After a video of a Syracuse police officer detaining an eight-year-old was seen nationwide on social media, lawmakers and law enforcement started racking their brains for plans to move forward with a different approach to similar situations.

Monday’s Public Safety Committee meeting evoked a lot of questions about the Syracuse Police Department's response to the 8-year-old boy, who was accused of stealing a bag of chips.

Most committee members wanted to know what can be done differently.

Last week, during a press conference about the video, Police Chief Joe Cecile said police are “the only game in town,” and alternative responses were needed.

According to data released by the department, there were 270 juvenile delinquent arrests in 2021, or arrests of individuals who were 7 to 18 years old.

What happens to them is decided by Family Court. That’s where they are connected with resources, something Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens said needs to change.

“Officers who are getting to know the families, seeing a 7 or 8 year old constantly in trouble or constantly fighting. I hope there is a way we can legally share that information, because I think that’s a good path,” Owens said.

She told the council she is already speaking with experts who can help with two solutions in mind: alternatives to mobile crisis responses and a streamlined system that can intervene with minors before getting to Family Court.

The deputy mayor and the city’s corporate counsel say establishing an intervention system may be tricky because minors’ information is sensitive and legally protected.

“When you start pulling away some of those, we open ourselves up to information being shared that we don’t want to be shared,” Owens said.

Cecile said that at one point, there was a program called SOS for when dealing with juveniles. SPD would share their information with the school to follow-up after the incident.

The program lasted about eight months before it fizzled out for the same privacy concerns, Cecile said.

“You’d have these children getting people, getting therapy,” Cecile said. “Clinicians that have backgrounds in child psychology will be working with these children after these incidents happen, so maybe they can put them on the right path and we don’t have to deal with them at all.”