Buffalo Residents Are Making Stronger Demands For Police Oversight

Policing in Buffalo has been under heavy scrutiny as of late, from the handling of protest during the civil unrest in our city, to some of the alleged unlawful arrests and use of force to people in our community. According to WIVB,  during a recent meeting of the Buffalo Common Council's Police Oversight Committee, a group of community members asked, for the second time, for the support of a new model of police supervision, to be led by Buffalo residents.

Credit: WIVB,

Buffalo Common Council member, Ulysees O. Wingo explained that a model like this already exists, and it is the committee of council members that they are currently appearing before.

It's just a matter of using the current structure because now we're talking about recommending another police advisory board with a new structure that is literally impeding on the powers that are already given to the common council.

said, Ulysees O. Wingo.

According to WIVB, right now, all complaints against Buffalo Police officers are investigated by other police officers in the Internal Affairs Division. These are fellow officers and also fellow union members of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association. In most cases, those investigations, almost never result in any discipline.

When you have 90% of complaints that get dismissed and get thrown out, you're going to have citizens and attorneys that are reluctant to go to Internal Affairs when there are really founded instances of abuse.

said, Attorney John Elmore according to WGRZ.

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This has been a big issue in Buffalo for a while now. In my opinion, there should be some changes made to the system, to show more transparency, which would give residents more confidence in knowing that they have a system that they can trust.