Police and Political Commentary
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Traditionally, police kept their opinions about political matters, judges, elected officials, and suspects private. They no longer do that and that creates harm to the community.
There is a wall between the police and the expression of political opinions. This separation has been maintained to guard against the corruption of police personnel by elected officials. For example, police personnel are prohibited, by NYS law, from soliciting campaign contributions. Police may not wear political buttons, pins, or insignia on their person while on duty. Political bumper stickers cannot be displayed on police vehicles. Police are supposed to withhold their political opinions while exercising their duties. Police are also supposed to be neutral about the people they arrest. They are not supposed to try to influence public opinion about judges or other elected officials. Currently they are doing all of that.
There is a trend of police officials talking with local news media and on social media during which they inform us of crimes, suspects, and their political opinions. The expression of these opinions negatively impacts police community relations and can create problems for the District Attorney’s Office at trial.
The Twitter account “RPLC Safety Information for Rochester” (Rochester Police Locust Club) is very active. Tweets regularly disclose the names of those arrested, their birthdates, details about arrest records, and the names of judges who grant release without bail. While the police can no longer offer the media an arrestee’s mug shots, they are offering a wealth of other information, most of it intended to damage the person’s credibility.
Repeatedly the police present themselves as the heroes and the suspects as the villains. They blame judges and call them out by name when they release people without bail. They are insinuating that the judges are wrong when they release people back into the community without bail. This is false: the judges are abiding by the law.
The community supports bail reform whereas the police are opposed to it. Some police officers have forgotten that people posted bail prior to bail reform and not all arrests required bail. Often people were arrested and given appearance tickets.
People are not guilty of the crimes they are arrested for until they are found guilty. RPD would have us believe that everyone they arrest is guilty of every crime they are arrested for. Additionally, they believe that we, the community, would be better off if folks sat in jail until they were found guilty.
This belief promotes a system that is unjust. People arrested are considered innocent until proven guilty. Individuals sitting in jail for months, if not years, will very likely lose their jobs, apartments, relationships, vehicles, and private property. These losses are often insurmountable. It is extremely difficult for wage earners to dig themselves out of this financial hole. (Given the number of people arrested in the city, how has this contributed to poverty?)
On October 12, 2021, Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan held a press conference about a police officer killing Mr. Simran Gordon at the Family Dollar store. The Media Release itself is innocuous on its face, but her additional comment at the presser was incendiary. She said that the man killed was a suspect in three homicides. When pressed about which three, she responded that she could not offer details. If he was really a suspect then he should have been arrested. Apparently, there was not enough evidence to arrest him. Since there was not enough evidence to make the arrest then he really was not a suspect. This comment will harm the prosecution of the three homicides.
She painted Mr. Gordon as “bad” person. The “good” guys made the right call and therefore we should not be upset by it nor should we question their judgement. It was an incident that requires nothing from the community. She wants us to turn our heads away from and accept her explanation at face value.
On October 17, 2021, Chief David Smith issued a media release in which there are details about a tragic car accident. This accident involved a stolen car which was traveling at very fast resulting in the death of an. Innocent bystander who had nothing to do with the stolen car and the hospitalization of five people. The media release also reported that one of the people who allegedly stole the car was arrested last month and was involved in three other stolen car cases over the last two years.
One of the suspects in the stolen car had three outstanding warrants. Apparently, the chief does not see the police culpability in this instance. They could have arrested this individual before the accident.
A few days later Captain Frank Umbrino, emboldened by the current chief and previous chief, spoke to local media about this incident. The highly publicized portion of what he said is on Twitter. He used it to attack elected officials. He said that county legislators and city council people don’t talk to these families and therefore do not understand the pain these families experience. Elected officials are part of the community, they do talk to families, and they know them. They also know their pain and struggles daily.
Captain Umbrino went on to say that it is the policy decisions being made that lead directly to deaths. Legislators have “blood on their hands”. He declared at the closing that he was not there to be politically correct but to speak the truth. What he does not recognize it that his truth is not the only truth.
What the police don’t realize is that they are capable of radicalizing people against their own best interests. They do not see their role in the current anti-police attitude. People become anti-police when they are treated unfairly and when others who they identify with look like them are mistreated.
The police say they want community cooperation, but they do not comprehend that cooperation is a two-way street. They are not cooperating with the Police Accountability Board because they do not trust the community. The entire job of the police is around accountability, but not for them, only us. They are satisfied with their current level of non-accountability.
People do not talk to the police because they do not trust them. There has to be mutual respect, there isn’t. When police use rhetoric like “blood on their hands” or “he was the suspect in three homicides” they are telling us that they are not part of the community nor do they want to be.
I felt compelled to offer my own opinion on what I saw in the media because I am a retired Rochester Police Department officer. I worked in the department, and lived in the city, for 22 years rising to the rank of deputy chief. I am a city resident today and my views on the police come from my experiences as both a consumer and provider of police services. It is an unusual, but not unique, perspective.
