BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown announced Monday phase one of his police reform agenda.
"This is designed to reduce the potential for negative physical contact between our police officers and members of the public," said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown on Monday. "This is one of the reforms that members of the public are asking for."
City officials say the reform agenda is being put in place to help strengthen ties with the community.
“Today’s announcement shows the urgency required to address systemic racism in the City of Buffalo," Brown said. "The time for action is now and my Administration is taking bold steps to ensure that black residents feel safe throughout our City. As I said during my announcement with community activists, clergy, block club leaders, police officers and others, this is the first of many steps that we are taking while also calling on every other sector of our community, from healthcare to higher education to media to philanthropy to banking to labor, to do the same."
Among the reforms:
- Buffalo Police officers are directed to issue appearance tickets instead of handcuffing and transporting suspects for low-level offenses unless New York State law mandates an arrest or the individuals present a danger to themselves or others. Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood today issued General Order #2020-009 to officially implement the reforms.
- Stop receipts will be issued at all traffic stops. This means that a police officer who approaches a stopped vehicle, must immediately tell the resident a reason for the stop and complete a form indicating that reason and the alleged violation observed which is then provided to the driver of the vehicle, onsite.
- Tickets issued for correctable equipment violations or “Fix-It Tickets” issued by the Buffalo Police Department will have a correction period of seven days, instead of the 24 hours provided by New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law, for the motorist to repair the condition and avoid any penalties or fines.
- Buffalo Police Department Management created a new link to the Buffalo Reform Agenda on their and the City’s web pages to prominently display the Body Camera, Use of Force and Manual of Procedure policies, as well as the latest version of new forms, and the Police Commissioner’s general orders on all current updates to policing in the City of Buffalo.
The reforms are expected to be in place and implemented by June 24, 2020.
"Black people have waited long enough for change, and delaying action is only delaying racial justice," Brown said. "We have been in very close consultation with the management of the Buffalo Police Department and the management of the City of Buffalo Law Department to determine that these are reforms that can be enacted now."
Rachel Fix Dominguez lives in Buffalo. She's part of a group asking Mayor Brown to resign because of how he's handled these issues. She thinks more needs to be done to reform police policies.
"My feeling is that this is not a significant package of reforms given the really intense international media scrutiny that the City of Buffalo has been under for the last few weeks," Dominguez said.
"What would you like the Mayor to change?" asked 2 On Your Side's Kelly Dudzik.
"First of all, I would like to see Deyanna Davis released from custody," Dominguez said. "Second of all, I would like to see true analysis of the use of excessive force in the City of Buffalo, and instances of police brutality that have been documented in the city, and real effort made to change actual policy related to that."
"People want reform, they want to see a sense of urgency, they want to see things happening right now and while we're trying to be thought in everything that we're doing, we're trying to do extensive research with everything that we're doing, we're also trying to move very quickly," says Brown.
