Investigation: Where are public records of police crashes, civilian injuries in Rochester?
Police officers have crashed hundreds of cars in New York in the last few years, and often have escaped consequences. What about in our city?
In Rochester, we have asked for records so we can analyze how often police have crashed into things and into people and what has happened after that. We have received some but not all of the records yet. In the next few months, our team will be analyzing all the records we get.
Completed providing documents:
Brighton Town Police
East Rochester Police Department
Rochester Police Department (earlier documents requested)
Gates Police Department
Town of Irondequoit Police Department
Town of Ogden Police Department
Not yet provided documents:
Fairport Village Police Department
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office
New York State Police, Troop E
Town of Greece Police Department
Webster Police Department
Rochester Police Department (later documents requested)
Said they won’t provide documents:
Brockport Village Police Department
So far, we have submitted a total of 193 Freedom of Information requests for detailed crash records from police departments in the state, plus about another 20 for things like union contracts and vehicle pursuit policies.
In early 2023, the USA TODAY Network including the Democrat and Chronicle teamed up with Syracuse University's Newhouse School to investigate police vehicle crashes in New York. We expanded our efforts to obtain crash records from New York police departments and started exploring the human and monetary impact on communities where police seemed to be driving recklessly without punishment or prevention from it happening again.
We focused our efforts on departments in some of New York's most populous counties, as well as those counties where the USA TODAY Network owns news sites. We have yet to request crash records from every police department in the state.
Police departments are pushing back heavily — trying the keep the information hidden — as we urge them to release their disciplinary records, as required by law.
Many departments have resisted providing the records in their entirety, or at all.
The USA TODAY Network-New York has sued several departments in search of these documents — public records that are in the public interest. After being sued, Herkimer Police Department released its files early last year.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester NY police crashes: USA TODAY seeks public records, data