On Thursday, June 4, 2020, an elderly white man peacefully protesting was pushed to the ground and seriously injured by Buffalo Police at around 8:00pm. After having been pushed to the ground, police officers callously kept walking after the man was lying on the ground and bleeding. This is only one of several recent incidents involving police violence toward citizens that require careful investigation and suggest need for reform (Quentin Suttles on May 10th, 2020, Shy’Quan Brodie on June 2, 2020, and Miles Carter on June 2, 2020). For the past few years, our Buffalo Police Advisory Board (BPAB) has implored, through several policy recommendations, that the Buffalo Police improve local policing practices. The ongoing violence, racial disparities, and lack of care show the need for sweeping policing reform.
We call on the Buffalo Common Council, Police Oversight Committee chair David Rivera, Mayor Byron Brown, and BPD Commissioner Lockwood to make immediate changes in regards to the priority police policy reforms we urgently demand here. Mayor Brown took the step of directing the BPD to ban use of chokeholds, and Commissioner Lockwood took the step of immediate suspension of the officers without pay who were responsible for physically assaulting the 75-year-old man on the evening of June 4th. These steps are progress, but they do not go far enough. These steps do not address the breadth of issues that Buffalo faces, as is evident by the multiple incidents we have highlighted. Therefore, the BPAB urgently recommends the following policy reforms:
- Create an independent, civilian, investigatory body with independent legal counsel. We believe the membership of this body should be completely independent of political appointments.
- Codify ALL five Use of Force policy amendments we have recommended:
o Require de-escalation prior to use of force,
o Require a warning before shooting,
o Require another present officer to intervene,
o Mandate a comprehensive report of other police officers’ actions or arrests that included use of force and,
o Ban chokeholds or strangle holds.
- Adopt the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program in order to assist citizens dealing with mental health, poverty, and substance abuse by preventing arrest and system involvement.
- Adopt the use of “stop tickets”to increase accountability and transparency by providing residents with basic information about the stop, the officer, and the reason for the stop.
We additionally and urgently call for several New York State policing policy reforms. We support the 12 bill package proposed and endorsed by the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus. Specifically, we want to highlight the importance of passing Senate Bill 7527 (which would remove limitations on local independent oversight of officer investigation), the Repeal of 50a, and the passage of Senate Bill S6601 (which would require Law Enforcement Officers to call for Medical Care in cases like the one we all witnessed the evening of June 4th).
Background:
The PAB is an independent advisory committee created by the Buffalo Common Council to focus on policing and community-police relations in the City of Buffalo. The PAB engages community residents and makes recommendations to the Common Council and Buffalo Police Department about how policing policy and community-police relationships can be improved. Over the past 3 years, the PAB has issued reports and testified to the Common Council on issues including the police body-worn camera policy, police officer performance evaluations, community policing, officer trainings, and the police union contract.
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