syracuse University, they help um do that, and a lot of these kids are you know trying what they're gonna do in the real world.

Um, and so um just being creative, but that's what I would say.

Um in the short term, I would say between 12 and 15, and then if we were able to get um you know a facility, I would say 20 to 25 um people.

All right, any other questions?

Well, Chief Jimmy, I want to thank both of you for uh spending some time with us and running us through the impact of pal.

It's exciting, and I think for takeaway, if you can get us some of your schedule, maybe the council is our neighborhood that we can push them out and encourage young people to take part in your programs.

Thank you.

I think it's a valuable exercise.

We got some good ideas out of here.

And I'll work on them.

All right.

Thank you.

So let's let's get the other agenda item on.

Um because it is TV.

No, no, no, it's not a good one.

Oh, Jimmy's still.

Wait a second, sorry.

Um I asked I'm not speaking.

Is this the next meeting?

No, no, no, not the fire.

It's part of it's part of the same.

I thought it was the five.

Yeah, no.

You're not fire.

Yeah.

Wait a minute.

So the youth side of this.

It was it was two, it was two items.

The youth pal and the youth policy.

Fire with the uh five tenants.

What are you doing next?

What are we doing?

Youth policy.

Huh?

Police policy.

What happened?

Coffee.

Okay.

So give it to us dry.

Um again.

Uh we are transitioning into uh the the second part of this meeting, which is to look at the uh youth policy and and and you know, some updates from our January meeting.

If that were me.

All right, yeah, Deputy Chief Rich Trudell.

Um, I know uh you've met Sergeant uh Brian Grimsley before he came back in uh uh earlier in the year.

Yeah, certainly a tough act to follow um when you start uh moving from PAL into the actual criminal arrest numbers for juveniles, but I do think there is a direct correlation in terms of what the police department's doing with this diversionary efforts and how it directly relates into PAL.

So the two are definitely uh integrated.

So what I thought um we go over um some crime numbers first, um jump into any uh policy highlights.

We try to stay uh with best practices, so we have made changes to our policy since we last spoke on this issue, and then maybe get into some of the enforcement and diversion uh efforts that we had within the police department.

So in terms of uh crime numbers, uh I'll share this if you want to pass them down.

So we uh we broke out the crime um within the last six years, and this is just juveniles, and you and the ages of the juveniles are 12 to 17.

So 12 to 17.

Um and we started in 2020, and you can see we looked at countywide and citywide, and you see how in uh 2020 the numbers are are are lower, and then they get even lower when you go into 21 and 22, and that's largely related to COVID and the reductions in crime really nationwide and within our city that reflected that.

When you get into 23, both looking at the city and countywide uh arrest, that's when we started to see pockets of juveniles working together and the um going after the kias, uh Hyundai's um that that TikTok challenge.

Um we saw a large increase in the number of pattern burglaries in both the city and the county.

Um and when you talk about the criminal trend of like a small percentage of people committing a large portion of the crime, and you see that in shots fired, you see that in in a lot of the different aspects of criminology.

That holds true with this juvenile issue too.

And that is uh really what we're seeing today as well, is that you know, in when we look at our increase in burglaries, um, you know, some of our top offenses, it's it's a single group or groups of kids that are doing that.

So you we peek at uh 2024 with 685 arrests in the county and 368 in the city, and then you see a marked decrease, and I think that um has a lot to do with our enforcement efforts and our diversion efforts, PAL being one of them.

I can get into more of that towards the end.

Um when you talk about juveniles, you also gotta talk about recidivism.

And we do see, and you can look at those recidivism numbers, the number of kids that are getting arrested repeatedly.

Those are the kids that we try to focus on with some of our programming and some of our enforcement efforts.

Try to with our crime analysis, we look at who's uh who those kids are.

Can we get them into PAL?

Can we uh look at Trinity, the what we look at uh in our mayor's office to reduce gun violence meetings.

Um can if that's not working, work with our probation county attorneys um on the enforcement side.

So you can see some uh revit is uh recidivism numbers there, and then to give you a flavor of what what it looks like in terms of ages, um we broke out um 15 and under, so that's 12 to 15 years of age, which are four age groups there, right?

Four years compared to our 16 and 17 year olds, and as those kids start to mature, and you it's you know a little bit more on the 16 to 17 year olds, but again, that uh there's a four-year age group in one and a two-year age group in the other.

So um you can see that we're you know, percentage-wise, we do see more 16 and 17 year olds arrested.

So that's uh a good sense of you know the numbers and how they've been trending over the last few years um in terms of arrests and any questions on that.

Uh the kids who are recidivist, uh I mean judicial systems limited and what they can do.

I mean, you can it's electric electronic home confinement than Hillbrook, right?

Is that how it works out basically?

Yeah, same judges all the time.

Yeah, but they're they're like and I'll get into that now.

