SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- City councilor Jake Barrett chaired a public safety committee meeting Wednesday in hopes of learning more about money and vehicles that flow into the city police department from state and federal asset forfeiture programs.

Barrett

Faced with a $1.3 million request from police to buy new vehicles, councilors sought information about the off-budget cash, cars or other assets that come to the police department after being seized from criminals.

"There is not a whole lot of information that is known,'' Barrett said at the top of the meeting. An hour later, not much had changed.



Police Chief Frank Fowler repeatedly told the five councilors at the meeting he would not publicly divulge information about vehicles or equipment obtained through asset forfeiture programs.

Assets seized in connection with federal crimes are distributed to police agencies by the U.S. Department of Justice. Assets from state crimes are directed to the police by the Onondaga County district attorney’s office, Inspector John Kolis said.

The amount of money received each year is unpredictable, but it is typically in the range of about $400,000, Kolis said. The money is not accounted for in the city budget.

Fowler said his department reports back to federal and state officials on how the money is used, but he would not provide any details publicly to city officials. He offered to brief them confidentially. Equipment purchased with seized funds is used to fight crime, often in undercover operations, he said.

Police Chief Frank Fowler

“Most of this stuff is used in a covert fashion,’’ Fowler said. “We don’t want the general public or the bad guys to know what we possess.’’

Further efforts to elicit details were rebuffed, bluntly.

City Auditor Martin Masterpole said city councilors, who authorize funding for police vehicles, should be able to find out information about other vehicles that police obtain with asset seizure funds.

“I have the utmost respect, chief. Please don’t take this as a negative.’’ Masterpole said.

“I am, already,’’ Fowler responded.

Barrett suggested that some of the asset seizure funds should go into the city’s general fund, since the city pays some expenses associated with seized assets. As an example, city mechanics would repair a flat tire on an asset-seizure vehicle, Barrett said.

“The collective good, we’re all promoting that. I’m just saying that there might be an opportunity for some small percentage of these funds to help to maintain the program,’’ Barrett said.

“Are we driving toward a specific goal here?’’ Fowler said.

"No,'' Barrett said.



Fowler insisted that discussing details publicly -- even divulging the number of asset-seizure cars -- would put his officers at risk.

“I’m never going to talk about it in specific terms,’’ Fowler said. “If you want to take my word for it, you take my word for it. If you don’t want to take my word for it, then I guess you just simply won’t. But there are some good things that are taking place within our community with asset forfeiture (funds), and they will continue.’’

After nearly an hour of fruitless back and forth, Barrett ended the meeting.

“This was not meant to have conclusion,’’ Barrett said.

"We were successful in that regard,'' Fowler said.



Contact Tim Knauss at tknauss@syracuse.com or 315-470-3023.

