"Complaint Put Into Cops' Files," Democrat & Chronicle, June 4, 1965
Primary tabs
Below is a scanned image of a newspaper clipping regarding the insertion of the findings from the Police Advisory Board and the chief of police into the personnel fils of three unnamed officers. Specifically, the case was that of a black, 19-year-old who stated that after he was arrested for pubic intoxication, he was taken downtown and beat while in custody. The clipping can be found at the Local History Department of the Monroe County Library Downtown Branch. "Complaint Put Into Cops' Files," has no by-line. It was published in the Democrat & Chronicle newspaper on June 4, 1965.
While the Police Advisory Board became law in 1963 to address complaints against officers who complainants said used "excessive and unnecessary force" against them, 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. By the mid-1960s, 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.