But there was there was a significant movement when we started seeing at the height of our problems with kids uh breaking into cars or stealing cars and breaking into houses.

And as a law enforcement, I'm and I'm talking county attorney, district attorney, uh family court.

We all got together and we started looking at this problem, and where we could under the law share information, we started doing so.

And I really feel like that when the point we started doing that a year ago helped to drive down, helped to identify the kids, understand what we can do with them, more communication with probation about suggesting electronic home confinement.

Um I know uh in family court, they uh went from multiple judges seeing family court cases to two, so there was some consistency.

Uh uh Judge Julie Cecil and uh Judge Javalia.

Yeah, um, so you started to see maybe you know, when you started seeing repeat kids coming through instead of going before multiple judges, you're going before the two.

So there was a bunch of things that were done over the last course of the year.

We're meeting uh biweekly.

We meet bi-weekly to talk about the the the one percent, two percent of the kids that are causing all the problems.

So, yes, there are limitations to the family court system in our justice system, but we can work within those parameters to do a better job, and I think we saw that over the last year.

Um, can I just ask a question?

I don't I'm not familiar with the latter judge.

Um are any of those judges uh uh look similar to any of the uh kids being arrested.

I mean, in terms of ethnicity, is where I think you're um so um um no, one's a white male, one's a white female.

Okay, yeah.

Do we have any?

Um I am not sure of that.

I'm not sure of that.

That's more family core, but I can I can find out as well.

I don't think we have court.

Do we have any uh family court judges that are colored?

Well, I know I think what happened was they the rule the laws changed though now with you know some of the stuff has to go depending.

I remember um yeah, they were trying to explain to me what the law chain, because some of them used to go to light regular court, now it gets switched over.

But if you're just talking family court, I don't know.

If you're talking city court, then yes, there are city court.

No, I know city court.

I'm just saying because you're saying that they go between the two.

And I I mean it's just like a teacher, I think is important for people to see individuals who they can relate with.

Understand.

Yeah, it's just kind of falls outside the purview of the police department there.

So to answer your question, I think, yeah, there are limitations, but we work within those limitations, and I think we could we have started to become more effective.

There's places more we can do, but um, it's definitely helping.

I mean, we run into city councilors, we we run into the same, usually the same families that do the same things in the same neighborhoods.

Yeah, and what I worry about more or less, not only because of the damage they do to the neighborhoods, but also what happens to them.

Because down the road, you sometimes that might be a real issue too.

And when you when you are identifying the individuals who are continuing to do things or you know, continue to be arrested and sending them through programming, how have have you found that to be effective?

Um, and and I asked because in the North and South Valley area, there was a group of kids who were like busing windows and things of that nature, um, throwing rocks at cars in the mornings, and uh I got involved and found out that some of them were already in program with um sons.

Um good life.

And so then good life got involved, myself, good life, and the principal, we all work together.

It was roughly three kids, two of them have gone on a straight and narrow, I'll say one of them we haven't well.

I haven't been able to reach, but um, but they may have.

Yeah, I I think the the stories that I would have are are similar to that, but I do think it's a combination.

I think it's a combination of the enforcement side and where you can have uh you know, send over to PAL, right?

And we do have examples of kids that we have worked with that have been that were criminal justice involved, and we send a PAL and they become successes within that PAL program.

We also have Trinity.

Uh Trinity has been with our community for a number of years, and that's um where we take kids, we put them with caseworkers, we follow them, we understand what the problem is in their environment.

Yes, right, whether it's truancy, family, anger issues, whatever it may be, and then try to get them the proper resources within our community.

And we have success stories there.

Um, you know, you were obvious exalt was on my list, right?

That's the next thing that's coming to Syracuse in terms of you know, volunteerism at internships that that can you know help with these kids.

So I think it's a mixed bag.

I think you have to have the enforcement for the kids that aren't, you know, come you know, listening or they're not taking advantage of the diversion, but we also have uh, you know, our successes within that diversionary system as well.

So Trinity is a separate program, yes, and who's that run by?

It's run by the police department, but it's run through funding through the police department in combination with a number of different um, you know, partners, Salvation Army, um, and then all of the things that are.

Also the wrap around service.

Yes, it absolutely is, and then all of the folks that you just talked about, good life, yeah.

We you know, we have the resources within the community, we understand what the kid needs, and then we try to get the kid into those different programs within the um the community.

And how many um roughly how many youth have you worked with in Trinity Duty?

So that's a great question.

Trinity's been around for years.

I will have to get you that number.

Okay.

Um it is something that we keep track of each year, but we've had trivia train in our community for you know four or five years now.

So is that in the department?

So um that under you, Lieutenant Hillman.

When well, when I left Intel, Lieutenant Hillman took over um the grant that covers that, and now um Sergeant Breen's in there.

