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The city of Syracuse is working to implement proposed street cameras and GPS tracking of Syracuse Police Department vehicles. An executive order from Mayor Ben Walsh establishes provisions to ensure community input and collaboration.

The order’s stated goal is to allow citizens to contact their representatives about surveillance technology in the city and “ensure technologies are implemented in a safe and well governed way.”

One measure implemented by the order is the creation of a working group to oversee financial, privacy, equity and efficacy concerns, according to Mayor Ben Walsh’s Surveillance Technology Policy. The group — consisting of eight representatives from the city of Syracuse and five representatives from community institutions and organizations including Le Moyne College, Syracuse University, the CNY Community Foundation, the Community Data Group, NYCLU and NuAir — is responsible for defining and categorizing different surveillance technologies and presenting recommendations, a May press release said.

The order defines guidelines for bias prevention, privacy standards and honest representation.

It also defines surveillance technologies as those which “observe or analyze the movements, behavior, or actions of identifiable individuals in a manner that is reasonably likely to raise concerns about civil liberties, freedom of speech or association, racial equity or social justice,” according to the order.

The working group accepted public comment for 14 days, from Dec. 6-20, 2021, to gauge and address community response to increased surveillance along the lines of the Surveillance Technology Policy.

Though he hasn’t yet reviewed responses submitted during the public comment period, privacy is one of the most common concerns regarding surveillance technology, said Lt. Matthew Malinowski, the public information officer of the Syracuse Police Department.

“People don’t want to be walking down the street and feel like they’re being spied on, (and) we get it,” Malinowski said. “We have to understand that this community had … hundreds of incidents of shootings with injuries. So we need to be able to combat that crime. We need people to understand it’s not there to spy on you, it’s there to try to reduce crime and keep everyone safe.”

Malinowski clarified that the cameras would not be surveying any area that police officers would not otherwise look at — biometric, facial recognition and whole-body gesture analysis technologies are banned from use in the city, according to the city of Syracuse’s surveillance technology policy.

“Governments and private sector businesses have increasingly used technology such as video to improve security in public places. In general, citizens expect the police to collect information from us in public places that could serve public safety interests,” said William Banks, a professor in SU’s College of Law and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. “Citizens should always be wary when government enhances its surveillance of citizens, but street cameras have an upside that likely outweighs privacy concerns.”

Ultimately, Malinowski said, surveillance technologies are valuable investigative tools. Without cameras and “proactive policing,” he said, neighborhoods affected by crime may experience more effects.

“If you ask the people who live there that are afraid to walk to their convenience store, because they’ll be the victim of a robbery or stray bullet or some sort of crime, I think that the people in those communities actually do want more police, they want to be safe,” Malinowski said. “They do want more technologies.”

Due to delays caused by COVID-19 complications, acquiring parts for the cameras was slow, ultimately resulting in setbacks in the cameras’ implementation, Malinowski said. Funding for the cameras, as well as for maintenance and storage, are also concerns, he said.

“These are very sophisticated, and they require a lot of maintenance. So for when you go from 500 cameras to 600 cameras to (700), and now you’re trying to maintain 700 cameras. It just becomes a pretty substantial cost. But we do think it’s worth it. And that’s why we continue to push forward with this initiative.”

Published on February 6, 2022 at 11:50 pm

Contact Jana: jlseal@syr.edu | @JanaLoSeal