A Closer Look spotlights a story reported by a BTPM NPR reporter that week. In this second episode, Assistant Managing Editor Ryan Zunner sits down with reporter Alex Simone to discuss a new initiative designed to increase Buffalo public safety and get police out in the community.
The original story on the BPD's new foot patrol unit can be found here.
Ryan: Hey Alex, thanks for joining us today on a closer look here on BTPM NPR.
Alex: Thanks for having me, Ryan.
Ryan: So today we're talking about Buffalo Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, who's recently announced the start of a police foot patrol. Let's take a listen to some recent comments from Buffalo Police First Deputy Commissioner, Patrick Overdorf, about the goals of this initiative.
Overdorf [soundbite]: This unit is an attempt to get back to a more community driven approach, and by that I mean, we want to get out into the community and hear the direct concerns of our residents and our citizens to determine what those unique concerns are.
Ryan: So Alex, can you fill us in a little more on what to expect from this foot patrol?
Alex: Yeah, so it's going to be, it is rather, a trial run, operating in the Broadway Fillmore district. There are two units, and each one has eight officers with two lieutenants. The goal is to get officers out and in the community, doing proactive policing instead of reactive policing. They'll have door hangers with QR codes, and then through those QR codes, residents can go online to talk about their concerns and what needs they think there are.
Ryan: So sounds like lots of kind of data collection involved in this. How did the police and the City of Buffalo arrive at this option?
Alex: Yeah, absolutely. So this was a study. This comes out of a study collaborating with the University at Buffalo and the University of Southern California. Surveys are actually geo-coded, so they can tell where the most concerns are and the most needs for resources. And also, there is a precedent for walking units in Buffalo. Buffalo Police Commissioner, Alphonso Wright, actually mentioned his time on the walking unit decades ago as an important experience to learn more about the community and get integrated within that.
Ryan: Yeah. And you certainly think about policing, certainly decades ago, right, you think of the the cop walking the beat, as they say, and this is sort of a, at least a small kind of return to that it seems like to get that community interaction going between police and the communities they serve.
Alex: Right yeah definitely, both Commissioner Wright and Deputy Commissioner Overdorf both said that this is something that they really see as a good way to, yeah, reintroduce that, I guess, collaboration with the community, and really talk to them, not just as far as 911 calls, but also just find out you know, what are their, you know, feelings. Like have a more community first interaction, as opposed to only having the protect aspect, right? You know, kind of focusing on the serve aspect of 'protect and serve.'
Ryan: And now, Scanlon did this announcement in his capacity as acting mayor, but we all know it's an election year, right? The primary is June 24, early voting starts the 14th, and his primary rival, State Senator Sean Ryan, had announced his public safety platform a little over a week prior to this foot patrol announcement. Is there a connection here? Is this sort of part of Scanlon's own public safety platform for his campaign?
Alex: Yeah, I would say it does seem like it's one of his focuses as far as public safety within the Buffalo community. But again, this also seems like more of a correlation thing than a causation thing, again, because this is a study that goes back a few months at least. I don't think it's a coincidence though, that both of these leading mayoral candidates had their major public safety announcements very close to the primaries.
Ryan: All righty, BTPM NPR reporter, Alex Simone, they're here for a closer look. Thanks for listening. I'm Assistant Managing Editor, Ryan Zunner.
