Categories for In-Depth

Jul 28

2020

City Hall inertia on one-sided police contract

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Reforming the Buffalo Police Department will require changes in the labor contract between the city and its police union. Major changes. An analysis by Investigative Post found the contract — a behemoth of a document comprising nearly 400 pages of agreements, amendments, arbitration awards and memoranda — is decidedly one-sided in favor of the union. It makes it tough to discipline officers accused of misconduct and deprives the police commissioner of management rights that are a given in many other departments. Investigative Post also determined that the administration of Mayor Byron Brown, who has lambasted the union contract, has never[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Jul 20

2020

Police misconduct costing Buffalo millions

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 A cop shooting and paralyzing a teenage driver.  A police tow truck driver running a red light and slamming into a passenger car. A cell block attendant ramming a handcuffed detainee’s face into a door at Central Booking. The incidents all led to lawsuits against the City of Buffalo and its police department, and subsequently settlement agreements. Since 2015, a total of 16 settlements have cost taxpayers $11.9 million. Most involve excessive use of force or negligent driving. Those figures trouble Samuel Davis, a local defense attorney.  “I find it alarming that that much money has been paid out,”[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 13

2020

Former Bills great recalls beating by police

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On a cold winter night in 1987, Booker Edgerson was driving down Bailey Avenue, just a few blocks from where he then lived on Buffalo’s East Side. Suddenly, a flash in his rearview mirror: a police car signaling him to pull over. So he pulled into a parking lot — a “mistake,” he later called it, “because it’s dark up in there.” Within a few minutes, he was on the ground, surrounded by several cops, nightsticks raised. “They beat the shit out of me,” he said. It was a familiar experience for a black man in America. But the fact[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jul 7

2020

Suspended cop has been disciplined a lot

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 Updated: 1:55 p.m. The Buffalo police lieutenant suspended last week for his vile insult of a woman filming him has previously been suspended four times during his career and been the subject of 36 misconduct complaints lodged by citizens or the department. Twelve involve inappropriate use of force; three have involved domestic incidents.  Investigative Post obtained the disciplinary records of Lt. Michael A. DeLong under the state Freedom of Information Law. His “disciplinary card” lists a 30 day suspension in November 2018 for an unspecified “domestic” incident; a one-day suspension the year before for a violation of procedures; a[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 28

2020

HarpData tries, tries again

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HarpData, already months behind completing a project to provide wi-fi access to thousands of Buffalo students, sought work on another school district job earlier this year and is now complaining it didn’t get the contract. The district’s purchasing director rejected the company’s bid, deeming HarpData a “non-responsible bidder.”  Now, three months later, HarpData is crying foul. Two weeks ago, months after the deadline to object had passed, the company filed a formal protest with the School Board, alleging irregularities in the procurement process and bias on the part of the district’s purchasing director.  But district officials are adamant they had[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 23

2020

Pandemic cited as child porn complaints spike

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The COVID-19 pandemic has yet another dark side: child pornography complaints have doubled since March. The reason: children are home from school and frequently on their cell phones and other digital devices, making them more susceptible to overtures from predators. New York State Police report the number of complaints in March, April and May jumped from 1,339 last year to 2,640 for the same period this year. (No local data is available.) The increase is even more pronounced nationally, up from about 3 million last year to 7.7 million during the same period this year, according to the National Center[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 18

2020

COVID-19: Senecas face economic uncertainty

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As reopenings across the country begin, the impacts of COVID-19 continue to threaten the economies of Native American governments, including the Seneca Nation here in Western New York. Many tribes rely on casinos and other Native-owned businesses to fund services and capital improvements, but how soon those enterprises bounce back is uncertain. Of particular concern are casinos and their related bars, restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues, as those industries across the county are expected to recover slowly from the impacts of COVID-19. That imperils the economic pillars of the Seneca Nation of Indians, three casinos run by the Seneca Nation[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 11

2020

Buffalo’s police watchdogs are toothless

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The City of Buffalo has three separate police oversight boards, but they’ve done little, if anything, to bring bad cops to heel.  One can’t. It’s an advisory panel with no power beyond its voice.  One won’t. It’s a subcommittee of the Common Council that seldom meets and does not investigate police misconduct.  And the third, a commission mandated by the city’s charter and controlled by Mayor Byron Brown, is hopelessly compromised. Of the three, the Police Advisory Board has the least power. But it has advanced far more substantial ideas about how to change policing in Buffalo than the tepid[...]

Posted 5 years ago
Investigative Post