"Officials Critical of Police Probe," Times-Union, June 4, 1965
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Below is a scanned image of a newspaper clipping regarding the case of John Graham, a black, 19-year-old arrested for public intoxication, who stated that four Rochester Police Bureau officers beat him up and used “unnecessary force” while he was in police custody. It was the only case made public where the board and the chief disagreed; this lead to the findings of both Police Chief William Lombard and the board to be placed in the officers' personnel files. The names of the officers were not released. The clipping can be found at the Local History Department of the Monroe County Library Downtown Branch. "Officials Critical of Police Probe," has no by-line. It was published in the Times-Union newspaper on June 4, 1965.
While the Police Advisory Board became law in 1963 to address complaints against officers who were alleged to have used "excessive and unnecessary force," the Locust Club police union did everything in its power to thwart it from actually accomplishing anything. Two federal injunctions were slapped on it by the court preventing it from conducting investigations and forwarding recommendations to the chief of police--it's primary functions. New appointments to the board were needed to meet quorum in order for it to do its work. But neither Democrats nor Republicans appointed anyone to the board after it was found constitutional by the courts in 1969. It was then defunded and abolished in 1970 by the new Republican Party-lead Rochester city government.
