A group called the Rochester Police Accountability Alliance is calling on Mayor Lovely Warren to withdraw her plan for a city Police Accountability Board.
City Council’s Public Safety Committee takes up the legislation for the first time on Thursday. It sets up a nine-member board that would investigate complaints of police wrongdoing, then make disciplinary recommendations to the police chief.
Pastor Wanda Wilson of the Alliance says the Accountability Board should be able to directly discipline officers it finds have used excessive force. She says the mayor’s plan isn’t good enough.
Mayor Warren says the city charter requires the police chief to have ultimate authority over officer discipline.
City Council President Loretta Scott told 13 WHAM the council is considering trying to amend the charter through an alternate bill.