In a dizzying day, county exec forces sheriff’s hand on body cams: We’ll pay for them

Syracuse, NY — Onondaga County Sheriff Gene Conway said in a Syracuse.com article published Friday morning that he had no plans to outfit sheriff’s deputies with body cameras, echoing a stance he’s held for at least four years.

In an extraordinary 9 1/2 hours after Syracuse.com’s story published at 6 a.m., the county went from no plans for body cameras to a pledge to pay for the cameras with a possible rollout in the next year.

Here’s how it unfolded: At 6 a.m., Syracuse.com published a story about the sheriff’s inaction on cameras. Conway called a 10 a.m. news conference to complain about the story, but said he’d start planning a body camera program right away if given the money. At 3:30 p.m., County Executive Ryan McMahon held his own news conference to promise money for the program.

“Let’s strike while the iron is hot,” McMahon said.

If all goes as planned, it will still be up to Conway to implement a program that he hadn’t planned on having before Friday morning’s article. Conway has been sheriff since 2015.

The article reported Onondaga County is the only county among Upstate’s most populous counties to not equip its deputies with the cameras. It also reported at least 10 of the county’s 15 police departments — including the Syracuse Police Department — use the cameras.

Conway said in the article Friday that cameras, while important, were not a priority. He said they are expensive and instead money needs to be spent on other things such as bulletproof vests, stun guns and patrol cars as well as filling empty positions.

McMahon and David Knapp, chairman of county legislature, can work together to win the legislature’s approval of money to purchase the body cameras and deliver them to the sheriff’s office doorstep. But it will take Conway’s action to get body cams on deputies.

Sheriff is an elected position in New York state and no one else can order him to use the cameras if he chooses not to do so.

“It would be up to the sheriff to implement the program, as the elected sheriff of the county,” McMahon said.

Conway said Friday morning that he would use money dedicated to body cameras to implement a program, but only if the county “fully funded” the program to his satisfaction. He did not know how much money that would take and did not have plans specifying what would satisfy him for a program.

Conway said at his hour-long news conference that he would welcome the money next week if it was provided.

“Could not wait to get started. But it will be money that fully funds a body camera program for the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office,” he said.

McMahon said he’d take care of figuring out how much money it would cost to buy the cameras. The county did the same homework when the city of Syracuse began purchasing body cameras about five years ago, he said.

The sheriff said Friday that he didn’t know McMahon was willing to advocate for money for body cameras until reading about it Friday morning on Syracuse.com.

But McMahon says the sheriff’s office knew -- or should have known -- about his willingness to spend money on them two months ago.

McMahon released a letter from his office to Conway on Feb. 25 in which McMahon expressed to “support -- to the fullest extent -- the aggressive implementation” of body cameras on patrol deputies.

The letter was emailed directly to Conway and marked as received, McMahon said. As for whether the sheriff actually read it, McMahon said he couldn’t say.

“Whether he read the letter, I don’t read the sheriff’s email,” he said.

On Friday morning, the sheriff had said he didn’t know about the letter until reading about it on Syracuse.com. Conway did not respond for comment Friday afternoon following McMahon’s release of the February letter showing the county executive advocating for body cameras.

Equipping body cameras was one of three primary recommendations to the sheriff’s office from the county’s criminal justice reform initiative, launched at the state’s behest after George Floyd’s murder by cop in Minneapolis, McMahon said. The initiative included participation by the district attorney, county executive and Syracuse mayor; its findings were passed unanimously by the county legislature earlier this year.

Conway did not directly participate in the police reform process, though his command staff did, McMahon said. The sheriff’s office was well aware that body cameras were among the chief interests, the county executive said.

Conway pointed out Friday morning that he had asked for limited funding for a pilot program for body cameras in 2017. He had previously told Syracuse.com he requested $50,000 to $75,000 for the pilot program.

McMahon, who was chairman of the legislature at the time, confirmed the sheriff’s request, but noted that it was buried inside a list of more general priorities that the legislature declined to fund.

McMahon said that he suggested at the time that Conway use at least $1 million collected from forfeitures to fund a pilot body-camera program. The sheriff did not do that.

Conway said Friday morning that body cameras were one of a list of priorities, which also included funding more new deputies, ballistic vests and vehicles.

The money promised by McMahon Friday will be earmarked only for a body-camera program, McMahon said. He promised to consider the sheriff’s request for a new class of deputies, but suggested that the sheriff’s office had gotten more new vehicles in recent years than before.

“It’s important to get this done,” McMahon said of body cameras, adding: “It’s a necessity now with what’s going on.”

After McMahon’s news conference, Conway did not respond to a request for comment on the announcement that money would be provided for the cameras. On Friday morning, the sheriff had promised to publicly release his plans for a body-camera program once one was formulated.

The two men did not speak to each other Friday, McMahon said.

“I haven’t spoken to the sheriff in a little while,” the county executive said.

Despite the drama, though, McMahon cast the outcome Friday as a victory.

“I’m very happy today, appreciate Sheriff Conway agreeing with us that we need to get going on this,” McMahon said, adding later: “He kind of threw the ball in my court, so let’s get it done.”

Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or 315-470-6070.

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