The Buffalo Common Council's Police Oversight Committee raised concerns about transparency, accountability and communication within the Buffalo Police Department, Tuesday. Those concerns deepened when no representatives from the BPD appeared at the scheduled 11 a.m. session.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Alphonso Wright did arrive, but only after the meeting had already ended, prompting the councilmembers to reconvene for a second round.
Wright said "miscommunication" was to blame for his absence at 11 a.m. in which council members expressed concerns about a lack of transparency from the BPD regarding a June 17 gun incident at the Tops grocery store on Jefferson Avenue.
Buffalo police arrested two people that day for allegedly brandishing a ghost gun and menacing victims at the store -- the same location where the racist mass shooting happened on May 14, 2022.
But Councilmember Rasheed Wyatt wanted to know why the incident only came to light after the media reported it, almost 10 days afterward.
"Even after days later, the public still was unaware of what transpired," Wyatt said. "The fact that this happened in the neighborhood that a massacre happened almost three years ago, I would have thought there would have been more sensitivity to alert them even though there was an ongoing investigation. Understood we can't get all those details, but to alert the public that this happened was so crucial."
Wright said he does not always alert the public when they make gun arrests and decided not to in this case after a BPD investigation determined there was no connection to 5/14. But he conceded he should have given a press conference on the incident, given the location.
"I protect that area like it's my own. I grew up around the corner from Tops," Wright said. "If I thought it was anything to do with Tops, and this is probably why I'm getting emotional why it bothered me, the public would have known. We all make mistakes."
Frustrated by the lack of police communication surrounding the gun arrests, Wyatt reintroduced a resolution calling on the city’s law department to explore creating a civilian review board—a body that would give Buffalo residents formal oversight of the police department. Wyatt first introduced the idea in 2020. Currently, the BPD investigates itself via its own internal affairs division.
The councilmembers tabled the item, but Wright told BTPM NPR he's not in favor of the proposal.
"Not right now. I don't know enough about it. I know in my time - because I was in internal affairs, my deputy commissioner actually ran internal affairs - so I know there's a much more thorough investigation," Wright said.
