City Council Candidate Forum on Police Accountability from 2017

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Submitted by Rochester Indymedia / videography: Travis Lewis on Wed, 2018-09-19 13:37

On August 22, 2017, the Police Accountability Board Organizing Committee and the Rochester Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority presented a city council candidate forum. The forum will gave community members a chance to ask questions about each candidate's stance on the proposed independent Police Accountability Board as the election season approached. Newcomers Mitch Gruber, Willie Lightfoot, and Malik Evans, all elected to Rochester City Council, stated their positions on the proposed Police Accountability Board. Loretta Scott and Jackie Ortiz, incumbents, were also re-elected in November 2017. See if you can square up where they are now with where they were then.

City Council Candidate Forum on Police Accountability

Raw video clips of the forum by Travis Lewis

The auditorium of East High School where the forum took place was decorated with signed voter commitment cards signifying voters' intentions to vote for candidates in favor of the five pillars of the proposed police accountability board:

An independent agency of city government separate from the Rochester Police Department
Independent investigatory power
Subpoena power
Disciplinary power using a disciplinary matrix
The ability to review and assess Rochester Police Department policies, procedures, patterns, and practices and make recommended changes

The nearly 3,000 cards were not only hung behind and in front of candidates, but along the walls and floor of the stage.

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Loretta Scott

"In many respects this report provides a thorn. The situation we have is not a new one, but we have not had enough of a thorn to get us moving, and this is what is happening with this report.

"I am committed to ensuring the creation of an accessible, credible, accountable, transparent police civilian review board.

"There are many elements that can work, but there are some that are frankly not going to work.

"There needs to the same enthusiasm and determination to change some of the laws that govern the way we handle this right now. Such as 50-A that governs the way police discipline is handled.

"Additionally, we have the union contract. Many of the items will have to be negotiated. Negotiation means you give up something to get something. We will definitely have to have a community conscience about what we are willing to give up, in order to get some of the things we want.

"I believe we will achieve much of what is in this report."

Jackie Ortiz

"We will need to work in concert with police union leadership. But we also need to be talking to our state partners. Because in order for us to be able to make some these changes we really are going to need some advocacy at state level.

"One roadblock is the actual appointments to the police accountability board. The proposal calls for eleven officials. It is a combination of election and appointed. There are some specific requirements for those and I see some potential issues with the requirement for there being absolutely no one involved with prior law enforcement or any type of police background. And the reason I say this is because as a elected official, I’m not sure if can dictate who can have what type of background if they are elected. So I think that might possibly have to be modified.

"For the training, we want no involvement from RPD, so we will definitely need to find a company to be able to provide the intensive training that is required.

"So there are barriers and there are ways to combat it, but we will have to take it piece by piece."

Willie Lightfoot

"Do I support the proposal? Yes. What will I do if you elect me? In my first hundred days in office, I will hold meetings like this. We have to continue to have communication on this topic. That is how we are going to push it forward.

"It is easy to have these conversations when people are running because they want your vote. But what are they going to do the day after? I am going to continue the conversation. And then we can tailor together how this thing is going to work.

"It is collaboration, cost, community, and conversation."

Mitch Gruber

"All four elements in the Police Accountability Board report are incredibly important.

"I think there is a question of whether someone with a police background would be able to serve or not. I think that those legalities need to be worked out. But I also would suggest that it may also be a good thing if one or two of the seats on this independent police accountability board had the perspective of a former RPD member who lives in the community.

"When it comes to investigation, and subpoena I think those without question are the critical pieces and I think they are less controversial.

"The hard thing is going to be the power to discipline. But I would take a harder line. Without question if we have to give something up that is what we don’t give up. There is no teeth to this accountability board, if there is not an ability to discipline.

"Syracuse is routinely used as the police accountability board that is doing good work, yet the Syracuse board does not have the power to discipline. 18% of the proposed cases [in Syracuse] are being disciplined because it is ultimately the police chief who has the opportunity to say yes or no. 18% is better than what we have in Rochester but it is not enough. So I would argue without question we have to fight for the power to discipline."

Malik Evans

"We cannot have this conversation without African Americans who are disproportionally affected by these issues. Black Americans are disproportionately affected when it comes to arrests. So this proposal will not solve the structural problems of the criminal justice system but it an important first step.

