For Immediate Release: 03/09/2020
Janine Kava | janine.kava@dcjs.ny.gov
Press Office, New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services
New York State announces expansion of state-supported Crime Analysis Center
First established in 2008 to support law enforcement agencies in Onondaga County, the Center is tripling in size and now serves Oswego and Madison counties
The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) today announced the expansion of the state-supported Crime Analysis Center in Syracuse. The Center, one of 10 intelligence and data-sharing centers operated by the state in partnership with local law enforcement agencies, is nearly tripling in size and now serves Oswego and Madison counties, in additional to Onondaga County.
The newly named Central New York Crime Analysis Center provides investigative support and crime analysis that helps police and prosecutors in the three counties more effectively solve, reduce and prevent crime. DCJS Executive Deputy Commissioner Michael C. Green toured the Center, which is under renovation, and met this morning with representatives from the agencies that partner with DCJS to support the center, including the Syracuse Police Department, Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office and New York State Police.
“No other state in the nation supports crime analysis, intelligence development and investigative support on the local level to the extent that New York does,” Commissioner Green said. “Under Governor Cuomo’s leadership, we have more than doubled the number of centers that serve local law enforcement agencies, leveraging technology to provide critical investigative support that has allowed agencies across the state to solve crimes, including murders, robberies and burglaries, as well as exclude individuals from suspicion and avoid wrongful arrests.”
The total cost of renovations to the Center is approximately $700,000, shared among the Division of Criminal Justice Services, the Syracuse Police Department, Onondaga County, Onondaga District Attorney’s Office, and Onondaga Sheriff’s Office. When renovations are complete, the Center will occupy 4,216 square feet of space on the second floor of the Syracuse Police Department, nearly triple its existing space. It will feature a 16-foot wide by 4½-foot high state-of-the-art video wall that will display multiple sources of data and information in real time, including calls for service and feeds from public surveillance cameras, among other technology.
Syracuse Police Chief Kenton T. Buckner said, “The work done by the crime analysts, investigators and field intelligence officers who staff the Crime Analysis Center has been invaluable to the Syracuse Police Department. Data, intelligence and information generated daily by the center allow us to more effectively solve crime, deploy our resources to address hot spots and improve officer safety. I commend Governor Cuomo and the Division of Criminal Justice Services for their support of the Central New York Center and their continued commitment to the growth and expansion of the entire network across New York State.”
The renovations will allow the Center to provide real-time support to police agencies, expand its hours of operations and eventually, hire additional staff. There are currently 17 staff assigned to the Center, which is overseen by a director who is a DCJS employee. The expansion will provide space for up to 26 staff members.
The Center is staffed by crime analysts funded by the Division of Criminal Justice Services, in addition to analysts, field intelligence officers and investigators assigned by the following partner agencies: Syracuse Police Department, sheriffs’ offices in Onondaga, Oswego and Madison counties; the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office, the Onondaga County Probation Department, the New York State Police, the New York National Guard Counter Drug Task Force, and the New York-New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).
Last year, the Central New York Crime Analysis Center supported more than 30 local, state, and federal agencies, distributing approximately 7,000 analytical and intelligence products to those agencies, a 20 percent increase over the prior year. For example, analysis done at the center helped authorities in Onondaga, Oswego and Seneca counties arrest three individuals responsible for 29 commercial burglaries in the fall of 2019.
A Board of Directors composed of representatives from DCJS, the State Police, state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Syracuse Police Department, Onondaga District Attorney’s Office and Onondaga Sheriff’s Office oversees the Center. The nine other Centers in the state’s network also have their own boards of directors.
In addition to Onondaga County, Crime Analysis Centers are located in Niagara, Erie, Monroe, Broome, Oneida, Franklin, Albany, Orange and Suffolk counties. All told in 2019, those centers handled nearly 58,000 requests from approximately 245 agencies in 31 counties: half the counties in the state. This is a 32 percent increase over 2018 and more than double the requests in 2017 (27,783). Centers will assist any law enforcement agency upon request.
New York State invests approximately $7 million to support the 10 Centers in the Network, which stretches from Western New York and the North Country to the Southern Tier to Long Island. In addition to being connected to each other, Crime Analysis Centers in the state-supported network have access to information from locally supported centers in Nassau and Westchester counties. The State Police, state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, state Department of Motor Vehicles, and federal Probation Department also permit all state-supported Centers to access information they maintain.
The Crime Analysis Centers and their staff have been recognized by international and national organizations for their innovative use of technology and quality of their work, including the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts, the Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities, Government Security News, and the International Association of Crime Analysts, which recently recognized an analyst from the Central New York Center for her work.
The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services is a multi-function criminal justice support agency with a variety of responsibilities, including law enforcement training; collection and analysis of statewide crime data; maintenance of criminal history information and fingerprint files; administrative oversight of the state’s DNA databank, in partnership with the New York State Police; funding and oversight of probation and community correction programs; administration of federal and state criminal justice funds; support of criminal justice-related agencies across the state; and administration of the state’s Sex Offender Registry. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: @NYSPublicSafety