Syracuse Public Safety Committee Meeting on PAL Progress and Youth Policy - December 19, 2025
Syracuse Public Safety Committee Meeting on PAL Progress and Youth Policy - December 19, 2025
The Syracuse Public Safety Committee convened on December 19, 2025, to discuss two agenda items: the progress of the Police Athletic League (PAL) program and the department's youth policy, including juvenile crime data and diversion efforts. The meeting was chaired by Councilor Pat Hogan and attended by council members Rashida Codwell and Martinave, along with Chief Shov, PAL Director Jimmy Oliver, Deputy Chief Rich Trudell, and Sergeant Brian Grimsley.
Discussion Items
- Police Athletic League (PAL) Progress – Jimmy Oliver reported that PAL launched in July 2021 with a four-hour camp at Nottingham High School, serving 70 kids. Since then, it has grown to include soccer, basketball, dance, African dance, ninja warriors, salsa, and other activities. Key statistics: 10,000 duplicated participants, 8,900 unduplicated, averaging 2,300–2,400 kids per year. Demographics: 74% male, 86% Syracuse residents, ages 5–16 (11% ages 5–7, 37% ages 8–10, 36% ages 11–13, 15% ages 14–16). Programs include a literacy league with Syracuse University students, STEM camps at SU and ESF, swim lessons (over 400 kids taught to swim), and a March Madness basketball tournament (ages 13–18) with minimal incidents. Funding: $300,000 in ARPA funds for infrastructure (ages 6–12) and a $450,000 grant for ages 14–19 (phase 2). Phase 3 is planned for ages 20–25. Oliver emphasized the need for a dedicated building (estimated $4 million) to offer weekly programming. Councilor Rashida Codwell suggested a collaboration with the fire department (PFAL), which Oliver supported. Oliver also provided copies of a book titled The Police and Me (1,500 copies distributed) and shared a poem written by a PAL participant.
- Youth Policy and Juvenile Crime Data – Deputy Chief Trudell presented juvenile arrest data (ages 12–17) from 2020–2024: 2020–2022 saw lower numbers due to COVID; 2023–2024 saw increases driven by TikTok challenges (Kia/Hyundai thefts) and pattern burglaries. 2024 totals: 685 arrests countywide, 368 in the city. Recidivism remains a focus, with a small percentage of offenders responsible for a large share of crime. The department works with the county attorney, district attorney, and family court in biweekly meetings. Family court now has two consistent judges (Judge Cecil and Judge Javalia). Diversion programs include PAL and Trinity (a police-run program with the Salvation Army, offering wraparound services). Sergeant Grimsley noted that the department cannot regulate other law enforcement agencies (e.g., sheriff's department) but has informal conversations and updated its policy on juvenile handcuffing to require parental notification. Regarding truancy, police only intervene when there is a criminal justice nexus, working with the school district. Councilors expressed concerns about the sheriff's department's handling of juveniles and urged further collaboration. Trudell agreed to explore options.
Key Outcomes
- PAL Director Jimmy Oliver will provide the committee with a schedule of seasonal PAL programs and a breakdown of direct program participants versus event attendees.
- The Syracuse Police Department will provide data on the number of youth served by the Trinity program.
- The committee directed further exploration of collaboration with the Onondaga County Sheriff's Department to align juvenile interaction protocols, though SPD cannot dictate other agencies' policies.
- No formal votes were taken; the meeting adjourned on a motion.
Meeting Transcript
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.
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