June 2024 PAB Meeting Summary

• A budget hearing with the City Council was held on May 30^th.
• The staff positions of webmaster and language access coordinator are vacant, and interviews will be held this month.  Additional open positions include operation/training specialist, two community engagement specialists (one bilingual), staff attorney and Director of Investigations.
• The Public Affairs and Community Engagement team has been developing a 2024 summary campaign including billboards, bus and radio ads, and possibly a television ad.  A communication plan for the right to know proposal is also being developed.
• PAB participated in the 19^th Ward Square Fair and the Stop Gun Violence Rally over the weekend.
• PAB partnered with the public defender’s office to conduct a know your rights training at the Father Tracy Advocacy Center.
• Regarding case management, 5 reports were received this month and 14 were closed.   Seven of the closed cases were sent to the police chief.  A new person is joining the staff later this month.
• Staff are working on a process to analyze survey information.   
• Investigations staff are nearing completion of the revisions to the investigations manual.   
• Operations staff are working on identifying a potential new location for PAB.

• Sherry Walker-Cowart was thanked for her work and contributions as a new Director is expected to start soon.
• A candidate for the Executive Director position has been recommended to the City Council.  Announcements regarding new leadership will be made later this month.
• The Board chair and vice-chair positions will be open at the end of the month.  Elections for those positions will be discussed next month.  Larry will run again for chair, but Arlene Brown will not run for the vice-chair position.
• Delaying a move for a few months was proposed to avoid disruption when management is transitioning.  A motion was passed to delay a move, possibly through the end of the year. 
• A workshop, created by Rochester, Albany and New York City police accountability boards, has been accepted for inclusion in the NACo conference being held in October.  The workshop will address police oversight in the state.

• A presentation and review of the recommendations for police and protest policy (general order 680) was given by De’Jon Hall, Director of Policy and Oversight.  In February, RPD (Rochester Police Department) put out a community engagement assessment. One of the key findings was that the department needed to increase community involvement in policy creation.  An advisory committee would take changes to the public, get input, provide feedback and make the recommended changes.  This is essentially the work and process of the PAB, which could be fulfilling this need.
  • A general list of recommended changes was made during the protest policy review.  For example, ASL interpreters should be involved in the front lines of responses.  Community comments involved the use of the term “civil disorder” and the need for a definition and criteria for when it would be used.
  • A question about the existence of intergovernmental agreements between Monroe County Sheriff and New York State troopers concerning jurisdiction was raised.  PAB was told no agreements exist; however, it is believed that they do exist and those documents may create some uniformity among enforcement agencies.  For example, during the protests of 2020-21, K9 dogs were brought in by the Sheriff’s department although they are not to be used by RPD.
  • The review will be posted and shared with the Police Chief, who must respond within 30 days.   It is also shared with the Mayor and City Council.  A motion to approve the proposals for change to the policing protest policy was passed.
• Sarah Janks, an oversight manager, presented information on an oversight investigation of Discipline in the RPD.  As a result of an Appeals Court’s interpretation of PAB’s Charter, any PAB recommendations are beholden to RPD’s system of discipline. 
  • RPD’s discipline process was studied and described to the Board. RPD’s professional standards section manual has not been updated since 2014 and general order 305 on command discipline has not been updated to include a current list of violations.
  • A formal discipline procedure is started by a public or internal complaint.  Command discipline is a lower concern alternative in which the record is destroyed after one year of no additional disciplinary actions.   The historical record of the number of complaints, investigations, and disciplines was reviewed. 
  • The inconsistencies between the Charter requirements for RPD’s information sharing and the actual situation was detailed.
  • A motion to approve the oversight investigation report was passed.
• An executive session was called to discuss possible legal actions.  No votes were taken.  The meeting was adjourned.