By Jon Moss
syracuse.com
Syracuse, N.Y. — Joseph Cecile never expected to be a police officer for more than a few years.
The aspiring Syracuse writer enjoyed police novels by authors like Joseph Wambaugh. What better way to gather material for future novels of his own than to join the local police department for a bit?
At some point, Cecile said, “the switch flipped.” He kept writing his novels in his free time. He also decided to commit to a career in law enforcement.
Cecile retired Wednesday after nearly four years as Syracuse police chief and 40 years with the department.
He sat down Monday with syracuse.com | The Post-Standard in his office, now mostly empty, on the 4th floor of the Public Safety Building.
Law enforcement has changed in ways big and small since Cecile became an officer in the 1980s.
Officers used to only be connected to the outside world with the portable radio on their duty belt. Now, there are drones, phones, computers and more, plus a body camera recording their actions.
There are also fewer officers on the beat. It has become increasingly difficult to attract people to the high-stress profession.
Cecile put his decades of experience to use when he took over as chief in 2022. He helped stabilize a department after several tumultuous years under the previous chief.
William Fitzpatrick, who has been Onondaga County District Attorney since the early 1990s, described Cecile as the “perfect prototype” for a police chief — smart, a good listener, not afraid to try new things, collaborative.
“His record speaks for itself,” he said.
Family of service
Cecile, 65, of Marcellus, is part of a family that has been in public life in the city for decades.
His father was on the school board and Common Council, and has a community center named for him; his mother was a licensing commissioner. His siblings include a judge, two police sergeants and a high school principal.
It was high expectations from his family that helped get him into policing in the first place.
Cecile graduated from Syracuse University in 1984 with a degree in English literature, but was soon unemployed and living at home with his parents. They urged him to find a job.
Two of Cecile’s siblings — sister Kathy and brother Dan — were already on the police force. He decided to join them.
“I guess I’ll go in there and give it a shot,” he recalled thinking at the time.
Cecile made quick work of the civil service exam, earning the highest possible mark. Much of the exam was about grammar, he said, to make sure officers could write reports properly.
After graduating from the academy, Cecile was sworn in as an officer on Sept. 16, 1985.
He grew to enjoy working as a police officer and decided to make a career out of it.
“I was having a lot of fun on midnights, on 3-11, going through these different phases,” he said. “I was meeting people and having a good time.”
He also thought about the pension benefit he was earning, a consideration familiar to police and other government workers.
“Once you hit 10 (years), you’re like, there’s no way I’m going to leave, because I get a retirement at 20,” he said.
Cecile steadily climbed the department’s ranks. He became a sergeant in 1995, lieutenant in 2001, deputy chief in 2010 and then first deputy chief in 2015.
Familiar face
Cecile became known over the years for his public outreach.
One of the people in the crowd at a meeting many years ago in the Strathmore neighborhood was resident Ben Walsh. He is a member of another local political family; their fathers were on the Common Council together in the 1980s.
“He talked about his time attending Corcoran High School and growing up in the neighborhood,” Walsh recalled. “I was just struck by how well he connected with people.”
When Walsh later became Syracuse mayor in 2018, he needed to pick a police chief.
Walsh passed over Cecile when he selected Kenton Buckner, a police chief in Little Rock, Arkansas. The mayor knows his decision disappointed Cecile.
“I think most other people, with the number of years that he had in, would have just moved on,” Walsh said. “And I wouldn’t have begrudged him.”
Cecile said he “moped around” for a few days after learning he didn’t get the job. He eventually sat down with Buckner and, after learning of his plans for the department, decided to stay on as first deputy chief.
A few years later, Cecile decided he wanted to put in his retirement papers. He put down a down payment on an RV that he and his wife, Cheri, would use to travel the country.
Buckner told Cecile that he was up for another job and his time as chief could be ending soon.
“If you really want this seat, you may not want to put your papers in,” Cecile recalled him saying.
After Buckner left in 2022, Walsh picked Cecile to lead the department.
“I didn’t hesitate for a moment,” the mayor said.
Cecile said his wife encouraged him to take the job.
“If you don’t take this, you’ll regret it,” he recalled her saying.
Cecile accepted Walsh’s offer. And got back the down payment on the RV.
Finally chief
Cecile said he took office with two priorities — reducing gun violence and improving officer wellness.
Murders and crime in general fell significantly last year, continuing a steep decline seen nationwide in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cecile is quick to mention various initiatives he’s implemented, including that officers on patrol are required to get out of their vehicles at least three times each shift to walk the streets and interact with residents.
That’s his spin on the Koper curve theory. Researchers found in the 1990s that short, targeted street patrols could deter crime.
The police department also has made strides on officer wellness.
Cecile recounted a story from his first few months on patrol that he said has been “imprinted” on him.
He walked into the locker room one day and saw a fellow officer talking to his gun.
“We’re gonna get through another shift. We’re gonna make it. We’re gonna be OK, you and me,” he recalled the officer saying.
“When I started making rank, and I then I realized I was moving along this pathway, that if I ever ... got into a position where I could make big decisions, I would do it,” he said of his decision to focus on officer wellness.
Everyone copes with the stress inherent to the job in different ways. Cecile said journaling helped him when he worked as an evidence technician on the overnight shift.
“Every call I went on was a dead body, a car accident with a body cut in half and stuff ... the average citizen wouldn’t see unless they were in the military,” he said. “It did help to write it down and get it out of there.”
Officers now work a schedule that both gives them more time off and puts more cops on the street at the times the most calls typically arrive.
A peer support team has been established, and doctors and psychiatrists are available. A cop is dedicated full time to running an officer wellness unit.
These investments were put to the test after a gunman ambushed and killed a city police officer and a sheriff’s lieutenant in April 2024 in a Salina subdivision.
One of the best days of his career, Cecile said, was when the other officers who had been at the scene returned to active duty.
“It was great to see those young officers back working again,” he said. “I know they were seeking treatment.”
The president of the Syracuse Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents city cops, praised the chief’s work to help officers.
The union president, Joseph Moran , described Cecile as a “genuine man” who was always reasonable and willing to listen to concerns.
“There’s so many things that occur behind the scenes,” he said. “Even the individual-related issues, I could always reach out to Chief Cecile and bring issues to him, whether those needed to be designated to somebody else, somebody over at City Hall. He always had an open-door policy.”
The police department, which once had its pick of who to hire, now has a persistent staffing shortage. It’s a problem confronting departments across the country.
The latest civil service list for Onondaga County had only 71 names on it, which Cecile said was “just sad.”
Cecile said officers need to know that elected leaders at all levels of government believe in them.
He recalled an advertising campaign from some years ago to boost teacher recruitment. He said a billboard posted in Syracuse had elected officials “all holding hands, and it said, ‘We support our teachers.’”
“Tell me when that’s going to happen for cops,” he said. “People will not put their face up there.”
Cecile said he would tell those considering a career that policing is the “most critical job” in the country aside from serving in the military.
“Every day, if you go out there with the right mindset, you’ll be helping somebody,” he said. “Not every job is like that.”
Police officers can interact with thousands of people in the course of their careers. Some of those encounters can leave a lasting memory.
In September 2023, a man took two girls and a pregnant woman hostage for hours in a North Side apartment.
The man kept hanging up on police negotiators. He asked to talk with Cecile.
The two men knew each other from an incident decades earlier. When the man was being arrested back then, Cecile helped make sure his dog was cared for.
The interaction apparently stuck with the man.
Cecile said he was cautious about getting involved. The negotiators working the scene suggested he record a short video.
“I said something like, ‘You and I both know the young lady that’s in the house is not the solution to your problem,’” he recalled.
That restarted negotiations. Several hours later the man released his last hostage and turned himself in to police.
“When you treat people a certain way, even when they’re at their worst, I guess they remember that,” Cecile said. “It felt good. I was kind of surprised because I hadn’t talked to him since the ‘90s.”
The next chapter
Cecile said he plans to spend his retirement travelling with his wife.
He is hoping to finally get that RV. And take a river cruise in Europe. And hike sections of the Appalachian Trail.
But first, Cecile plans to return his service weapon on Thursday to the armaments unit and bring his vehicle to the patrol offices. He attended a ceremony in the afternoon to swear in his successor, Mark Rusin, as chief.
Then, he said, the writer is off to write his next chapter. Literally.
“I’m going to spend hours every day,” Cecile said. “Until I’m burned out.”
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