William Coleman cruised down Syracuse’s Court Street in the spring of 2023 on his way to a routine follow-up for a domestic violence investigation — typically a low-key call for a veteran city police officer.  Instead, Coleman crashed a police car for the 12th time in his career. He turned left at a green light as he drove toward the intersection of North Salina and Court Streets, slamming into another car head on. The driver of the car had to be taken to Crouse Hospital, though their injuries were not revealed in police records.  Coleman claimed he never saw the oncoming car.  Investigators found Coleman to be at fault for the crash, which caused nearly $20,000 in damage to the police vehicle.  He’d already cost taxpayers at least that sum due to the string of previous crashes on his record. In 14 years with the Syracuse Police Department, Coleman’s racked up a dozen crashes that have cost taxpayers at least $52,176, according to department documents. He has hit a median, a “no parking” sign and at least two light poles. Coleman’s crashes have happened with the car in drive, in reverse and during turns. Each time, Coleman received little corrective discipline. Save for one undocumented punishment in 2016, Coleman was allowed to crash and keep driving.  Coleman is one of nearly 70 Syracuse police officers who had multiple police vehicle crashes on their record between 2013 and 2022, according to an investigation by the USA Today Network-New York, Syracuse University and Central Current.  Further, a far larger number of officers repeatedly crashed but were never disciplined at all, according to Syracuse Police data.  His crash record appears to be the most prolific of those within the Syracuse Police Department reviewed as part of this investigation. One policing expert questioned how an officer who has crashed as many times as Coleman could still work for the department. Coleman’s collision history lays bare a system that has repeatedly let officers crash their cars without significant consequences or retraining — often with disastrous results. The department’s disciplinary procedure for crashes is hamstrung by a provision in its union contract that is now nearly 30 years old and only allows for officers to have vacation days revoked. From 2013 to 2022, Syracuse police officers have crashed department vehicles hundreds of times, our investigation found. Those crashes have injured and killed civilians while leaving taxpayers on the hook for at least $3 million dollars in collision damage, repairs and settlements. In Coleman’s case, Syracuse Police Chief Joseph Cecile has vowed the 2023 crash will be Coleman’s last. It prompted the chief to take away Coleman’s driving privileges — the second time that’s happened in Coleman’s Syracuse Police career, Cecile confirmed in an interview this spring with Central Current. This time, Cecile said the revocation is for good. “His driving abilities are suspended,” Cecile said. “I don’t foresee those coming back.”A long rap sheet Coleman began crashing police cars within about a year of becoming a Syracuse police officer.  On July 7, 2009, officers found Coleman in Clinton Square in Syracuse after his first crash. The downtown plaza includes monuments, a fountain, and concrete pillars. The front end of his car had been pushed in and the windshield had a three-inch spider crack, according to a crash report included in Coleman’s disciplinary file.  Coleman alleged that he did not see an oncoming car as he tried to turn right onto a one-way street. To avoid the other vehicle, Coleman wrenched the wheel of his police car and lost control of his cruiser, speeding past a stop sign. His foot slipped from the brake to the gas and the car jumped a curb, hitting one of the kiosks, according to memos in his disciplinary file.  The crash launched Coleman into his windshield because he had not been wearing his seatbelt, memos in his disciplinary file said. He could not remember the moment of impact, the records show. An internal memo and crash investigation document detail Officer Coleman’s July 2009 crash, in which his head struck the windshield of his cruiser. At the time of the crash, he was not wearing a seatbelt. Credit: Syracuse Police DepartmentFor the next seven years, Coleman would crash his car at least once almost every year. He crashed again in 2010, three times in 2011, twice in 2013 and then once in each year from 2014 through 2016. Coleman hit stationary objects in eight of those crashes.  Central Current reached out to the Syracuse police union to talk to Coleman, but president Joseph Moran said their members are not allowed to talk to media.  Five of the crashes prompted the department to send Coleman a written reprimand. “You are reminded,” each one would read, “that future acts in violation of the Rules and Regulations would bring discredit upon yourself and this Department and would be dealt with more severely.”  A promise to deal with Coleman’s crashes more severely didn’t materialize over his first 10 crashes. In total, he lost seven furlough days and received five written reprimands over that time. Department leadership also assigned Coleman three remedial training sessions.  Severe discipline sets in, but Coleman kept his job After his 10th crash, Syracuse Police Department leadership took notice, a document in Coleman’s personnel file indicates. In February 2018, Coleman applied to become a sergeant in the department. His own supervisor, Sgt. Patrick Van Slyke, largely wrote Coleman a glowing endorsement, save for one line. “I feel he possesses the qualities necessary for promotion to Sergeant,” Van Slyke wrote, “but his driving skills could result in liability problems.” The recommendation memo went on to detail that two years earlier — around the time Coleman got into his 10th crash — Coleman had his driving privileges revoked. The decision appears to have happened informally, according to Coleman’s record. After two separate Freedom of Information requests, Syracuse Police did not provide Central Current with documentation of Coleman’s driving privileges being taken away.Then-Syracuse police Sgt. Patrick VanSlyke wrote a recommendation letter for Officer William Coleman in 2018. VanSlyke commended Coleman’s actions in the line of duty, but emphasized that Coleman’s “driving skills could result in liability problems.” Credit: Syracuse Police DepartmentAt some point after Van Slyke wrote Coleman’s recommendation letter, the department gave Coleman his driving privileges back, though it is unclear when. His personnel file does not include any other information about his driving privileges.  