The labor contract between the City of Buffalo and the police union expired at the end of June and with it, the provision mandating new officers live in the city for seven years.
That means a class of up to 12 new recruits will not have to abide by the residency requirement upon graduation from the police academy this winter.
The requirement was negotiated into the last bargaining agreement between the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association (PBA) and the City but with a sunset clause – a mechanism that allows the requirement to lapse without a new contract in place after June 30, 2025. Any similar residency requirement will now have to be renegotiated in future contract talks.
Those talks are yet to take place, but moves have been made to get them started according to Buffalo PBA President John Davidson.
“Everything's negotiable,” Davidson said. “If the City feels that they want us to live in the city and they want to give us something for that, then we would be open to hearing it.”
City negotiators are likely to push for the stipulation since the Buffalo Police Reform Agenda - submitted to the state in 2021 - obligates City representatives to propose a career-long residency requirement for new officers in all future contract talks.
And speaking on the matter in September, Buffalo Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon told BTPM NPR that he supports the mandate.
“I've always been very clear: I'm a big advocate of the residency requirement in union contracts. You know, I've never shied away from that,” Scanlon said. “It’s something we could try to work in [the contract], but I don’t want to get out into negotiating too much publicly.”
The current police academy class is smaller than in recent years, said Davidson. In 2024 there were 52 graduation cadets, while 2023 saw 25 graduates and 2022 saw 46 by his count. Only the 2024 graduates must abide by the residency requirement agreed in the recently expired contract, which spanned July 2021 through June 2025 but went into effect retroactively in January 2024.
Pros and cons of residency requirement for police
Supporters say that when police live where they work, it helps to build trust with residents and encourages officers to become more connected with their community. It also keeps salary and benefits spending within the local tax-base.
But on the whole, Buffalo police officers “don’t want to be told where to live,” according to Davidson. As well as freedom of choice, he cited safety concerns as the reason some officers choose to live in the suburbs.
“Depending on where you work in the city of Buffalo and where you live within the city of Buffalo, you may be exposed to some hairy situations off-duty based on some interactions on-duty,” he explained.
But he added that many officers choose to live in Buffalo even when the directive does not apply to them.
“The PBA members by and large love the city of Buffalo, and a lot of them choose to live here on their own, with or without any kind of forcing them to. Our members live here,” Davidson said.
While Buffalo’s top cop, commissioner Alphonso Wright, is not a PBA member, he is a lifelong city resident. He was asked his thoughts on a residency requirement for police in the common council's Police Oversight Committee, Oct. 8.
“You get to know your neighbors, you get to know your city,” Wright responded, though he acknowledged that the provision will be determined in the next round of contract negotiations.
Negotiations between the city and union have dragged on for years in the recent past, and often well after the latest contract has expired. PBA members worked without a contract for 10 years between 2005 and 2015 while talks rumbled on.
