Rochester's Police Accountability Board was envisioned as a vehicle to expand civilian oversight of policing — not just in Rochester but, potentially, across the state.
Not only did it fail to do so, but supporters now worry it has accomplished the opposite, establishing case law that has curtailed civilian review beyond the city's borders.
“If I were to say I'm perfectly content with how things have happened, that'd be a lie,” said Ted Forsyth, a Ph.D. student at Syracuse University who was integral in the push for the PAB. “As aspirational as I was at that time, the sort of all roads forward, I hadn't considered the opposite, which was: If we lose, does this case become a sort of milestone of the basically disembowelment of police accountability across New York State?”
City Council now is considering a pared-down budget, and the board — while awaiting the outcome of yet another legal appeal — has cut staff while shifting its focus from investigations to outreach. Down the road in Syracuse, a longstanding review board has been stymied, its cases put on hold, as officials there await the same court decision.
Understanding what went wrong requires going back to the beginning.
The courts and stripping of power
In 2019, the PAB was proposed as a replacement to the volunteer Civilian Review Board. That board was tasked with reviewing completed investigations into police misconduct and making its own findings and recommendations.
Two versions of the PAB were on the table: one with disciplinary power and one without. The latter was proposed by then-Mayor Lovely Warren. Warren’s proposal would include the abilities to perform investigations, establish frameworks for discipline, and recommend discipline to the chief of police.
She warned at the time that granting disciplinary power to a civilian board was likely to face steep challenges in the courts.
“The City Administration's proposal will create a Police Accountability Board that is legally permissible under the laws of the State of New York,” Warren said, in a 2019 statement. “Other proposals that have been suggested would not withstand legal challenge.”
City Council disagreed, and — working closely with Forsyth and other advocates — put the model with disciplinary powers on the ballot. It passed in November 2019 with 75% of the vote.
Warren did not respond to a request for comment.
The Rochester Police Locust Club first sued the PAB in 2020, arguing the body violated its labor contract by making decisions on discipline. A state Supreme Court Justice ruled in favor of the Locust Club that year, stripping the PAB of disciplinary power. That ruling was upheld by a state Court of Appeals ruling 2023.
In 2024, the Locust Club sued again, this time arguing that the PAB’s investigations were a violation of the police labor contract, even if there was no disciplinary power. A state Supreme Court judge again ruled in the Locust Club’s favor, a decision which was upheld by a state appellate court earlier this year.
The Rochester City Council, the parent body to the PAB, is currently appealing that decision.
“We the council, as a whole, believe that the latest court case went a little too far, and is the reason that we're pushing back and fighting it to the final appeal,” said Council President Miguel Meléndez.
In this year’s budget, eight positions have been eliminated from the PAB’s investigative team, specifically due to the appellate court ruling. Another two — a director of public affairs and community engagement and a part-time secretary — were also eliminated.
“Frankly, understanding that the disciplinary power, as well as now the investigatory power, are removed, we thought that the right position to take at this time, while we wait for the outcome of litigation, is to listen to what the courts have said and not allow positions to continue in the budget that could no longer be sustained and function,” Meléndez said.
A ripple effect
The legal challenges to the Police Accountability Board have stymied the ability for the PAB to do the work it was tasked to do. But it also has created legal precedent that is landing blows to police oversight across New York.
In Syracuse, the Citizen Review Board, has been conducting its own investigations into instances of alleged police misconduct and making recommendations to the chief for more than 30 years. It, too, has faced legal challenges from the Syracuse Police Benevolent Association.
But, as Syracuse.com reported in April, it’s the latest court ruling against the PAB that has now halted the review board’s work there. The newspaper reported that about 70 cases are now on hold.
“These cases that we've lost are being weaponized in a way to further the interests of police unions and police departments, as opposed to community members and police accountability,” Forsyth said. “Which is depressing, to say the least.”
What's next
The future track of the PAB, and what it can do, rests on the upcoming Court of Appeals ruling.
Until then, the PAB has set out to dramatically change its goals and operations. Instead of case-by-case investigations of alleged misconduct, it will look for patterns and trends. And instead issuing findings or data analysis reports, it will shift to community engagement.
“The last several months at the Police Accountability Board have been extraordinarily difficult,” said executive director Lesli Myers-Small, at a board meeting on May 21. “For the agency, for the board, for staff, and for members of the community who still believe in the original vision of the Police Accountability Board.”
Myers-Small went on to say that despite the challenges facing the board, that it was not admitting “defeat.”
But for Forsyth, who spent nearly a decade building a grassroots coalition to challenge Rochester Police disciplinary processes, the reality is bleak. He said the only true path forward is reform at the state level to allow civilian oversight.
“It may not be in my lifetime, but I think if we can get enough constituents across the state to see the value of changing the law and can convince enough legislators that it's worth their time, that maybe that that can happen,” he said. “But I'm not naieve enough to think that the police unions aren’t going to fight against that with everything that they have.”
