The Citizen Review Board handles about 100 complaints against the Syracuse Police Department each year, but the board’s administrator says once those are sent to the department’s Office of Professional Standards, many are backlogged.

What You Need To Know


  • The Citizen Review Board wants more disciplinary power and a bigger staff

  • The board handles about 100 complaints each year, and the administrator says many are backlogged

  • The Syracuse Police Chief says they are revising the process, so the board can weigh in on the discipline

“Currently, we have a total of 89 cases that are outstanding from 2017 to 2019,” said Ranette Releford, the Citizen Review Board administrator. “Those include cases that are outside the 18 month deadline from when an officer can be disciplined.”

It’s a problem that Releford says happens often. She says based on the Civil Service Law, you must present a resolution within 18 months from the date of the incident for officers to be disciplined.

“I personally believe that sometimes, there could be an opportunity for someone to push a case back, so that the 18 month deadline passes prior to the resolve of a case,” said Releford. “Which presents another grave issue to the public’s trust with regard to the department being the sole person to hold themselves accountable.”

Releford says the board would like to have more authority to discipline police officers because right now they can only make recommendations. Syracuse Police Chief Kenton Buckner says he’s going to take them into account.

“We recognize that we were not complying with the language where my decision should not come chronologically before the recommendations come from the CRB, and we’re in the process of formalizing that,” said Buckner. “So, that procedurally I will not be making decisions before Ranette has had an opportunity to weigh in.”

Buckner also says a lot has changed over the past 18 months. They’ve hired new officers for the internal affairs unit, made it mandatory to record all interviews and sets up monthly meetings with Releford. Releford agrees progress has been made under Buckner, but more needs to be done. She’ll continue to send policy proposals to the Chief and Common Council.