The committee reviewing Rochester's police oversight system has broken up into smaller groups in order to evaluate the process from several different points of view. The governance, police, and community groups will identify strengths and weakness of the oversight system, best ways to address those weaknesses, and then report back to the larger committee, says City Council member Adam McFadden, who co-chairs the committee with Police Chief James Sheppard.

The oversight review committee was formed following two high profile and controversial arrests last year. Activist Emily Good, who was charged with obstruction after a verbal altercation with a Rochester police officer, and Monroe County Legislator Willie Lightfoot, who pleaded guilty to DWI, both complained about their treatment by police.

Neither Lightfoot nor Good filed a complaint, however. Both said they didn't trust the system. Common grievances about the police oversight system are that it takes too long to resolve complaints, there's a lack of checks and balances, and that the process lacks transparency.

But McFadden, who chairs Council's Public Safety Committee, says that many people who complain about the system don't understand it.

"There are a number of people who've been asking for something different and saying it doesn't work, and when I hear their rationale, a lot of times they're just wrong," he says. "What I've learned is that a lot of people love to complain, but not many people like to do their homework."

For example, he says, critics often say that the Civilian Review Board - the body that reviews the police investigations into complaints - lacks subpoena power. But that's not entirely true. The CRB can ask City Council to issue subpoenas on its behalf.

McFadden does agree that the process to resolve complaints takes too long. He says he knows people who've waited two years for a resolution.

"The amount of time is just ridiculous," McFadden says. "If I were a person who was physically abused by the police, I would never use the CRB process. I would just get an attorney and sue the city."

And police officers have legitimate complaints about the system, too, McFadden says.

"They don't have access to see what they're accused of," he says. "If somebody accused me of something, I would like to know what."

"If you're talking about a system that's fair and transparent, we're going to be transparent on both sides," McFadden says. "You can't have it be that one group has access and another doesn't. That doesn't, to me, make a lot of sense."

McFadden's committee is expected to make its recommendations for changes to the oversight system to City Council in either May or June, he says. Council has to approve changes before they go into effect.