SEEKING JUSTICE/CREATING BALANCE

Co sponsored by Criminal Justice Studies Program in the Division of Social Sciences,  College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Alfred University's Social Justice Studies Program.

Warr, Forsyth, Durwin

ALFRED: Students in the Alfred University Criminal Justice Institute and the Social Justice Program blend classroom learning with real world experience. This week activists from Rochester brought their world to campus with a presentation entitled Seeking Justice/Creating Balance: Police Accountability in the 21^st century. The program explored a community led effort to examine and reduce excessive force by the Rochester Police Department in order to reduce community tensions, to try to save some of the $10 million budgeted annually to resolve excessive force complaints, and to develop a stronger community.

                Ted Forsyth, a 2003 graduate of AU, has spent the last decade examining, studying, reporting on and trying to expand justice in Rochester NY where he lives with his wife Ali and their child Morgan. He was joined by Pastor Nina Warr and A J Durwin, Esq. Forsyth, Warr and others established Enough Is Enough Rochester, NY (EIE) after members of the RPD dumped Mr. Warr from his wheel chair while he was waiting at a bus stop in his neighborhood. Durwin moved to Rochester in 2016 and soon began donating his time and legal skills to Enough is Enough.

                These members of EIE presented images and stories of people who have been killed, beaten, or harassed by members of the Rochester Police Department. They described the current procedure that citizens or their surviving family members must follow in presenting grievances over the force used against them. They explained their goals going forward and the detailed police accountability board procedures that other cities have developed and the impact the changes have made in those cities.

                To summarize briefly, the current system has civilians alleging excessive force present their case to a member of the police department. Between 2001 and 2016 a total of 923 allegations were made. (Note: If a civilian is knocked down, kicked, and punched that would tally as 3 allegations.)

                Of those 923 allegations, 43 were sustained after an internal investigation and the notes of the investigation were sent to a Civilian Review Board. Following this the Chief of Police sustained 16 allegations and applied sanctions to 13 of them. There is no standardization of discipline or transparency that gives civilians information about what happens as a result of their specific allegations but the city of Rochester did pay settlements $2.2 million between 2015 and 2017 and they allot $10 million per year in expectation of ongoing suits and settlements.

                EIE wants change and has written a law that they hope will be passed by the city council. In the proposed law there will be 11 members of an independent Police Accountability Board with a paid staff of one administrator and 7 investigators (one per 100 officers). Such a board would have subpoena power and would conduct hearings and would cost about 1% of the current RPD budget.

                There would be a standardized matrix of disciplinary action. This would be an attempt remove bias in disciplinary actions by having the response to an allegation be standard and to have a repeated incident weigh more heavily. It would also take the disciplinary investigation and sanction from the police department and put it in the hands of an independent board. EIE hopes to follow the lead of Oakland CA and Newark NJ in creating a progressive national model of accountability that will result in fewer lawsuits against the BPD, a greater sense of humanity and well being among officers, and more public faith in law enforcement in the city.

                AU Students were encouraged to become involved. One state-wide action in play is to repeal New York Civil Rights section 50-a  which is currently used to say that Civil Service Commissions and police accountability programs may not take disciplinary actions against any law enforcement officer.  A second campaign is to repeal Civil Law 50a which shields an officer’s discipline records.

                The presentation covered a lot of ground, much of it complex so please go to enoughisenough.rocus.org where there is a blog, a calendar of events and a contact page where you can get answers or pursue a conversation. You may note that EIE meetings are held at the Flying Squirrel Community Space. The Squirrel is an old lodge hall that was purchased by citizens who make the space available to a variety of community groups and demonstrates the long term and generous commitment many have to social justice in Rochester.