BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo City Council moved Tuesday to disband the citizen volunteer panel that was supposed to help guide policies for the police department.
Now we're learning a bit more about why they did it and what may happen next.
With the demand by some in the city for more public input in the policies of the Buffalo Police Department, the Police Advisory Board was created by City Council back in 2018.
The use of police body cameras was one of their main policy recommendations that was put into effect by the department.
But obviously the allegations of police misconduct and unrest in 2020 may have pushed the agenda for change. Now in 2022, cracks developed in their united goals. That is perhaps with confusion over their original purpose, according to community activist De'Jon Hall, who was one of the original board members who left in 2020-21.
"My understanding is the most recent iteration had a division of whether they should focus on policy and community concerns versus trying to become more of a accountable tool through investigation and handling police complaints, which is something we were never charged with," Hall said. "It's not in the Common Council resolution that created the board."
And so in February, Hall says, "unfortunately that division became personal in some ways, and led to about half of the board resigning in a single day."
So council shut it down for now, looking to make-over the board to make it work.
Councilman Rasheed N.C. Wyatt says: "Make certain that people who are want to care enough about justice, are fair-minded, are on this body to make sure they make good recommendations. Because this is not anti-police. This is about, how do we work cooperatively with police?"
But while policy recommendations are this board's purpose, the state Attorney General, Councilman Wyatt, and others feel there eventually needs to be a stronger, separate civilian review panel to have oversight on discipline for cases of misconduct. That would be like those set up in New York City and Rochester.
Hall added: "There needs to be fresh eyes on community complaints that can give recommendations to the police commissioner for disciplinary actions."
Hall notes that the police union has obviously challenged that idea, along with the city's attorneys, who maintain it goes against state law.