Rochester's Police Accountability Board released a report on the Rochester Police Department's disciplinary practices on Thursday.

According to the report, the RPD saw a drop in the number of sustained findings for internal RPD investigations of officer misconduct, which the PAB says fell from a high of 39 in 2019 to zero by 2023.

The department attributes this delay to a leadership change at the Locust Club police union and says disciplinary matters are again moving forward after new union leadership was put in place at the start of 2024. The RPD says seven sustained findings of misconduct have moved forward, including some which were pending since 2023.

The PAB report claims that disciplinary files for sustained allegations of misconduct are not consistently uploaded to the RPD's database.

The report also states that the board has said it found nearly 30% of departmental action for sustained allegations of misconduct resulted in a memo being issued. The PAB says this is "not an accepted form of discipline," based on RPD's own internal affairs manual.

The police department countered the PAB report by releasing a statement saying in part that Chief David Smith believes counseling or training can best resolve what it called "minor policy violations."

The RPD says Chief Smith and his staff will continue to review the report in the coming days and will work to address any deficiencies.

Both the PAB's report and the RPD's full statement can be viewed below: