BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Police Department is rejecting claims from the New York Civil Liberties Union alleging a mishandling of police misconduct cases within the department.
The New York chapter of the ACLU recently released data from the internal affairs department of the Buffalo Police Department. The data showed that only a small number of officers received punishment in comparison the number of misconduct cases brought on against the department.
It's a finding that isn't sounding the alarm for police commissioner Joe Gramaglia.
"At the end of the day, everybody deserves the truth of what happened, and if the end result isn't what somebody you know was, may or may not be hoping for, it all goes back to the evidence at hand," said Gramaglia.
The data published by the NYCLU identifies 934 unique allegations of misconduct spanning from 1995 all the way up until last year.
Of these reviewed allegations, 86 were found to be credible offenses, 38 officers were actually reprimanded, 28 were suspended, and the NYCLU claims that none were fired or put on probation — numbers that we have not independently verified.
Buffalo Police Benevolent Association President John Evans says the data does not fully encapsulate each unique situation.
"We have had some officers resign instead of getting fired. ... They believed it was inevitable or it was part of a plea that they had to resign," Evans said.
In light of the new data, community members are not only calling for what they see as accountability, but they also calling for transparency in the handling of cases.
"For me, the biggest thing that stood out was the fact that we need some type of accountability measure to see. You know, these aren't just names on paper for me, right? These are the police officers who police my community," said Aymanuel Radford, a Buffalo resident and member of NYCLU.
Gramaglia also pointed out that in cases of a fatal incident, it's investigated by the attorney general's office, and use of force cases go to the district attorney's office for investigation. He also pointed the the increased use of body and security camera footage in investigations.
"With the advent of body cameras, you had them for several years now, obviously that tells a, you know, a much better story, if you will, captures a lot. It doesn't tell the whole story, but it certainly tells a lot," Gramaglia said.
One of the changes the NYCLU would like to see is an independent, review board as opposed to the Buffalo Police Department's internal affairs department.
"We need to have some type of oversight body outside of the IA department, at the Buffalo Police, because, you know, as somebody who lives here, I don't, I don't think what we found or what we see here in this report is acceptable," Radford said.
A change the Buffalo Police Department does not think necessary.
"I disagree with that. There's research that's out there. There's research that shows that, you know, independent civilian groups actually have less findings of guilt on on misconduct complaints," Gramaglia said.