This 1985 newspaper clipping from the Democrat and Chronicle explicitly states that with the public safety reorganization under a commissioner, the city's right to discipline police officers was not being given away.
The RocWiki site (rocwiki.org) has been offline since the last part of 2025. The web site now shows, "The wiki rochester does not exist!" I had some contact with former active contributors, but none of us have any control over the site, the web server, or the domain. The one person who maintained the physical existence of the site gave no warning and is not responding to questions. However, either that person or someone else was able to renew the domain at least through 2026.
The attached XLS file is a listing of RCSD staff from 2016. It includes the fields: Last Name, First Name, Job Title, Age, Ethnic Group, and Gender. The XLS file was obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request to the RCSD itself. The data was received by T. Forsyth on May 16, 2016.
Submitted by Ted Forsythe and Mallory Symanski on Fri, 2024-05-24 12:47
Abstract: This paper examines the lineages of police violence, family trauma, and police reform through a case study of the Rochester police killing of Denise Hawkins in 1975. Michael Leach, a 22-year-old, white police officer, responded to a “family trouble” call involving a domestic dispute between Hawkins and her husband. When the 18-year-old, 100-pound Black woman emerged from the apartment, she held a kitchen knife. Within five seconds, Leach had shot and killed her, later claiming she endangered his life.
This is the 1977 legislation that established the Complaint Investigation Committee and cemented a financial relationship between the Center for Dispute Settlement (then the Community Dispute Services) and the City of Rochester that was tasked with "administering and selecting the panelists" to sit with two command level Rochester Police Department officers and review police misconduct complaints. CDS was paid $75 per session not to exceed $5,000. See the attached PDF for more.
Below are selected sources describing the creation of the Police Advisory Board of 1963. The Fairwell case, the raid against Black Muslims case, and the White case pushed Rochester City Council to draft legislation that would establish Rochester's first police oversight mechanism: the Police Advisory Board.
Rochester Indymedia is now requiring editor approval for account creation.
We came to this decision after we had repeated spam posted to our website that caused difficulty with the website's functioning. We will still have open publishing and keep our site as nonrestrictive and accessible as possible.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. As before, we will continue to be Rochester's grassroots news and education site. Thank you for your continued support and remember, "Don't hate the media, be the media!"
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The Rochester Independent Media Center (R-IMC) is no longer meeting regularly. We will set up meetings by necessity and appointment. Please contact us at rochesterindymedia@rocus.org. Our home is still the Flying Squirrel Community Space at 285 Clarissa St. Occasionally, we hold meetings at RCTV located at 21 Gorham Street.
