Mar 21
2017
Porat discusses Buffalo police on Press Pass
Daniela Porat of Investigative Post discusses her recent report on the lack of police oversight in Buffalo with Jay Moran on WBFO‘s Press Pass.
Posted 8 years ago
Mar 21
2017
Daniela Porat of Investigative Post discusses her recent report on the lack of police oversight in Buffalo with Jay Moran on WBFO‘s Press Pass.
Mar 1
2017
Two years ago, Investigative Post and WGRZ teamed up to examine the Buffalo Police Department’s inability to solve murders. At the time, police were solving only about a quarter of homicides. A follow-up investigation which aired Wednesday on WGRZ found the department still has a low batting average. Police have cleared only 38 percent of murders committed in the past three years, including 25 percent last year. That compares with a national clearance rate of about 60 percent. Investigative Post and WGRZ found that police are clearing about three-quarters of murders involving robberies, domestic disputes, child abuse and the like.[...]
Feb 15
2017
It’s a question that has taken on greater urgency in post-Ferguson America: Who polices the police? The answer in Buffalo is no one. The city’s police department is not subject to the type of civilian oversight that takes place in cities such as Rochester, Pittsburgh and, more recently, Chicago. The task of investigating citizen complaints of police misconduct in Buffalo is assigned primarily to the department itself. But its Internal Affairs Division rarely finds officers at fault when it investigates allegations of excessive use of force. Internal Affairs cleared officers of wrongdoing in 58 of the 62 completed investigations into[...]
Feb 13
2017
It’s been six days since Wardel Davis, a 20-year-old African American man, died after an encounter with two Buffalo police officers on the city’s West Side. What little the public has been told has come primarily from the police and an attorney representing the two officers. Another side of the story is emerging in an exclusive interview with the attorney retained by Davis’s family. “There are troubling inconsistencies with the police version of events,” Steven Cohen told Investigative Post. Cohen, a veteran defense and civil rights attorney, said he is troubled by a lack of transparency on the part of police, including[...]
Jan 24
2017
Updated Jan. 25, 2017 Common Council President Darius Pridgen proposed a resolution Tuesday asking the Buffalo Police Department to seek accreditation as a means of bringing about improvements in the department. It was unanimously approved. As reported last week by Investigative Post, accreditation by outside evaluators is a long-ignored requirement of the City Charter. The resolution also calls for the police to provide updates to the Council on its application for accreditation. “That sounds very, very important to have the state or someone who then has oversight and then can come in and look at where there are pieces where we miss,”[...]
Jan 19
2017
Many police departments get what amounts to a stamp of approval from outside evaluators that review, advise and ultimately accredit them as adhering to best practices. But not Buffalo. The Buffalo Police Department is currently not accredited, even though it’s required by the City Charter. The issue of accreditation is more than a technical matter. The process is intended to improve the professionalism and efficiency of police departments, and Buffalo faces numerous challenges in this regard. The department has a middling track record of solving crime, its relationships with the minority community is strained, and its training involving use of[...]
Jan 10
2017
Investigative Post reporter Daniela Porat discusses police use of force training in light of the recent incident involving a Buffalo Police Department SUV striking a civilian who was holding a knife. The interview aired Tuesday on WBFO’s Press Pass. Porat previously reported on the department’s lack of training in the use of force and weapons, and a lack of urgency by city leaders in addressing the problem. She and Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney also discussed the issue in a recent podcast.
Dec 14
2016
Buffalo officials are in no hurry to address the police department’s lack of training in tactics that many other cities have deployed in response to police shootings of African Americans in Ferguson and elsewhere. In fact, Mayor Byron Brown said he is satisfied with the status quo. He said he sees no need to improve training programs that show officers how to de-escalate potentially volatile situations and make restrained use of force in dealing with citizens. “We are very pleased that when you look at what’s happening here in Buffalo versus other parts of the country, we are not experiencing[...]