Partners on crime
Correction appended
When Chief Anthony Callisto first arrived at the Department of Public Safety, he polled the faculty and administrators to try to decide what area needed the most improvement.
‘I started to interview and talk with university administrators that were customer agencies like Judicial Affairs, Residence Life, the dean of students and asked them the top three things DPS needed to improve,’ Callisto said. ‘Consistently they expressed the need for the ability to do follow-ups and get back to them.’
When Callisto arrived, DPS’s investigation unit was essentially non-existent. Drew Buske, the current deputy chief, was the captain and the only member of the investigations unit. He handled all investigations – in addition to the standard duties of a captain. He would draw on patrol officers to conduct follow-up interviews and didn’t really have the capability to conduct more than one investigation at a time.
‘When I came, I really thought we needed the ability to conduct multiple investigations,’ Callisto said.
With that in mind, Callisto set out to create a new investigations unit with an increased capacity to handle crimes on a long-term basis. Vernon Thompson, a 20-year veteran of the Syracuse Police Department, was chosen to lead the new team. Joining him were Ed Weber, Kathleen Pabis and James Hill.
Thompson said he was part of the investigations unit at the SPD for 16 years and was part of the major crime scene team.
‘For my last 11 to 12 years, I responded to every major crime scene in the city,’ Thompson said. ‘Burglaries, homicides. I am able to take that experience and knowledge and I can give that to other DPS officers.’
The strength of the investigations team was seen earlier this semester through a successful investigation in to a South Campus robbery.
On Feb. 9 at 12:25 a.m., three masked suspects entered Apartment 2 at 320 Winding Ridge Road. With six SU students in the apartment, the suspects, armed with handguns, stole an undisclosed amount of cash and marijuana.
As per DPS’s parameters, violent felony investigations are turned over to the SPD investigations team but, Callisto said, SPD was overrun with other cases at the time.
‘There were two homicides and an assault already being investigated,’ he said. ‘They were swamped with very violent crimes. One homicide pretty much takes their whole resources, and we were confronted with taking a backseat to other crimes. Our memorandum of understanding requires that we turn over violent crimes, but we can help.’
The South Campus robbery investigation was brought back to the DPS investigation team early in the weekend, and the team spent their normal off days re-interviewing witnesses and victims. Through those interviews, the team was able to come together and identify three of the four possible suspects involved.
They brought the information to the SPD who, with the help of the investigations unit, conducted search and arrest warrants on the suspects. Through further interviews, Pabis and Weber were able to identify the fourth suspect who was soon after arrested.
The suspects were apprehended by the SPD and were taken to the Onondaga County jail. They were all given $50,000 bail requirements, and only one of the four posted bail. The other three will remain in jail until trial. Each suspect has been charged with a Class B felony carrying a sentence of up to 25 years in prison.
Callisto said it is likely that each, being first offenders, will receive one-to-three or two- to-six year sentences.
The DPS investigators will be called to testify at the grand jury indictments. If the suspects are indicted and the case proceeds to trial without a plea bargain, they will be called to testify again before the county court.
The key to the arrests, according to the investigation team, was the combination of information from all the different officers – something a one-man team couldn’t have accomplished.
‘If this was a one-man unit, it wouldn’t have gotten done,’ Weber said. ‘We all spent at least 30 hours that weekend and if it had been one man, he would not have had the names to SPD that fast.’
Team leader Thompson felt the same way.
‘We interviewed all the victims and witnesses, and with a culmination of all those interviews, we were able to put the pieces together and identify the suspects,’ Thompson said. ‘Each person got a different piece of the puzzle at the same time, it was great teamwork.’
In addition to working on criminal investigations, the investigations team fulfills many other functions for the university. They present judicial affairs cases, do campus fingerprinting and background checks and handle any internal affairs investigations for DPS and the university administration as a whole.
‘We are open to the whole community,’ Weber said. ‘Different university departments have issues that are not publicized, that don’t end in an arrest situation. It is as simple as two roommates not getting along and getting them to go to conflict resolution.’
Problems involving relationships or sexual harassment are referred to the investigations unit. A senior newspaper major was recently involved in a harassment case handled by the investigations unit and had nothing but praise for the officers.
‘My experience was really good,’ said the student, who now works for DPS. ‘I think they went above and beyond what they need to do.’
That included sitting next to the student and coaching her though a speakerphone conversation with the male harassing her in order to set up criminal circumstance if the man ever contacted her again.
The actions feed right in to Callisto’s community policing model. Since taking charge of DPS, Callisto has tried to make the agency part of the community. But the investigations unit likes to think of it as teamwork.
‘It is just a team effort,’ Thompson said. ‘Building relationships with the community, we couldn’t do our jobs without it. If it wasn’t for the community a lot of the crimes would not be solved. We need the information people give us to do our jobs. People see a lot more than we do.’
