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Syracuse University created the Community Review Board — which is made up of students, faculty, staff and administrators — in the fall 2021 semester. A year later, the CRB is now starting to handle its first cases.

Before 2021, students could only file complaints against Syracuse University’s Department of Public Safety with the department itself. But the board, which acts as an independent body, will now review student appeals regarding DPS conduct and decisions. The board also reviews prospective DPS policy, department procedures and specific “key community-facing functions of DPS,” according to the board’s website.

Brianna Sclafani, a member of the board and a third-year SU law student, said the board provides a resource separate from DPS to help address concerns in a secure way.

“Our job is to make sure that every DPS officer is held to the highest standards of community policing, is held to their own standards as outlined in DPS policy and also just to make sure the community is heard,” Sclafani said.

Mary Grace Almandrez, vice president of diversity and inclusion, recently joined the board. In an email to The Daily Orange, she said public safety goes past just patrolling and responding to crime.

“It’s about building community, creating trust and fostering authentic engagement,” Almandrez wrote. “I am confident the Board’s work, combined with the efforts of the Department of Public Safety, is doing so much to support those goals.”

In its work reviewing cases, the board has the same access to information as DPS, including body camera footage and statements made to the department, Sclafani said.

“That way, we’re a double check on DPS,” she said.

Sclafani said the board spent its first year of existence building a strong foundation. She said that the board has been holding monthly meetings, creating a relationship with DPS and setting up a website.

On the website, the board provides directions on how to file a complaint and request a review of a filed complaint, as well as the board’s yearly reports. The website lists three undergraduate student board members: Jordan Beasley, Linda Baguma and Adia Santos, who also serves as Student Association’s vice president.

“The foundation we laid last year has led to us having a successful routine and process now,” Santos said.

Both Santos and Sclafani said the CRB is not allowed to publicly share information about the details and outcomes of a case, but did say that the first case went smoothly. But the board will publish anonymous information about appeals to the CRB in May, Sclafani wrote in an email statement.

While the university created the board, it was rooted in #NotAgainSU’s student activism, Santos said.

“#NotAgainSU actually advocated for the school to incorporate a third party, organization or committee or body of people that could hold DPS accountable and serve as a checks and balances group to investigate their cases or complaints,” Santos said.

In a report on DPS in February 2021, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s listed the creation of a CRB as one of her three main recommendations.

While Santos hopes the board doesn’t have to review more cases of potential misconduct, she said she wants students to feel emboldened by the CRB.

“(I hope students) know that they have a body on campus that is working in their best interest,” Santos said.

Published on November 29, 2022 at 11:56 pm

Contact Kyle: [email protected] | @Kyle_Chouinard