Syracuse Citizen Review Board Meeting - September 1, 2026
Syracuse Citizen Review Board Meeting - September 1, 2026
The Syracuse Citizen Review Board (CRB) held its regular meeting on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, at 5:30 PM in the Common Council Chambers. The meeting began without a quorum, which was later achieved, allowing the board to ratify minutes and proceed with business. Key highlights include the resumption of investigations, approval of liability insurance, acceptance of two resignations, a data breach disclosure regarding the Right to Know data, and public testimony expressing both support and frustration with the board's authority.
Consent Calendar
- None. The August meeting minutes were initially tabled due to lack of a quorum but were later unanimously approved after quorum was reached.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Peter McCarthy (former CRB Chair) : Thanked the board for resuming investigations. Asked for specifics on when investigations would start (staff confirmed they have resumed after insurance was secured). Inquired about potential difficulties obtaining data from the police department; the board stated it will rely on NYCLU legal counsel in the interim and called for public support if cooperation falters. Also urged compliance with open meetings law.
- Tammy Honeywell (resident, DSA) : Thanked the board for restarting investigations and offered to help with a public education campaign about the CRB.
- Reginald Bradwell (resident) : Voiced strong frustration with the CRB's lack of disciplinary power over police, citing personal negative experiences (arrested at a community meeting, lengthy investigation with no result, denied entry to city buildings). Argued the CRB has no teeth and questioned its transparency. The chair acknowledged the limitations and solicited community input for legislative changes.
- Peter McCarthy (second comment) : Emphasized that the CRB can influence policy through data-driven recommendations and urged the board to actively advocate for changes in training, supervision, and use of force.
- Aaron Thomas (citizen) : Suggested that SPD sends too many officers to incidents and needs better de-escalation techniques.
- Donna Moore (Common Councilor, Public Safety Committee) : Thanked the board for perseverance, reiterated council support, and clarified that the council cannot discipline officers due to contractual limitations.
- Kevin Revere (resident) : Expressed encouragement about the CRB restarting, saw police pushback as evidence of the board's teeth, and suggested public data sessions to make findings more accessible.
Discussion Items
- CRB Pause Update : The board voted to resume investigations pending insurance. Two resignation letters were received from Linda Bat and Michael Kern, reducing the board by three members total. The board will work with the council to fill vacancies.
- Insurance : The liability insurance policy for the board went into effect on the meeting date, covering the board retroactively.
- Board Member Responsibilities : Emphasized attendance requirements and upcoming training on holding community events as mandated by legislation.
- CRB Administrative Monthly Report : Staff reported that 10 cases have been prepped for next month. Community outreach activities in August included meet-and-greet with the mayor and chief, CNY Jazz, Jubilee Park, Hanover Square Music Fest, Latino Fest, and Clinton Square. Weekly "boots on the ground" outreach downtown. Also held a DSA relationship-building meeting and a Unified Day event (with SPD and Fire Department for the special needs community) featuring sensory stations.
- Right to Know Data Report (Chris Piero, Data Analyst) : Data releases from SPD covering 2025 and Q1–Q2 2026 were found to contain identifying information (names, dates of birth) of adults and children, though prior releases did not. SPD removed the 2025/2026 data within 24 hours, but 2024 data with identifying info remained online until mid-August. Corrected data (without IDs) are now posted except for Q2 2026. The CRB will publish an updated report next month. Piero acknowledged the oversight and committed to manual review in the future.
Key Outcomes
- Investigations resumed immediately after insurance was confirmed.
- Resignations accepted (Linda Bat, Michael Kern); board down three members from full complement.
- August meeting minutes ratified unanimously after quorum was achieved.
- Data report to be updated with corrected Right to Know data and new recommendations before next meeting.
- Board will continue community outreach and schedule training on events and attendance.
- Public encouraged to provide input on desired changes via written or verbal comments.
- No cases taken into executive session; meeting adjourned on a motion.
Meeting Transcript
The citizen and the board members to the Tuesday September 1st, 2026. See uh Citizen Review Board. It is now 5:30. Um, and the meeting is being held in the common council chambers. Um again, welcome everyone. And Peggy, can you do the uh attendance role? Uh he's excused here. Okay. She's excused. Yeah. Okay. So we are one shy of a quota. Um Linda is Lynn. No, oh, I got it on the if you look on the agenda. Okay. Okay. Okay. So um we're gonna have to table the approval of the August uh minutes because uh we don't have a quorum. So that'll be uh table unless Harry shows up and then we can re um um bring that back on the agenda. Um the first thing on the agenda is the update on the CRB um pause. Uh as most of you know that we have decided to continue with the investigations. Um and then we had a um a request to board members that if any board members chose not to stay on the board, they needed to have their written resignation in by that Friday. Um and we have two letters of resignation. Um one is uh Linda uh bat, and the second one is Michael Kern. Um so what we're gonna have to do is that we'll have to work with the council uh for replacement for those two um members that decided that they were gonna drop off of the board. So we're now down um three members off of the full CR um CBR CRB board. Um the next thing on our agenda is the update on the insurance, and I am happy to announce that as of today um the insurance policy went through, so the board is now covered by the insurance. So uh so that's all taken care of. Um the next thing on is um the board members' responsibility. Um one of the things that we're gonna try to do in the upcoming uh the rest of this year is to make sure that we keep tight reigns on attendance for board members. Um we need to have all our board members attend all the meetings. Also, um we're gonna do a special training for the board members on institution instituteing uh events in their area. So um that was one of the things that's outlined by the legislation that board members need to hold an event in their area. So we're gonna do some training to help board members achieve those uh those goals. Um the next thing on the agenda is the CRB administrative monthly report. Good afternoon, everyone. Um I would like to first take this time to uh to say thank you to the CRB staff and also to the board members for all that they have done for showing up and standing strong throughout this process. It hasn't been an easy task, but I want you to know that your work did not go unnoticed, and I thank you so much personally for your encouragement on the times that you know we felt a lot of discouragement and things, but thank you again for your encouragement and your support. Truly it did it definitely impacted not just me but the office itself. So thank you. Um so on August the 12th, um during our public meeting, it was decided that CRB will ret resume um investigation. The first thing on the agenda before getting back to the investigation was getting the liability insurance, which um our chairman just told you that we are all set now with the liability insurance. Um I am currently working on cases that are approaching their expiration dates and managing the cases that are um out of our scope of work by getting the information and things together and sending them letters to let them know that it's not something that we actually handle within our scope of work. Um since August the 24th, I have already prepared um, or I won't say prepared, I've prepped 10 cases with the hope of them being completed by our next month's meeting. Uh CRB continues to be active in the community during the month of August. We attended the meet and greet uh with the mayor and the chief. We attended CNY Jazz. Umcerts in Jubilee Park, Hanover Square Music Fest, the Latino Fest and Clinton Square. On Fridays, we do uh boots on the ground, which we do outreach in the downtown area and the surrounding areas, uh handing out brochures and information in regards to what the CRB does. Uh we had a DSA meeting, and we also had our unified day.
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