Um, but it's largely run by the Salvation Army who we fund through some of our gun violence reduction um uh uh money.

Yeah, can we have some numbers to cover the Trinity numbers?

We can definitely get that for you as well.

And can you just give me a little more um in depth detail on the truancy?

Because I see so many youth out during the day that I am was completely confused as to why I mean they're out in groups.

It's like it can't be like no one sees them.

Everyone seems yeah, no, so it's more of a combination that we work with the the school district.

There we don't have a truancy obviously, we don't have a truancy van.

There's there's no you know, per se law that's gonna allow us to pick up a kid.

I mean, that's that's in you know that that presents challenges uh in and of itself, putting an officer in that position.

But I will say that we work with the school district on all of these programs, whether they be Trinity, Soon to be Exalt, um, and identifying those kids that are truant and working together to get them into those programs, but it's not like the police department is out trying to enforce getting those kids back into school.

There's a whole number of host of reasons that that doesn't work.

So versus versus um, I guess it's versus two thing, picking them up, um you aren't able to take their names that way you can find out, you know, what schools they go to, have they been in school, and follow up that route because I don't think the schools are reporting that these kids are not in school.

So, yes, we definitely do that's exactly what we do.

When we when we run into kids that we know are criminal justice involved, no, I'm not saying they're criminal justice involved.

I'm just saying they aren't going to school.

Yeah, so we are not just specifically looking at kids that aren't going to school.

We are looking at from the police department's perspective, we're looking at kids that are about to become criminal justice involved because they're at high risk or they're criminal justice involved, and that is when we look at whether or not truancy is a component of that, but the police department's not out just looking at truant students alone without having that criminal justice nexus.

Well, when you say about to be criminal justice, like that think that is the route.

If they're not going to school, they're out in the streets, they're gonna be getting into things eventually.

Right.

I totally agree with you.

Totally.

I just all I'm saying is that it's not just truancy, it's truancy coupled with some sort of criminal nexus for the police department to be able to get involved.

Well, I I think we are running out of time.

Um can is it possible, Sarge Sergeant?

Yes, sir.

Is it possible, Sergeant, for you to maybe talk about um how we regulate other law enforcement entity like sheriff, you know, running things in town.

Because I, you know, early last year, we had an incident where a sheriff, you know, um arrested.

Yeah, I recall, I mean, I think that was one of the things.

So then we talked about that's right.

Figure out some parameters around that.

So it's the short answer is we we don't really have an avenue to regulate an agency like uh the county or the shoopers and what they do in terms of their common practices and procedures, right?

There's a set of state regulations on how to interact with juveniles when it comes to arrest procedures, um, temporary custody, things of that nature.

But in terms of you know, street level operations of handcuffing and detainment and things of that nature, we and they don't really have an avenue to dictate each other's policies, if that makes sense.

So we have our own set of policies that uh set up how officers are to interact with juveniles in terms of handcuffing, detainment, making notifications if there's a detainment of a juvenile, how they're detained temporarily at our agency or the PSB and things of that nature, but there isn't really an avenue other than you know, say pick up the phone and and have some conversation to really force another agency to change their operative procedures outside of what New York State and the federal government already says.

And any um conversation around, because what happened uh earlier this year was disheartening, you know, for the kids and and for the families and for our city.

Has there been an informal or some sort of an agreement with the sheriff that if you run into something like that, can we collaborate?

We know you you can't within the county of Anadaga, and there is that, you know, um territorial, you know, uh overlap that that can happen.

I i is there a way we can have maybe have an informal agreement with them that if if there is such a thing, because I I believe our police officers who are patrolling our streets every day are much more uh culturally aware than than somebody coming from Madison County to here.

Yeah, yeah, I so I can probably answer that.

Yes, there are informal conversations that that occur, right?

Particularly after that that incident.

Um, but I think I'll have to rely back on Sergeant Grimsley, we can't dictate that, right?

So we collaborate with the Sheriff's Department on a number of different things gun violence, um burglaries, that sort of thing.

So we we did talk about this particular incident, but and what they do, we cannot control, right?

So I think what's important though is we learned from that incident and we made specific changes to our policy.

Our policy always had restrictions on age and only could uh handcuff with certain criteria that we can go over in a second.

But then we went and we added that there has to be a parental notification as well.

So we always notified parents when we made an arrest.

But if we put handcuffs on a kid and then find out that we're not going to make an arrest because we're gonna divert, there's also a mandatory notification there as well that it was added to our policy subsequent to that incident.

So when I say that we look at best practices and learn, we do.

We absolutely do, and we have that in our policy, but it's very hard for us to control outside of those informal conversations, another entity that can that has legal jurisdiction in our age in our city.

Okay, and um, just to add to that particular situation, the push to remove bystanders could possibly have been uh worse, I'll say, not for the ones that were there, but had those kids left, that little girl would have been left by herself.

