Categories for News

Jul 22

2020

Details emerge of police disciplinary records

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Investigative Post has been combing through the documents it received earlier this week from the Buffalo Police Department that starts to paint a picture of officers most frequently investigated by Internal Affairs for inappropriate behavior. We’re seeking additional records to provide a more complete picture, but here is what we’ve ascertained so far: Seventeen of the 29 officers named in the documents live outside the city, many of them in West Seneca. Seventy-nine percent are white, vs. 67 percent of the department as a whole. This, in a city that is 56 percent minority. Their average pay is $100,200, slightly[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 20

2020

Buffalo police release disciplinary records

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 The disciplinary records of police officers across the state have been a well-guarded secret until last month, when the state Legislature and governor changed the law to make them public. Some of those records involving Buffalo police are now being disclosed, including 50 pages released Monday to media outlets including Investigative Post after we filed a request used the Freedom of Information Law. The records involve the disciplinary records of officers who have been investigated most often by the department’s Internal Affairs unit in the past five years. Buffalo police released information on the 10 percent of officers who received[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 14

2020

Furloughs at OTB despite federal aid

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Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. has furloughed two-thirds of its workforce after accepting more than $3 million from the federal government intended to keep employees working during the pandemic. The Batavia-based OTB has been forced to shutter most of its operations since March. Its casino at Batavia Downs, the largest source of revenue, is closed under state order. OTB’s 19 betting parlors, located around Western and Central New York, have reopened at 50 percent capacity. The harness racing season at Batavia Downs is scheduled to start on time July 25 and run through  December. The shutdown has cost OTB an[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 13

2020

Former Bills great recalls beating by police

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On a cold winter night in 1987, Booker Edgerson was driving down Bailey Avenue, just a few blocks from where he then lived on Buffalo’s East Side. Suddenly, a flash in his rearview mirror: a police car signaling him to pull over. So he pulled into a parking lot — a “mistake,” he later called it, “because it’s dark up in there.” Within a few minutes, he was on the ground, surrounded by several cops, nightsticks raised. “They beat the shit out of me,” he said. It was a familiar experience for a black man in America. But the fact[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 7

2020

Suspended cop has been disciplined a lot

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 Updated: 1:55 p.m. The Buffalo police lieutenant suspended last week for his vile insult of a woman filming him has previously been suspended four times during his career and been the subject of 36 misconduct complaints lodged by citizens or the department. Twelve involve inappropriate use of force; three have involved domestic incidents.  Investigative Post obtained the disciplinary records of Lt. Michael A. DeLong under the state Freedom of Information Law. His “disciplinary card” lists a 30 day suspension in November 2018 for an unspecified “domestic” incident; a one-day suspension the year before for a violation of procedures; a[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 1

2020

Vulgar insult by cop only the half of it

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Further details about the incident Sunday in which a Buffalo police lieutenant verbally accosted a woman suggest police didn’t know how to properly handle a mentally ill man or the woman who taped the episode. The incident, which resulted in Lieutenant Michael DeLong getting suspended without pay for calling Ruweyda Salim a “disrespectful little fucking cunt” began at the home of Monica Lynch, whose son was subject of police attention at a 7-Eleven convenience store. pic.twitter.com/JXiPFslWIE — رويدا سالم (@ruweyda_salim) June 29, 2020 Lynch said she was shocked to hear police tell Salim on the video that her son attacked[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 29

2020

Police suspend cop over misogynist insult

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Updated: 9:01 p.m. Buffalo police have suspended a lieutenant without pay Monday night and launched an Internal Affairs investigation into an incident captured on video Sunday in which he called a woman a vile name when she questioned why 10 officers were called to deal with a man who appeared high on drugs.  In the video, Lieutenant Michael DeLong calls Ruweyda Salim a “disrespectful little fucking cunt.”  Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood responded by ordering an investigation by the department’s Internal Affairs unit and then later suspending DeLong. Lockwood was responding to the wide circulation of the video, shot by Salim[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 28

2020

HarpData tries, tries again

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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 foul. Two weeks ago, months after the deadline to object had passed, the company filed a formal protest with the School Board, alleging irregularities in the procurement process and bias on the part of the district’s purchasing director.  But district officials are adamant they had[...]

Posted 5 years ago
Investigative Post