The decision to abolish the East Syracuse Police Department was not an easy one to make, but the outcome has been positive overall. Recently, the village of East Syracuse was awarded with a Local Government Achievement Award from the New York State Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) for making that decision.
East Syracuse received first place in the local government achievement award for municipalities with less than 10,000 for “police abolishment and transfer of function” at the 28th annual ceremony from NYCOM.
“This award shows that sometimes consolidation actually increases the level of services,” said East Syracuse Mayor Robert Tackman.
In 2009, the village of East Syracuse was awarded a New York State Local Government Efficiency Grant to study a police consolidation with the DeWitt Police Department. In that study, it was found that 37 percent of the overall East Syracuse village taxes were attributable to the police department.
In October 2012, a proposal to abolish the East Syracuse police department failed by a vote of 521 to 300. At this time, the village was split with residents who supported the consolidation to decrease the tax rate, and others who opposed because the department had been a long-standing fixture in the community.
Two years later, in April 2014, East Syracuse residents voted 333 to 199 to abolish the police department and go into a shared services agreement with the town of DeWitt, which started on January 1, 2015. Factors that lead to this decision included decreasing the East Syracuse government spending on the police department and to increase the services offered by the police in the village.
The East Syracuse Police Department went from having five full-time officers and a part-time chief to being served by a force of 38 full-time police officers who are trained and experienced in criminal investigations, youth education and many other services.
Through the shared services agreement, the village transferred all five full-time East Syracuse police officers to the DeWitt Police and the village was guaranteed one police officer in East Syracuse 24 hours a day, seven days a week and East Syracuse will pay the town $375,000 a year for the next four years to help offset the cost of the additional officers and to help the town make the transition of adding the five new police officers.
In 2013-14, East Syracuse had the highest tax rate of any municipality in Onondaga County at $16.41 per $100,000 of assessed home value. In the 2015-16 approved budget, the tax rate dropped to $15.50 per $100,000 as a result of the consolidation.
“We’re honored to receive this award and we know the decision we made was a good one overall,” said Tackman.
Hayleigh Gowans is a reporter for the Eagle Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected].
