The city of Syracuse is applying for $136,000 in state funding for surveillance cameras in Skiddy and Kirk parks. Skiddy Park was where the party that resulted in the Father’s Day shooting in Syracuse started. An armed man was shot and killed by a police officer during a shootout where at least four to five semi-automatic weapons were shot a total of 30 times. That officer was cleared by a grand jury of any wrongdoing. Surveillance footage at an adjacent public housing complex showed some of what happened that night.
Syracuse Common Councilor Steven Thompson, a former police chief, said residents at meetings held by Tomorrow’s Neighborhoods Today, or TNT, are asking for more surveillance cameras.
"There are areas that the police department is looking at throughout the city," Thompson said. "Many neighborhoods contact them at neighborhood watch meetings and TNT meetings bringing up the subject of cameras and wanting more visibility or accessibility to cameras and then putting them in those areas that are the highest priorities."
It costs about $12,000 for each camera. Most of the cameras in Syracuse are on school property. The city is also waiting on another application for police body camera funding.
