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Councilman Wyatt suggests new Buffalo Police oversight board

The resolution would look for ways to set up an actual police review board with the mandate to seriously probe alleged incidents of wrongdoing by police officers.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — While the City of Buffalo currently has a police advisory board, some in the community say it lacks real power.

They feel that a stronger oversight panel is crucial, especially when it comes to allegations of police misconduct. Councilman Rasheed Wyatt told 2 on Your Side about his new plan to address this situation. 

The University District council member says he will introduce a resolution at next Tuesday's council meeting to research and look for ways to set up an actual police review board with the mandate to seriously probe alleged incidents of wrongdoing by police officers.

Wyatt emphasized he would reach out to police management and the union.

"To balance that out to make sure that policing that is done in our city is done fairly and people feel that their police department is listening to them. Many people don't believe that," Wyatt said.

"That's why we had the protests. That's why we had the marches, the uprising. And I think that having a citizen review board made up of citizens and professionals would really be an opportunity for us to bridge that gap and to make citizens feel better."

Wyatt added: "This body would have investigative authority, and I think that's important for a lot of people. And I think there was a story just done recently, who is policing the police? We know that when there's a major incident it's our DA. However there have been some issues that have come up which kind of allowed police to continue on doing business as usual."

Wyatt adds he would want the board to have subpoena power and to make recommendations for punishment if the allegations were substantiated.

Mayor Byron Brown tells us he would be opposed to this proposal. Brown says plans are in the works with community advocates to change police policies with better training and that other such reforms would be more effective. He adds an actual review panel would be unnecessary.  

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