ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — A New York appellate panel heard arguments Tuesday over whether the Rochester Police Accountability Board retains the authority to investigate officers, years after courts struck down portions of the 2019 law that created it.
The City of Rochester argued that earlier rulings, including a 2022 Court of Appeals decision, only invalidated the PAB’s ability to conduct disciplinary hearings and impose discipline, not its power to investigate police misconduct, issue subpoenas, or publish case-closure reports.
Assistant corporation counsel John Mancuso told the panel that the Locust Club, the Rochester police union, never appealed the portions of the initial ruling that upheld the board’s investigatory authority…