Rochester Police have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the New York State Department of Corrections and Supervision, calling for increased cooperation on supervising parolees.
The agreement comes after a string of violent crimes in Rochester committed by parolees. Chief Michael Ciminelli and the Acting Commissioner of DOCS signed the agreement last week after a series of telephone conferences and a meeting held at City Hall earlier this month. They hope it will let them better track parolees and move in on parole violators who commit new crimes.
It calls for DOCS to notify a live body at the Rochester Police Department immediately whenever a parolee’s GPS tracking device is tampered with. It allows the RPD to determine case-by-case if it needs to respond to such an alert immediately (DOCS Parole Officers are supposed to take the lead on such cases). It provides Rochester Police Officers with 24/7 telephone access to the DOCS Community Supervision Operations Center to immediately report any parole violators they come across.
It also commits the Corrections Department to increased information sharing with the RPD and to provide Rochester police officers with more training on how parole and community supervision works.