Feb 2
2023
Lawsuit: Aggressive ticketing of Black drivers
Between 2012 and 2020, one Buffalo police officer, Kelvin Sharpe, wrote nearly 12,000 traffic tickets. More than two-thirds of those Sharpe ticketed were Black, according to data gathered from Erie County and the City of Buffalo and analyzed by attorneys for the plaintiffs in a federal civil rights lawsuit. Another Buffalo cop, 14-year veteran Michael Acquino, wrote nearly 2,500 tickets for tinted windows in that same time period, 2012-2020. About 85 percent of the recipients were Black. A third officer, Richard Hy, issued, on average, at least one more ticket per stop to minority drivers compared to white drivers over[...]