A group of UB law students says there's a major need for criminal justice reform. They want to curb the trend that has left many Black people with criminal records.
The Black Law Students Association sponsored a panel discussion last night in O'Brian Hall to look at what's going on and what can be done.
Deputy Police Chief Joshua Sticht says one way to deal with the issue is careful collection of data on interaction between citizens and police.
"We can get an idea of whether or not our officers...if an officer is starting to show a bias, we can actually intercede with that," Sticht explained.
"We have had complaints against officers that appear to have a bias. If we can find that information, sometimes it's something we can address through behavior, more often those people don't work here as police officers any more."
Sticht says Buffalo State also collects that data but many police agencies resist collecting information on that interaction, possibly because they don't want to know although they do collect information and data on who is arrested. He says that data helps understand what's going on out there.