Is that something that you are addressing?

Um because they weren't, you know, unruly or anything, but that's the first thing that uh when officers um there's multiple people, they're constantly telling people to move away from the scene or back up.

Um and that could have taken a turn.

So I when it comes to youth, yeah, how are you guys addressing that?

So I think I understand your question, but I might need some clarification on it.

So um I think that can be.

So what I'm saying is just like um uh Mr.

Oliver just expressed, they they had provided a book for youth to understand how you interact with police.

Those everyone doesn't have that knowledge.

And if those youth seemingly got a little rowdy, they're 12 and 13.

Uh, you know, how would those officers would have uh handled them?

So I think that's where we where the counselor talked about.

I mean we train our officers in cultural diversity.

We train your officers.

Right.

So again, I I I'm sorry, but I just can't speak to the sheriff's department's actions in the city.

When it comes to us learning from that in the city that occurred in the city, yes, and absolutely we are we are taking steps, we are training our officers, but it when it comes to the sheriff's department, that wasn't our incident.

We weren't there, we have no control over it, but we certainly recognize it, made changes, and I think we have trained our officers in a different way that um would handle situations with more of their training in mind when it comes to that culture, cultural diversity or discretion in dealing with juveniles.

Chief, what procedurally, what would happen, what would happen if like it during that incident if the SPD had arrived, would SP be in charge or would the sheriff's being a good idea.

No, I mean that's gonna be we're gonna assist and and and our supervisors would show on scene, and where we could intervene in situations that we didn't agree with, we would try to do that.

But um, you know, that that scene or that crime is the sheriff's department.

Let's say initiate the action becomes theirs, right?

Right.

And I think I'm sorry, Chief.

Uh and I think I think where we are trying to go with it, Chief, is is there is this you know, discomfort around and sheriff just you know, forcing their way, and I know they gotta do their job, forcing their way, you know, and as in to be honest, it's it's not always pretty, you know, and and and and for us as a city, there gotta be a way where if a sheriff force their way into the city as an entity that is in the front of protecting the city, that that there is a collaboration that gotta happen.

Some I don't know what that would look like, and we may need to explore that further to see.

I mean, certainly we can have conversations with the sheriff's department, and and like I say, I don't want to paint them in a different light than this.

We we have strong collaborations with the sheriff's department.

Um all I'm saying is that we can't dictate their policy, we can't dictate the way they do their job, but we do have strong collaborations, and I think we can we can work on doing more of that now, right?

So that maybe we can alleviate some of those situations that we're talking about in the future.

And I think we gotta be realize not only a complex situation, but also, you know, the the uh we have 40 open positions in the city police department.

We have we depend on them to help us out a lot, right?

Yeah, I mean, like I said, we have strong collaborations.

I mean, when it comes to reducing gun violence, um, I can't think of a partner that's been stronger when it comes to um those efforts in the city and always willing to step up.

Um I just need to be clear about our ability to dictate their policy on you know, handcuffing juveniles and making it in line with ours in exactly the way we do it.

I just we just don't have that capability.

And we we will make further inroads.

We've already done that, we've had those informal conversations, we will do what we can.

I just there's a there's a balance there.

Yeah, and and and you know, we obviously have laws that will govern that that that relationship in terms of jurisdiction, but that there's to your point, collaboration is key, and and how do we enhance that collaboration to make sure that as they enter into the city that at least the presence of SPD is there, you know.

Yes, they can do their job, but our present need to be there in some shape or form.

Yeah, and I think I don't I really I guess the answer is I don't have a good one for you right now when it comes to us being in the city with them every time they are.

Um but we can work towards um some different solutions, maybe some more collaboration um when it comes to that.

But yeah, I hope you understand.

I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm just trying to say that they are uh their own separate legal law enforcement agency with a jurisdiction that overlaps with ours, right?

So, you know, I think I'll leave it at that.

And I I think Sarge will push this on you to kind of go sleep over it and think it over in what what ways we could, and then obviously, as you said, is is a uh it's not it's not a black and white kind of thing.

It needs to be explored a little further and to see what options we come up with, and maybe we can follow up.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think having just a conversation with the the sheriff's agency, the sheriff's department in terms of how they run things and you know, seeing if there's room for like I said, some sort of two-way communication.

We are running and chief uh East Friday meetings.

Anything pressing you wanna add, because we can follow up another time, but anything pressing.

No, I think we covered a lot of the the points that we wanted to cover.

Okay, okay.

Thank you for the data.

Follow up with the Trinity numbers coming your way.

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you for the data.

We appreciate it.

We have it.

Congratulations on your promotion.

I'm sorry.

I said congratulations all the time.

Thank you, sir.

You you we want to take five minutes, recess, and then we get over.

All right, this will end this meeting and we'll be back.

Motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Yeah, so move second, second, all right.