Members of the Rochester community are weighing in on a proposal for a Police Accountability Board drafted by City Council.
It’s one of two proposals currently on the table as draft legislation. Mayor Lovely Warren has issued her own proposal.
Council members say their proposal has broad support from the community, but the Rochester Police Locust Club says it needs to include feedback from law enforcement.
Rochester City Council’s proposed police accountability board would have the power to discipline police officers. Currently, Rochester’s police chief can overrule recommendations on discipline, but Council’s plan would change that. Police union president Mike Mazzeo says rank and file officers could be concerned that any little dispute would become a fireable offense.
“Now the officer says, ‘Do I set out of the car and approach that person? What if it leads to some confrontation or action and I lose everything over it? So I’m just going to drive by.’”
Rochester City Council Vice President Adam McFadden says he doesn’t buy it.
“To me, that’s cowardly talk. That’s just me. I don’t fear anybody. I don’t have an act of fear that way. So when I hear someone say ‘I might be scared to do my job,’ then you might not want to be on our police department.”
Mazzeo says he thinks the City Council proposal was rushed and should include feedback from law enforcement.
“Nothing this important should be rushed to a finish line. How is it not rushed if the Council has already written legislation, but they have not once sat down with us? They have not brought us into a discussion in any way.”
Councilman Willie Joe Lightfoot says this has already been a long process, and Council has been open to all opinions.
“We felt like, you know, we were taking too long. I mean, this has been well over a year. And how about 50 years or 40 years? Is 40 years rushed?”
The next public forum on City Council's proposal that was scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed due to weather, and a new date has not yet been identified.
