As the committee investigating police oversight in Rochester enters its home stretch, committee co-chair Adam McFadden says those inside and outside the system have more in common than you'd think. McFadden is also a member of City Council.
The 15-member committee has been meeting since last year, with the intention of overhauling the way complaints about the police department are handled. Common complaints about the current system are that it takes too long and that it lacks objectivity and transparency.
On Monday night, the committee heard from members of the Locust Club, the union that represents Rochester police officers.
Locust Club President Mike Mazzeo said that the efficiency and credibility of the oversight process could be improved by letting a neutral hearing officer make the final decision on a police officer's fate. Currently, the police chief ultimately decides whether or not to uphold a complaint and what discipline will be handed down. Bringing in an independent officer would take politics out of the process, Mazzeo said.
McFadden said that Mazzeo's recommendation is familiar.
"The community's been saying the exact same thing," he said. "I think there's some validity in that."
Another problem from the Locust Club's point of view is that accused officers and their representatives can't see the investigative file on their cases. Mazzo said that makes it difficult to provide a proper defense and to judge whether recommended punishments are just.
It's important to understand, he said, that Rochester police officers respond to approximately 550,000 calls for service each year and that there will always be complaints.
McFadden said he'd like the process to change so that when someone files a complaint, they're also filing a notice of claim - the beginning of a lawsuit - against the city. He says he knows that would be controversial, but that the complaint process takes so long now that people lose their opportunity to file the claim.
Three members of the Locust Club put on a role-playing exercise for the committee. They acted out a forcible arrest and had committee members write narratives of what they witnessed. They compared those narratives to a video of the exercise. The point was to show the committee the pitfalls of dissecting a 10-second incident, and how easy it is to misinterpret what you see.
McFadden said the committee could present its findings and recommendations to City Council in June.
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