"Of course there will be roadblocks. I have been working in government a long time there is always roadblocks. But we have some brilliant people in this community and in this country that can help us work around these roadblocks so that we can have confidence on the police side as well as the community side. If we put our heads together, we can come up with a good solution to build a strong system that makes everyone feel better about what we have to do in our community to strengthen our community as it relates to police relations."

As the struggle for actual police accountability moves forward with the community demanding the passage and implementation of the five pillars, the video above offers a glimpse into the candidates' promises and declarations regarding the Police Accountability Board. City Council released a draft of the ordinance (1, 2) they want to discuss, which activists were disappointed with. See: City Council releases Police Advisory Board draft proposal; activists cite problems, Disappointment swirling around Police Accountability Board legislation, Activists cite problems over police accountability proposal, Push continues for expanded power for police accountability board, and Community groups react to Police Accountability Board draft legislation.

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Pastor Wanda Wilson, a part of the Executive Committee of the Police Accountability Board Alliance and the pastor at Open Arms Christian Fellowship Ministries, made the statement below to a packed press conference:

Rochester City Council shared a draft of legislation for a Rochester Police Accountability Board with the Alliance recently. However, City Council’s draft fails to establish the five essential pillars of accountability that the Alliance has been demanding. The five essential pillars for an effective Police Accountability Board are:

An independent agency of city government, separate from RPD

The power to independently investigate complaints of police misconduct

Subpoena power to compel the production of evidence and witnesses

Disciplinary power using a disciplinary matrix

The power to review and assess RPD patterns, practices, policies and procedures to recommend systemic changes in order to prevent future misconduct.

The Alliance has many problems with City Council’s draft legislation. Among the most glaring and obvious is that it significantly curtails the PAB’s independence, investigative power, and disciplinary power. Specifically:

Council's draft does not give the PAB real disciplinary power, but rather it leaves final disciplinary power with the Chief of police, thereby maintaining the status quo. This is unacceptable.

The draft severely weakens the PAB's investigative power and allows the RPD to interview all witnesses prior to the PAB, even if the witness was assaulted by an officer. The draft also prevents the PAB from conducting an investigation and utilizing subpoena power until the Professional Standards Section investigation is concluded.

The draft does not give the community majority representation on the Board to ensure community control over complaints of misconduct, thus limiting the PAB's real independence. The Council’s draft calls for a 9 member board with 2 appointments from the mayor, 4 appointments from City Council, and 3 appointments from the community. The Alliance calls for an 11 member board with 1 appointment from the mayor, 4 appointments from City Council, and 6 appointments from the community.

The PAB is severely underfunded which will curtail the board’s ability to effectively and efficiently investigate and adjudicate complaints of police misconduct. Refusing to hire civilian investigators will likely lead to delays in investigations, while the officers in question remain on the force potentially posing a risk to the public.

Former RPD officers can be appointed on the board, which is likely to cause conflicts of interest and delays in investigations because of recusals, delegitimates the board in the eyes of the community, and could cause the board to become biased toward accused officers instead of reviewing each complaint critically. This inhibits the independence of the board from the RPD.

The Alliance continues to demand a strong, efficient, and effective Police Accountability Board based on our five pillars. The Alliance will demonstrate and demand that City Council fix these and other problems with their draft legislation at the next City Council meeting, this Tuesday, September 18th, at 6:30 PM at City Hall.

The Alliance Executive Committee will bring these concerns directly to City Council at a meeting scheduled for September 20^th.

The Alliance invites all those who support true accountability to attend the City Council meeting tomorrow in order to show that the Rochester community cares about this issue, and that we will not be silenced or thwarted from achieving a Police Accountability Board with substantive powers to hold officers and the department accountable.

Thank you.

Rochester Indymedia stands with the community demanding an end to 50+ years of police violence and impunity. Hopefully Rochester City Council will get their second draft right and remove the glaring issues with the current draft. Read City Council's draft at PABNOW.com!

The Police Accountability Board Alliance is holding another community forum on the proposal and the status with council on October 3, 7pm - 9pm, at the Out Alliance, 100 College Ave., #100.