Update on the Status of Our Investigation and Upcoming Town Halls from Loretta E. Lynch

Dear Members of the Syracuse University Community:

I am writing to provide an update on our ongoing independent review of the Department of Public Safety (DPS).

Community Review Board Framework and Town Halls

As you may know, my team and I released our preliminary recommendations [PDF] for the framework of a community review board (CRB) in September. In order to gather additional feedback from the community, we will be holding two virtual town halls:

Dates:
Monday, Oct. 19, at 9:30 a.m. ET
Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 4:15 p.m. ET

Link: https://paulweiss.zoom.us/j/2997539106?pwd=SGh1cVhyRjlma0s5clROS0xEOXVNUT09

Meeting ID: 299 753 9106

Passcode: 5vCeVD

We encourage you to submit questions in advance of the town halls, as well as any other feedback, by emailing SU-DPS-Independent-Review@paulweiss.com.

Status of Our Independent Review

In addition to our work assisting in the development of a CRB, the University engaged my law firm to review and recommend changes to DPS policies and procedures to ensure they are consistent with community policing best practices, and to review DPS’s response to specific racist and anti-Semitic incidents that occurred in fall 2019 and the subsequent protests.

All aspects of our review are underway. Over the summer and during the beginning of this semester, we have had productive conversations with many members of the campus community.  We appreciate the openness, candor and cooperation of everyone we have spoken with to date, and we will continue to gather additional perspectives and information throughout the semester.

Once our review is complete, we will present our recommendations and findings. If you have information you would like to share with us, please reach out to my team directly at SU-DPS-Independent-Review@paulweiss.com.

Best,

Loretta E. Lynch, Partner
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP