By Mark David Blum, Esq.

Onondaga County (NY) Sheriff Kevin Walsh complained to the County Legislature that his office and budget was no longer capable to provide both county-wide patrol and donate manpower and resources to what is affectionately known as ‘Operation Impact’. This ‘Operation’ is a joint task force, supposedly comprised of units from Syracuse police, Onondaga County Deputies, New York State Police, and I think other agencies. (After a brief pissing match between the Syracuse cops and their Statie brethren, the State Police have either pulled out or at least cut back on their participation).

Once upon a time, it was called Direct Deployment Teams, then it was called Community Policing, and now it is called Operation Impact. The concept is the same; target a neighborhood or community with heavy numbers of uniformed patrol and unmarked units and target the quality of life issues. One officer does not arrive on a scene, but rather a swarm tactic is employed where 5, 6, 8, even 10 or more police officers will rush to any call.

Two strong reasons justify ending this policy and at least cutting back on County taxpayer’s participation therein. First, this is a City issue and the patrols are all concentrated in the City of Syracuse notwithstanding the City’s own policies and practices are driving up these so-called crime rates. Second, Impact has become a joke on the street. It is known as TnT.

“TnT” means Tuesdays and Thursdays. It refers to how well known are the Impact operations that the ‘hood’ knows Impact concentrates on the eastside on Mondays and Wednesdays and on the Southside on Tuesdays and Thursdays. People seem to be adjusting to this situation fine and despite how neither of these neighborhoods is a “high crime” area – at least for category 1 crimes.

Though they brag about numbers, the reality of Operation Impact is that the operation is directly and moreso resulting in disparate arrest numbers. Recently, I convinced a local professor of economics to analyze the crime statistics for New York State. For all counties west of Herkimer, north of Cortland, and east of Erie, we looked at drug crime and who was being arrested therefore. Here are the hard data:

“Arrest rates and corresponding arrest ratios that were calculated for Onondaga County were then compared with statewide averages with a few nearby counties. … Specifically, the arrest rate ratios indicate that the chances of arrest for black residents in Onondaga County are substantially greater in Onondaga County than nearby counties or the state as a whole. … During the years of the study, the arrest rate ratios indicate that chances of being arrested for drug felonies or drug sales are 20 to 40 times greater for black residents.”

“According to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Statistics, arrest rates for black residents within New York State as a whole are about 4 to 5 times higher than that for white residents. … The unique nature of street drug markets in urban areas has sometimes been offered as an explanation of why minorities experience higher drug arrest rates than whites. Statistical evidence indicates that drug use patterns within these two racial groups are similar. However, the corresponding arrest rate ratios in Onondaga County are significantly higher than the arrest ratios in Erie or Monroe counties and also significantly higher than those for NY State as a whole. … These large differences in arrest rate ratios for Onondaga County have persisted over the time period included in this evaluation (1995-2004). This raises important questions, especially given the similar characteristics of the counties included in this assessment—Onondaga, Monroe, and Erie all have diverse urban, suburban, and rural communities.”

Syracuse has a crime problem; for sure. In 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006, studies, reports, and neighborhood evaluations of Syracuse Police activities show a rising effort of energy concentrated in low income minority neighborhoods. Significant numbers of Citizens and social scientists have decried ‘profiling’ as being the basis for the disparate impact of police activity upon Blacks in Syracuse and Onondaga County. Racial profiling is not the issue; but instead, it is racial stereotyping that is causing the problem.

Operation Impact is the best example of that thinking. Concentrated in neighborhoods far from high crime rates, but in neighborhoods where people tend to be outside more often. This false thinking creates the mistaken presumption Low income neighborhoods are presumed to be rife with violence against persons and property and hence, stepped up police patrols are concentrated in those areas.

Yet, an evaluation of the distribution of Level 1 offenses (violence against persons and property) shows that such crimes tend moreso to be occurring in more middle class neighborhoods than in the Southside or near Westside of Syracuse. The types of crimes that show up on activity reports for police in the poor neighborhoods are either on the spot observations by officers or crimes that do not exist absent the presence of police.

Yet Operation Impact is all about concentrating energies and manpower in low income neighborhoods and on drug crimes. Using such high minded language as Operation Impact and the Organized Crime Act, we see that Blacks in this County are the ones who are at greatest risk of arrest, prosecution, and incarceration. They are being rounded up an entire neighborhood at a time; an entire generation at a time.

Under any analysis, we County taxpayers should not shoulder the burden for Syracuse’s failed ability to educate and employ its’ youth or resolve its poverty. If the City wants to arrest an entire class of People, I do not want to be a part of that and neither should my tax dollars.

Thank you to Sheriff Walsh for bringing this issue to the table. Perhaps County Legislators will listen and red line taxpayer participation in a race based unfair and completely ineffective policy that serves only the City and the State court and prison system.