ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester police have released body-worn camera footage of an incident involving RPD officers, who were seen pepper-spraying a woman who had been accused of shoplifting. Her child was present during the incident, but was not hurt.

Police Accountability Board members say they are disturbed by the incident. It happened on February 22 on Portland Avenue. PAB members say they were made aware of the incident Thursday night.

Police video shows officers approaching a woman who was accused of shoplifting. The woman was also accused of arguing with employees of a nearby store on Portland Avenue and refusing to leave. The woman denied taking anything from the store. Police stopped her, searched her purse, then asked her to get into a patrol car. 

But then the woman, who was holding her 3-year-old child, ran away from police. Police chased, and body worn-camera footage showed what happened next. An officer appeared to have tackled the woman and pepper sprayed her, while another officer subdued the screaming child.

The PAB says the presence of the child makes the video more troubling. They compared parts of it to a recent incident on Harris Street in which a 9-year-old girl was restrained and pepper-sprayed. They continue their calls for a change in protocols when it comes to the use of force.

"We have patterns of behavior within the Rochester Police Department that is concerning to us. And we really need to have this be taken care of urgently," said board member Shani Wilson. “These disturbing incidents prove that the Rochester Police Department needs a fundamentally changed organizational culture. This incident also affirms our community's call to fundamentally reimagine public safety.”

The PAB says the city has refused to turn over critical information on that incident to the police watchdog group.

“If the city had done otherwise, our investigation at any resulting proposals for change may have prevented this incident from happening,” said Wilson.  

Mike Mazzeo, president of the Rochester Police Locust Club, the union which represents city cops, said he didn’t want to address the video specifically, without studying it further.

"I'm not defending this because I don't have those answers," he said. "That's the process of review and that's the process of what we should be doing. When we simply say 'let's look at a matter and discipline,' we're not making an improvement - we're not making a change. I'm not saying discipline is not going to be a part of it. But that should be the first course of action."

Mazzeo says the body-worn camera footage should be used for better training and to support policy changes in the department, to better support officers who he says already have a tough job.

“I’m not talking about saying we're defending the cops or nothing,” he remarked. “I'm talking about these things should be a standard practice for the department to look at, not just for the officers involved, but for the whole patrol division.”

Mayor Lovely Warren issued a written statement, calling the video “disturbing” and reiterating her call for sweeping policy and procedure changes in the department:

“When incidents like this occur, I am relieved that I ensured body-worn cameras are worn by our police, so we can see what occurs on our streets and hold officers accountable. 

These videos are certainly disturbing. That's why Chief Herriott Sullivan is not waiting for the Executive Order 203 process to be completed. She is working to make sweeping, but necessary, policy and procedure changes along with mandatory training for officers regarding racism and implicit bias. The last month of community engagement has given her the ability to see the immediate changes that must take place while also working towards the systemic change included in the Executive Order 203 draft plan.

We are updating that plan based upon community feedback and will submit it to City Council next week so they can begin their review. We have to collectively push forward the request to the State allowing the City to immediately terminate officers for cause. Change will not come until we have the ability to fully hold our officers accountable when they violate the public's trust.”

The union chief compared that statement to the indictment last year of Warren on felony campaign finance fraud charges. The case is still pending.

“That's just that's politics. That makes no sense,” Mazzeo responded. “I could easily say the same thing looking at her, that when an elected officials indicted, they shouldn't be serving the public. There's due process. She's entitled to due process, and our people are as well.”

The woman involved in the Portland Avenue incident was handcuffed and taken away by police, and ticketed for trespassing for the store incident.  At an afternoon news conference, Rochester police chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan said the officer who tackled the woman has been placed on administrative leave.

Interim chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan addressed the incident, saying there could have been a better solution.

"Some things to me aren't as simple as whether a policy was followed," she said. "Our indicators were that it was. But, however, I'm of the mode just because we can do certain things, should we?"

When it comes to investigating police conduct, many PAB members say their hands are tied.

“I wonder with community involvement and with the PAB doing its job, what would have happened?,” said Wilson. “Would this incident ever happened at all?”