Once Coleman began driving again, he crashed two more times: once in 2020 and again in 2023. In 2020, a fellow police officer found Coleman had been driving too fast for icy road conditions. Coleman’s car spun out, hitting two separate parked cars in Syracuse’s West Side.  Cecile, the police chief, said the department never determined why Coleman amassed so many crashes.   Investigators cited a variety of reasons: inattention, following cars too closely, speeding, disregarding icy roads, making imprudent turns, blowing red lights, blowing stop signs. “It seemed like the closest we came, I believe, was that some of them seem to have a pattern of distraction,” Cecile said.  Does the department have the ability to deal with officers like Coleman? Despite identifying a clear pattern of Coleman endangering public safety and property on the road, Cecile may not have the ability to sufficiently discipline officers who display a similar track record of crashes, he said in the spring interview with Central Current. The department has more leeway to use escalating discipline – which gets more severe over time – when it comes to repeated violations of other departmental policies.  But for crashes, the department is obligated by its contract with the union to use a crash discipline matrix, which ties crash discipline to the damage done to the police car, Cecile said. It also dictates the type of discipline allowed – officers can only have vacation days taken away for getting into a crash.  “Car crashes, I just don’t know if we have the ability to do that,” Cecile said of progressive discipline. Keith Taylor, an adjunct assistant professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former New York Police Department officer, said the department should re-evaluate its disciplinary practices for officers repeatedly found at fault for crashes, and consider adding progressive discipline.  “If you’ve had, I don’t know, four vehicle accidents within the last five years, that might require an evaluation of the individual’s ability to be an active-duty law enforcement officer as opposed to simply saying he’s off the road for two years,” Taylor said. Instead, Cecile has taken steps to try to remedy the problem in other ways.  In the last year, Cecile has been questioned about the department’s issues with car crashes as part of this investigation. He said he has, on multiple occasions, gone outside the department’s contractually mandated discipline to manage egregious crash cases. For example, in September, he suspended an officer for five days without pay for crashing a police cruiser into a house.  A major hurdle in amending the department’s disciplinary schedule is the city’s union contract. The discipline was negotiated as part of one of the first contracts more than 25 years ago, according to Moran, of the police union. It has largely remained unchanged since.  In a response to questions from Central Current, Moran said he believes the disciplinary schedule should be changed.  But doing that would require the union and the city’s administration to renegotiate the union’s contract. In February 2023, the department signed a five-year contract with the union.  Cecile will evaluate each future crash incident on a case-by-case basis, he said. Police union officials have so far also accepted the penalties levied by Cecile against officers. In Coleman’s case, the union has no plans to contest Cecile’s discipline levied against Coleman, Moran said.  Where is Coleman now? Cecile after Coleman’s crash last year moved Coleman from the department’s Criminal Investigations Division back to patrol, a job which typically requires driving.  At the same time, Cecile took away Coleman’s driving privileges for the second time in Coleman’s career.  Cecile said the department is not finished with its internal review of Coleman’s last crash.  “There are still some internal conversations occurring, and at the end of those, there will be additional notes added to Officer Coleman’s disciplinary folder,” Cecile said.A disciplinary action report details Officer Coleman’s twelfth and most recent vehicle crash. The April 2023 collision with a civilian vehicle resulted in over $19,000 in damage to his police cruiser and a loss of seven furlough days. His driving privileges were also revoked indefinitely. Credit: Syracuse Police DepartmentNow when Coleman works, he is part of a “double-unit,” taking calls with another officer – part of an overall change in the department’s work schedule, Cecile said. Since Coleman can’t drive, he is effectively being chauffeured around the city by another officer.  Coleman is an expensive passenger. During the 2023 calendar year, Coleman made $214,414, the ninth highest salary among all City of Syracuse employees. He did that without the ability to drive for a portion of the year. Coleman has repeatedly been among the highest paid officers in the department.  Taylor, the adjunct professor at John Jay, questioned how Coleman could sufficiently perform without the ability to drive.  “That affects not only his fellow officers, who have to take up the slack because they’re one short,” Taylor said, “but also the general public because they’re not getting their money’s worth.”  Cecile and Moran said they’re both comfortable with Coleman’s role in the department.  “I believe the circumstances under which Ofc. Coleman now works do not pose any additional danger (that is, beyond those inherent in police work) to his various work partners or himself,” Moran said by email. This story is part of Driving Force, a police accountability project meant to expose and document the prevalence of police vehicle accidents in New York. This joint investigation between USA TODAY Network-New York and Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications was supported with funding from the Data-Driven Reporting Project. That project is funded by the Google News Initiative in partnership with Northwestern University-Medill. This reporting was completed in partnership with The Central Current, a Syracuse-based nonprofit newsroom. Reporters, visual journalists, editors, designers and project partners include Maria Birnell, Evan Butow, Kayla Canne, Daniel DeLoach, Anna Ginelli, Jon Glass, Seth Harrison, Nausheen Husain, Hayden Kim, Chris Libonati, Finn Lincoln, Beryl Lipton, Tina MacIntyre-Yee, Peter Pietrangelo, William Ramsey, David Robinson, Kyle Slagle, Eden Stratton, Sarah Taddeo, Jodi Upton and Marili Vaca. The post How a Syracuse police officer crashed department cars 12 times and remained on the force  appeared first on Central Current.