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City officials discussed Syracuse’s Smart City initiative and its effects on policing during a panel Wednesday. 

The Smart Cities and Policing panel, hosted by Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, featured Mayor Ben Walsh, Syracuse Police Department Chief Kenton Buckner and Amanda Darcangelo, a data engineer for the city. Martha Garcie-Murillo, senior associate dean of inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility initiatives in the iSchool, moderated the panel.

Walsh’s Smart City Initiative, which aims to improve the city through the use of technology, is a strategy for “inclusive growth” in an economy predominantly composed of big data companies, Walsh said. It’s important that Syracuse is competitive in the data industry, he said. 

“We are committed to open data and transparency. We are committed to privacy and data security,” Walsh said. “As I mentioned, we’re committed to inclusion.”

The city is implementing several initiatives to support the efforts of Syracuse Surge — an economic growth project that intends to use technology to revitalize Syracuse — and the Smart City Initiative. At least 17,000 street lights have been changed to LED technology, which saves $3 million per year in energy and maintenance costs, Walsh said.

Other efforts include beginning construction of a science, technology, engineering, art and math high school in the city this year, he said. 

“In addition to getting some validation from our local business community, we’re getting validation from global corporations that I think appreciate the investments we’re making but also the intentional way in which we are deploying this strategy,” Walsh said. 

The police department is a data-driven organization and that data analysis is essential because broad-brushing communities doesn’t work, Buckner said. 

“You unintentionally harm more people who have nothing to do with the crime than you do apprehending the individuals who are responsible for the plight of known communities, which is why the data is so important,” he said.

SPD has access to 500 cameras in the city, Buckner said. The department uses 220 body cameras, license plate readers and Tasers. SPD is also in the process of implementing dash cameras and is in the early stages of a drone program. 

“We have had some limited use when we have had large crowd sizes to be able to provide kind of an overview aerial perspective of what goes on in the crowd to be sure we will be able to protect the people who are participating,” Buckner said. 

SPD has started to use social media, and the department currently has more than 30,000 followers on Facebook, he said. 

The growth of smart technology allows for better decision-making and greater transparency for residents of the city, Darcangelo said. A data warehouse being built for the city will allow for the consolidation of information across departments within the city’s government, she said.

“We don’t want to be collecting information that just sits in a data warehouse and doesn’t have a use,” Darcangelo said. 

Published on May 5, 2021 at 10:25 pm

Contact Kailey: kmnorusi@syr.edu