Buffalo police release disciplinary records

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The disciplinary records of police officers across the state have been a well-guarded secret until last month, when the state Legislature and governor changed the law to make them public. Some of those records involving Buffalo police are now being disclosed, including 50 pages released Monday to media outlets including Investigative Post after we filed a request used the Freedom of Information Law.

The records involve the disciplinary records of officers who have been investigated most often by the department’s Internal Affairs unit in the past five years. Buffalo police released information on the 10 percent of officers who received the most complaints within their work areas, including detectives, patrol officers and cell block attendants. There are almost 30 police officers named in the documents. Our preliminary analysis found a handful of officers account for a disproportionate  share of the complaints.

Among the officers listed are some familiar names, including Lieutenant Michael DeLong, suspended last month after calling a woman a “fucking cunt”; Officer Karl Schultz , whose shooting of a suspect in 2012 recently cost the city a $4.5 million civil lawsuit; and Officer Justin Tedesco, who was cleared by the department and the state attorney general in the fatal shooting of Jose Hernandez-Rossy in 2017.

Investigative Post will continue its analysis of the documents and provide a more complete report in the days ahead.