|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The city of Rochester is appealing a recent state Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the Police Accountability Board has been stripped of much of its power.
The appeal, filed May 2, comes in response to a ruling last week by Judge Joseph Waldorf. In his decision, Waldorf ruled in favor of a complaint from the Locust Club, the Rochester police officers union, filed last year over PAB hearings on alleged police misconduct.
Waldorf’s ruling is grounded in a May 2020 decision by another state Supreme Court justice, John Ark, that removed a number of key powers from the PAB, effectively making it an advisory board with less authority than the Civilian Review Board that previously existed in Rochester. Ark’s ruling was upheld by the Appellate Division and Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.
The PAB, Waldorf wrote, cannot investigate claims of misconduct, subpoena law enforcement or misconduct witnesses, or access Rochester Police Department data such as body cam footage. The board’s ability to establish a “disciplinary matrix” also was removed.
“The PAB has been stripped of any express or implied statutory powers relating to its investigation or disciplinary-related activities concerning RPD officers,” Waldorf’s ruling states. “The PAB cannot thereafter cloak its unlawful conduct as being merely advisory or non-binding when it seeks to compel (Locust Club members) to attend alleged misconduct investigation hearings through so-called ‘Officer Statement Requests’ and subpoenas carrying contempt power. And nowhere in the statute is the PAB authorized to issue case closure reports.”
The PAB says its website has been altered to reflect the ruling and remain within its mandated powers. Options to file a report online now are limited to proposing topics for policy review, although PAB executive director Lesli Myers-Small said at a board meeting last week that misconduct complaints would continue to be accepted and monitored by the board.
The Locust Club argued that the PAB’s release of police misconduct investigation reports in September 2024 violated civil service law, even though the board redacted identifying information. PAB leadership has stood by their decision to release the reports on the basis of public transparency.
“The work that the citizens voted for is important, even more so considering the time we are in as a country,” PAB chair Larry Knox said at that same meeting.
“Although the scope of our work has changed, we remain fully committed to civilian oversight, transparency, and the public interest,” added Myers-Small. “We were voted in by 75 percent of the voters and they are relying on us to provide that community support and reimagine what policing looks like in Rochester, NY.”
City government advised the PAB against publishing the redacted reports, with Corporation Counsel Patrick Beath arguing that the board lacked the authority to release them.
The PAB has faced legal setbacks in the past. In 2023, the board’s power to discipline RPD officers was removed when the city lost its case in a 4-3 decision by the state’s highest court.
Despite the latest ruling, PAB leadership remains optimistic.
“The Locust Club disagrees with the will of the residents of Rochester, that’s obvious. My sense is that the board and the community will support an appeal of this decision,” said Knox. “Making sure that what was very clearly the will of the residents of Rochester is our goal and I feel confident in our victory.”
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected]
He can claim it, as he claims all sort of fantastical things.
The PAB clown car has crashed and burned. Time to cease wasting time and tax dollars trying to get it running and just haul it off to the scarp yard. After years of pratfalls and drama and demeaning the valid mission that they were charged with, this group now has zero credibility.
Yes, the PAB was voted in. And that was then and this is now. That was before the expenditure of millions of dollars on a White Elephant.
What if the vote were taken today after the city has spent millions of tax dollars with nothing to show for it?
Would the majority of voters want to throw good money after bad on a frivolous lawsuit?
I’m guessing that many of the same supporters of the idea that voter “mandates” are always wise are not supportive of the concept at the national level.
Of course no one at the national level who three times has failed to garner a majority of the presidential popular vote can claim a mandate.