Tag: Police

Apr 15

2020

More sick detainees; more released inmates

Published by

Updated: 3:08 p.m. A growing, but still small number of people are being released from local jails and the immigration detention center in Batavia in response to concerns about possible infection from COVID-19. Up to 80 people have gotten out in recent weeks as the result of efforts by advocates to release those incarcerated to get them out of harm’s way from the coronavirus. Some were near the tail end of their sentences for misdemeanor crimes. Others were in for parole violations, and still others had their bail eliminated or reduced. While no inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Mar 24

2020

Safety concerns for ill-equipped Buffalo cops

Published by

Two Buffalo police officers have tested positive for COVID-19, about 10 others are isolating themselves, and yet more are working without protective gear such as face masks to reduce the chances they’ll become infected with the virus, says John Evans, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association.  The shortage of working police cars, paired with the department’s coronavirus sick time policy, is putting more officers at risk, he said. Evans and his union are presently the prime source of information on the health of city police officers because the Brown administration is not releasing details, unlike other law enforcement agencies[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Feb 18

2020

More Buffalo cop cars on the way

Published by

The Buffalo Common Council today approved two measures that will bring 51 new patrol cars to the city’s decrepit fleet. The Council, without comment or debate, approved a contract to lease 31 new police cars from Enterprise Fleet Management for roughly the cost of purchasing 13 cars outright. The Council also approved borrowing $1 million to purchase 20 new police cars. The cost to the city in the first year of the three-year lease period is $675,000 — about what the city appropriated for the purchase of police cars in the current budget.  In the second and third years, the cost[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Feb 4

2020

Police shooting costs Buffalo $4.5 million

Published by

 On Tuesday, Buffalo’s Common Council authorized one of the largest lawsuit settlements in the city’s history: $4.5 million to Wilson Morales, who was shot by Buffalo police officers in the early morning of June 24, 2012, after a car chase on the city’s East Side. The bullet that struck Morales, then a 17-year-old student at WNY Maritime Charter School, instantly paralyzed him from the chest down. “It’s been hard,” Morales told Investigative Post in the offices of Dolce Panepinto, the law firm that handled the lawsuit, after the Council approved the settlement. “Mostly depression, loss of friends, and pain,”[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Feb 1

2020

Police brass overstate availability of patrol cars

Published by

 Buffalo police officers have a lot fewer cars at their disposal to respond to 911 calls than their commissioner would have the public believe, union officials say. Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood told the Common Council’s Police Oversight Committee on Jan. 14 that the department’s dilapidated fleet had 134 working patrol cars available to answer calls. The actual number is less than 50, said Mark Goodspeed, vice president of the Police Benevolent Association. Goodspeed performs a regular survey of working patrol cars assigned to the city’s five police districts. On the evening of Jan. 14, the same day Lockwood[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Jan 14

2020

Buffalo cops still waiting on patrol cars

Published by

Investigative Post reported in August that the Buffalo Police Department was woefully short of working patrol cars. The city’s failure to purchase new cars regularly, deferred maintenance and inadequate staffing at the department’s garage had led to a situation the Police Benevolent Association president John Evans described as “dire.” Among the resulting problems: officers without access to vehicles to respond to 911 calls in a timely fashion. Almost six months later, Buffalo’s patrol officers are still waiting for relief. On Tuesday, members of the Common Council’s Police Oversight Committee learned the arrival of new cars is still many months away.[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Jan 14

2020

Council ignores police ignoring Council

Published by

The Common Council committee charged with overseeing Buffalo police failed Tuesday to take up the department ignoring conditions lawmakers set for the purchase of 125 high-powered rifles two years ago. Investigative Post reported in October that police officials unilaterally changed training requirements and that most officers had not completed the training required by the Council to use the rifles. Police estimated it will be another two years before all officers are trained. As a result, more than half of the guns remain under lock at police headquarters. David Rivera, the Niagara District Council member who heads the Police Oversight Committee, did[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Nov 21

2019

Buffalo’s No. 2 cop is moonlighting

Published by

Joseph Gramaglia is the number two guy at the Buffalo Police Department, second only to the department’s titular head, Commissioner Byron C. Lockwood. That’s no 40-hour-per-week job. With more than 800 employees, Buffalo’s is the second-largest police department in the state. It’s a department that is making do with equipment shortages, introducing new taser and body camera programs, coping with overtime costs, and dealing with a series of police shootings that have strained community relations, especially with communities of color where police presence is felt most acutely. And yet Gramaglia — who, on behalf of Lockwood, manages day-to-day operations, strategic[...]

Posted 4 years ago
Investigative Post

Get our newsletters delivered to your inbox * indicates required

Newsletters *