ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) -- The Rochester Police Accountability Board began Monday with a 9 a.m. news conference addressing the Sunday afternoon release of 31 completed and redacted investigations into matters of the Rochester Police Department. PAB releases reports on alleged police misconduct to the public, Rochester leaders send a letter condemning its publication According to a statement issued by the City of Rochester hours later on Sunday, this action was taken despite a letter sent on Friday to PAB from the City's Corporation Counsel (effectively the same counsel of PAB) detailing the reasons for not publicizing such information. Even if redacted, the city said, the reports can cause harm to a person's reputation, and an ongoing police investigation, among other potential consequences. "The function of the PAB is to solve a problem that doesn't exist which is the assumption that police don't already have accountability," said Matthew Rich, General Counsel for the Rochester Police Locust Club. As Rich explained, the way discipline is set up in the City of Rochester and NYS is by a collective bargain with the Rochester Police Department. It's been determined matters of complaints are handled by the Chief of Police, who then delegates the review to the Professional Services Section, or internal affairs within RPD - which then provides recommendations back to the Chief. The Chief is beholden to the mayor, who holds a responsibility to the voters. It was previously determined through litigation that the PAB does not hold any power to enact disciplinary action. "When you add that to the fact that the state's highest court - the Court of Appeals -- said that they [PAB] have no role in discipline whatsoever, they have no basis whatsoever to be issuing these reports, which then recommend discipline - which exceeds the authority in terms of what they're allowed to release to the public," said Rich. "If you put two and two together -- just because you don't release an officer's name that's involved in an incident, if someone reads the redacted form that is out there and they put it together and say 'oh wait a second that's my case,' nothing is stopping that person from releasing officer A, B or C's name," said Paul Dondorfer, Vice President of the Rochester Police Locust Club. PAB members recognized there have been what leaders call "growing pains" in the agency since its inception, also stating efforts to establish the new agency have been met with obstacles over the past few years, including access to data and timely responses to inquiries. "Our Board and our staff have done an excellent job with a lot of limitations from Corporation Counsel and city government on occasion that we're trying to work through in regard to doing fair and partial investigations and we want to be able to share what we could of it, completed investigations to share with you as demanded and desired by the community," said Larry Knox, Chair of the Police Accountability Board. Recently appointed Executive Deputy Director of the PAB, Ben Wittwer, who also serves as general counsel for the agency, claims the portal RPD utilizes to publicly share disciplinary reports is "quite incomplete" adding the PAB was only recently granted access to certain data. "We are trying to keep track of whether or not they follow PAB recommendations. As of now, RPD is giving us that information on the condition that we do not publicize it because they want the city's portal to be the only avenue to receiving that type of info and that's why we haven't publicized it, so I can't tell you specifically how much they line up and don't line up," said Wittwer. "As far as the accessibility to records, the state again has passed and repealed 50a. of the social services law which essentially says that when there is substantiated police discipline those records are now available to the public. So, I don't know what more you could ask for again the controls and the checks and balances that are already in place," Rich added. The PAB plans to release completed investigative reports at the end of each month online.