Rochester police accountability board says it will begin accepting complaints June 20

The city's Police Accountability Board, facing criticism of its progress and dealing with its own personnel issues, says it will be prepared to take complaints on June 20.

As well, the Police Accountability Board, or PAB, has taken other steps that it says demonstrate that it is moving forward as city residents wanted when they overwhelmingly voted the PAB, into existence in a 2019 referendum.

For instance:

• The PAB has completed a review of the Rochester Police Department's new policies about response to protests.

• The PAB expects its current staff of investigators to complete training within weeks and to be ready to handle complaints.

• Duwaine Bascoe, the PAB's chief of investigations, is now the interim manager of the Accountability Board.

While announcing these steps, the pressures upon the PAB are still evident.

Were it not for the suspension of Reynolds, for instance, there would be no need for an interim manager. And, PAB officials have maintained that they have been slowed by an inability to meet with Rochester police leaders about the needs of the PAB to forge ahead with its mission.

"We cannot conduct full investigations without the cooperation" of Rochester police, Bascoe said at a news conference Friday.

Bascoe said he has assurances from Acting Police Chief David Smith that they will meet on June 6 to discuss the needs of the PAB. Several past meetings were derailed by unplanned events, and Smith said at a City Council budget meeting this week that there was no purposeful intent to impede the PAB's progress.

In particular, the PAB wants an agreement for access to police body-worn camera footage; access to police records, databases, and policies; and a schedule for ride-alongs with police so PAB personnel can see firsthand the activities of and demands upon officers.

City Council has imposed a hiring freeze on the PAB until the outcomes of an independent investigation into the personnel issues. PAB officials have declined to discuss those specific issues, citing confidentiality. Local lawyer Taren Greenidge has been chosen for the investigation.

Meanwhile, the PAB's current budget of $5 million has come under challenge by some City Council members, who have questioned the pace at which the board has started its operations. Mayor Malik Evans has proposed a budget of just over $5 million for the PAB for the coming fiscal year.

This week, the PAB released its first significant analysis of Rochester police policies — a review of recent changes the police department has made with response to protests. The city and its police department are facing lawsuits by individuals who say they were injured by police during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.

Neither the police nor the city released the policy changes in their entirety but said in a news release that planned changes included a ban on tear gas and other responses; the requirement that body-worn cameras must be worn by police at protests; and a prohibition of officers covering their names on their badges, as some did at the protests.

PAB officials said they were limited in how detailed the review could be of the policy changes, given the inability of the agency to see the policy proposals in full.

The PAB "has requested but not received final or draft versions of the policies," the analysis said. "Our recommendations are limited as a result. (The Rochester Police Department) has also not provided evidence that it has implemented the policies through training, nor has it stated what training would be provided to officers."

Among the recommendations from the PAB are that the police department "tailor its response to the actions and mood of a gathering and avoid using more force, gear, or equipment than necessary."

The analysis also recommends that police "consider employing a 'tiered approach' in which officers employing heavier gear and equipment are held in reserve to be deployed only if necessary."

The PAB study also recommends policies "prohibiting the use of tear gas and flash bangs at all mass gatherings and prohibit their use for crowd dispersal" and audits of the use of crowd-dispersal responses.

Contact Gary Craig at gcraig@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at gcraig1. 

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester police accountability board to begin accepting complaints