BUFFALO, N.Y. — 2 On Your Side is hearing from protesters and civil rights groups on their reaction to the Derek Chauvin trial coming to an end and the goal of improving community and police relations here at home.
The closing of the trial is bringing out a range of emotions to many in Western New York.
"We’re watching a trial of Derek Chauvin and we’re really not sure which way it’s going to come out even though we all watched a video of him killing George Floyd and that’s not a new experience for Black people in this country," said Miles Gresham, policy fellow at the Partnership for the Public Good.
All eyes now are focusing on jury deliberations.
"I'm more curious seeing how the jury will uphold its end of this," said Marielle Smith, a Buffalo area protester. "It was a difficult trial to get through I'm not going to lie it's pretty painful to have to relive last summer through this spring."
There is anticipation that regardless of the outcome, there will be strong reactions when jury deliberations come to an end.
"There’s bound to be strong reactions because people have been through a lot of trauma," said Colleen Kristich, health and climate community researcher at the Partnership for the Public Good.
Protesters and civil rights groups have watched the trial, through the prism of how to improve police-community relations at home. Many telling us, progress has been painfully slow.
"It’s the baby step of a baby step, it’s extremely slow and there’s no transparency there’s no accountability, we don’t know how these decisions were made," said Orlando Dickson, civic educator of the Partnership for the Public Good.
Statewide, police chokeholds are banned and police disciplinary records have become more accessible.
In Buffalo, the city has implemented reforms such as stop receipts – if you get stopped, you get a receipt to know what you were stopped for.
But there have been issues.
"The police aren’t issuing stop receipts to people, so you have this really great reform on the table, but the police aren’t issuing them," said Jalonda Hill of the Fair Fines & Fees Coalition.
In the months after the initiative was rolled out last summer, data we’ve obtained showed only about 200 stop receipts were actually issued.
The Buffalo Police union presidents admits, officers aren’t issuing them.
"I'm either going to write the ticket or I'm not pulling the vehicle over. I'm not going to waste my time, I'm not going to waste my time writing a stop ticket receipt and I think that’s the mindset of most of the department," said Buffalo PBA President John Evans.
"It makes me not confident in the city’s ability to do reforms in an actual or physical way," Smith said.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown has said the reforms the city has passed will boost transparency and that more reform can always be worked on.