Update: A Rochester police spokesperson confirms that 10 RPD officers have been taken off the streets and are receiving additional training before returning to patrol.
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans says Rochester police appear to have violated city policy in assisting federal immigration agents in a Monday evening traffic stop.
Officials say police responded to Whitney Street just off Lyell Avenue after Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) called the 911 dispatch center.
Federal agents had stopped a van roughly 20 minutes earlier. It was not immediately clear why the van was stopped or what triggered the call for emergency assistance. In bystander footage of the incident, obtained by WXXI News, a woman can be seen arguing with two HSI agents and demanding to see her husband and saying, "They're not illegal."
Several Rochester police cars arrive on the scene and officers can be seen approaching the van window, initially with the federal agents moving away from the vehicle and seemingly allowing the police to take the lead. A Rochester police officer opens the door to the van while the lieutenant on the scene argues with the woman and appears to push her away from the vehicle.
Federal agents handcuff the driver, while Rochester police can be seen handcuffing other people removed from the van.
Rochester has a sanctuary policy that instructs officers not to help or participate in federal immigration enforcement.
“I want to be unequivocally clear, as the executive of the city of Rochester, it is our jobs to make sure we follow our policy,” the mayor said during a hastily called news conference Wednesday afternoon at City Hall. “And our policy clearly states that the Rochester Police Department is not responsible, and does not engage in the enforcement of immigration laws.”
But in this instance, officials say, officers ended up taking the lead in arresting three individuals, a father and two sons.
Multiple squad cars responded and some or all of the nearly dozen officers involved have been taken off the street and ordered to receive additional training. WXXI News reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to learn more — including the status of the individuals involved. Border Patrol, which police said also were on scene, referred questions to ICE.
In response to questions Wednesday evening, an ICE spokesperson issued a statement that read: "On March 24, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alongside our federal law enforcement partners, began conducting enhanced targeted operations in parts of New York, to enforce U.S. immigration law. We will provide additional information as it becomes available.”
Three people are currently in detention from the traffic stop, according to a spokesperson for a local immigration advocacy group that has become involved in the case.
An RPD internal investigation is ongoing into the officers' actions.
“As chief, I am committed to ensuring safety and protecting the rights of those in our community,” Rochester Police Chief David Smith said. “Although we have policies and procedures in place, we are not perfect, and we ask for patience as we strive to provide the police services our community deserves.”
While RPD sometimes provides backup to federal law enforcement by ensuring the safety of scenes, they are forbidden by departmental policy from assisting or aiding in federal immigration action. The department also does not report immigration status to federal law enforcement.
Evans said he was alerted to the matter by a "community member" who called his office, and that he along with Smith have done an initial review of officers' body-worn camera video.
"When I get information from community members or others, I like to make sure that we bring it to the forefront immediately," he said in his opening remarks at the news conference. "And today, I learned of information that I want to bring to the community's attention."
But City Council member Mary Lupien said in a statement Wednesday night that she learned of the matter Monday night from community members who filmed it, and that she told City Council President Miguel Meléndez when City Council met Tuesday night.
"This incident might have remained hidden if I hadn’t informed President Meléndez that there was video and photo evidence showing RPD assisting Homeland Security — and if he hadn’t then requested the body-worn Camera footage," Lupien said.
Evans is up for re-election and Lupien is challenging him in a Democratic primary.
When officers arrived Monday evening, Smith said, the on-scene supervisor cancelled the emergency response. The chief added that he was struck by an apparent lack of urgency by federal agents.
"The body worn camera does depict the RPD supervisor on scene giving specific directions to RPD officers and ensuring that the border patrol officers on scene are actually engaging the occupants of the van," Smith said of the people who were refusing to get out. "However, at one point, my supervisor is distracted by a female on the scene, and it is during this — out of view of the supervisor — that RPD officers do remove and handcuff some of the occupants of the van."
He said officers were able to get the vehicle occupants to "voluntarily get them to open the door" to the van and left once the scene was secured. He did not know the end result nor what the reason was for the stop and noted that "there was no immediate criminal activity that we would have needed to address."
In internal police memo to officers on Tuesday referenced the stop, Smith said, and instructed: "If this happens again, we are not to remove people from vehicles. We are not to be handcuffing subjects. We are not to be doing pat frisks on subjects, and we are absolutely not going to be detaining them or putting them into our cars."
City Council President Meléndez joined the mayor and police chief at the City Hall news conference.
"I'll let the investigation run its course," Meléndez said. "But the reality is, there's a lot more profiling, a lot more disdain for being Latino right now in this country."
The city will follow the law, he continued, but added: "We have a policy, and we mean it. And we want to make sure that we are following what we say, what we put in as our position here in city government, and that — to our community — we are supportive of everyone."
Smith and Evans declined to comment on what exact reprimands could be used if any officers were found to have violated policy following the investigation. In a statement, the officers' union, the Locust Club, described the mayor's statements as "a complete overreaction," as the officers "did absolutely nothing wrong, other than to answer a call for help from another agency."
