By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

Residents of the village of North Syracuse now can request property checks, file traffic complaints and more on the North Syracuse Police Department’s new website and mobile app.

Police Chief William Becker gave an overview of the department’s new tech outlets at the Sept. 24 meeting of the Village Board of Trustees.

The website, northsyracusepoliceny.com, and the North Syracuse Police Mobile App provide a vast repository of resources for North Syracuse residents such as the police department’s use of force policies and annual reports, COVID-19 information, emergency alerts, and the ability to submit traffic complaints, commendations or complaints about individual officers, tips about criminal activity and requests for property checks while a homeowner is out of town. Residents can also make appointments for child car seat safety checks, NYS Safe Child ID Cards and adult fingerprinting services.

The app — available in both the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store — also allows residents to register their bicycles or input information for senior citizens or people with medical conditions in case they wander off and are unable to relay important information to first responders.

Becker took the helm of the NSPD in 2019 after Steve Rotunno was appointed chief of the Cicero Police Department. He has 38 years of law enforcement experience and served in the New York Air National Guard.

If the records available on the NSPD’s website are any indication, the village is off to a good start for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mandated police reform review. In June, Cuomo signed an order requiring municipalities and law enforcement agencies across the state to review their policies and develop a reform plan in order to remain eligible for state funding.

Mayor Gary Butterfield said he recently received a call from the governor’s office to remind the village about this obligation. The state has sent out workbooks to each municipality and a suggested timeline for gathering community input and developing a plan. Municipalities must ratify or adopt their plans by April 1, 2021.

“There was indication if we didn’t do this, funding would not be forthcoming to us,” Butterfield said.

Becker said local municipalities and police departments are to collaborate with major cities to present their reports to the state. Onondaga County is assembling a coalition of local law enforcement officials, the Syracuse Police Department and the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office to make sure local departments are complying with the governor’s directive.

“The governor stressed that he didn’t want to deal with 500 different police departments,” Becker said.

Becker said New York State does not require every police agency to seek accreditation. NSPD is among the fewer than 200 accredited law enforcement agencies in NYS, out of about 500 agencies.

“In my opinion, we exceed most of these standards as an agency,” Becker said of NSPD.

Butterfield concurred, but said the village still must follow the state’s mandate.

“I believe we’re in good shape, but we still have to do these things, and we have to do them irrespective of what the county is doing or we stand a chance of not getting funds,” he said.

Becker said North Syracuse is unique among its fellow villages and police departments, so the village should hold its own listening sessions with community stakeholders to make sure North Syracuse’s specific needs are addressed.