Rochester’s Police Accountability Board has hired an outside law firm to help ensure cooperation with its investigations into Rochester Police Department operations.
Executive Director Conor Reynolds says Shearman & Sterling LLP is being hired under a provision of the PAB’s charter allowing it to hire independent legal counsel and to obtain information via subpoenas.
A statement from Reynolds says the RPD has made national headlines over the last two months for a series of publicized encounters with children and people in crisis. It says the PAB has not yet received a “host of documents” it has requested. Shearman & Sterling’s job will be in part to secure those documents for review.
Reynolds says this comes after the independent counsel’s report commissioned by City Council which said the city suppressed information about the handling of the Daniel Prude case.