The Rochester Coalition for Police Reform is calling for creation of a Community Justice Advisory Board to monitor Rochester Police use of body-worn cameras.
The group includes the Genesee Valley Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, United Christian Leadership Ministries and others. They want a formal board to examine and recommend changes as the department continues to develop its body camera policy. They say it’s good for justice, good for police-community relations and good for civil liberties.
The RPD answers that it has met with the coalition and made several changes to its camera policy based on what they had to say. The policy as it now stands is online. It spells out when the cameras are to be on and off, and the department says it believes the policy is being followed.
One area of disagreement is over officers being allowed to view incidents on tape before they write their reports. The department allows it. The coalition says officers should go by memory and then compare it with what the cameras show.
More than 150 officers now wear the body cams, and during October they recorded more than 16,800 individual video files.