ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- New York State's Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct is an idea more than a decade in the making.

Finally passed in 2018, a lawsuit led to an updated bill approved in 2021, allowing the commission to move forward. Russell Neufeld, of Accountability NY, an oversight advocacy group, said it's almost fully realized. 

"They're just now promulgating rules and procedures to get going so they really haven't started functioning yet," Neufeld said.

He said while Gov. Kathy Hochul took more than a year to make her appointments, the commission finally has a quorum but must now wait on a 60-day public comment period before it can finalize its rules. Republican former state Sen. John DeFrancisco, who sponsored the bill, said he's not surprised it's taken so long.

"The prosecutors for years during all the attempts I made to get it passed were constantly in the ear of each majority leader and the governor saying this is not necessary," DeFrancisco said.

Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley was president of the state's District Attorneys Association and pushed back on the bill in 2021 before it became law. Doorley may now be among the first before the commission as the governor has asked the body to review her interaction during a traffic stop with a Webster police officer.

Reinvent Albany Executive Director John Kaehny said with ample body camera video evidence of improper behavior, the review is appropriate.

"At a minimum, this is a very flagrant abuse of public trust in a very high profile way that undermines public trust in the office of the Monroe County district attorney," Kaehny said.

Advocates point out it is within the governor's constitutional power to remove Doorley from office, regardless of the commission.

"She could do that on her own so if it's serious enough she doesn't need the commission but maybe she wants the commission to review something before she takes any steps," DeFrancisco said.

Neufelf said the commission should act as quickly as possible.

"They'll really have to get their act in gear if they want to deal with this in any kind of quick way because otherwise this will take months and months and months," he said.

Advocates said the driving factors behind the commission's creation were to deal with concerns of prosecutorial misconduct in the courtroom, including things like withholding evidence from the defense or using racial discrimination in jury selection. They said while this case is appropriate for the commission, they hope those kinds of cases will get the same attention from the governor, lawmakers and the general public.