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 21st 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.
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