Investigative Post

Only one city in the country is suffering more than Buffalo from the financial devastation of the COVID crisis. And that’s Rochester, just an hour down the Thruway. A forthcoming study, the source of a New York Times analysis published Monday, projects Buffalo’s government is staring at a 15 to 20 percent shortfall in revenue […]

Reforming the Buffalo Police Department will require changes in the labor contract between the city and its police union. Major changes. An analysis by Investigative Post found the contract — a behemoth of a document comprising nearly 400 pages of agreements, amendments, arbitration awards and memoranda — is decidedly one-sided in favor of the union. […]

HarpData, already months behind completing a project to provide wi-fi access to thousands of Buffalo students, sought work on another school district job earlier this year and is now complaining it didn’t get the contract. The district’s purchasing director rejected the company’s bid, deeming HarpData a “non-responsible bidder.”  Now, three months later, HarpData is crying […]

Today Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told reporters that it was the responsibility of the city’s police union to make its contract public. “Why doesn’t the media ask the police union to make the contract public?” Brown said. “Why are the requests always of the city?” Well, the union did release it — yesterday. The Buffalo […]

A group of local community activists have launched an online petition demanding the resignation of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. The activists say Brown has failed to show leadership in the two weeks since demonstrators took to the streets to protest police brutality. The petition states: From the start on Saturday, May 30th, protestors were met […]

The City of Buffalo has three separate police oversight boards, but they’ve done little, if anything, to bring bad cops to heel.  One can’t. It’s an advisory panel with no power beyond its voice.  One won’t. It’s a subcommittee of the Common Council that seldom meets and does not investigate police misconduct.  And the third, […]

Geoff Kelly reported last Friday on the suspect claims of local politicians and police officials that outside agitators were behind disturbances at anti-racism protests here in Buffalo. Kelly found all but one person arrested in relation to the protests is from the Buffalo area and that much of the so-called intelligence cited by authorities was based […]

To hear senior staff tell it, the Buffalo school district never should have gone through with a contract awarded to HarpData to provide wi-fi service to students in two low-income neighborhoods. The firm’s finances were suspect, according to the district’s purchasing director, and the district’s unusual decision to waive a performance bond put the school […]