Two separate cases brought before Buffalo’s Police Oversight Committee on Wednesday raised questions about officer conduct and accountability — one involving an alleged use of excessive force against a teenager and another in which misconduct charges against eight officers were sustained without discipline.
Grease Pole incident
Buffalo resident Tiffany Febres brought concerns to the committee regarding a July 19 incident involving her then-16-year-old son at the Grease Pole Festival. Febres said her son was coming through an already-open gate when his shoe came off. As he attempted to retrieve it, Febres said her son told her several officers jumped on him and that he was punched and kicked.
She said she was not present but that she later took her son to the hospital and photographed his injuries. Febres said she has seen some police body camera footage but questioned why numerous officers involved in the encounter apparently did not have recordings of their own.
"When internal affairs tells a mother that numerous officers involved in her son's incident did not have body camera footage, I believe that deserves serious scrutiny, and this is bigger than just my son," she said.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Erika Shields said an internal affairs complaint was opened shortly after the incident. She said officers working community events must manually activate their cameras when an encounter develops into a confrontation or potential use of force, unlike officers responding to dispatched calls.
"If you're dispatched to a call, the policy is that you turn the camera on when you acknowledge the call," she said, "so, going to a 911 call is a little different than working a festival all day."
That incident happened less than a month before another confrontation involving Buffalo police outside La Flor Bakery following the Hispanic and Puerto Rican Day Parade on Aug. 15. Febres said her son never got an explanation as to why police used what she described as excessive force.
“They didn't tell him why they did what they did. They didn't stop him and speak to him. They just jumped on him, and he didn't do anything," Febres said.
Shields said Internal Affairs is reviewing whether the officers' use of force was consistent with department policy, whether de-escalation efforts were attempted and whether officers complied with the department's body camera policy.
"The issue I don't think so much is the policy, but officers complying with the policy, and that's why if they do not comply with the policy, they are disciplined, and it's a progressive scale of discipline," Shields said.
Shields said the Internal Affairs investigation is expected to be completed by the end of October. She also said body camera footage would be available through a Freedom of Information Law request once the case is closed.
"The allegations are serious, and we're going to see this to its conclusion, so we look forward to the culmination of the investigation," Oversight Committee Chair David Rivera said.
Police camera room
Shields also discussed an investigation before the Police Oversight Committee involving eight officers assigned to injured-duty status and camera-room work.
In the summer of 2024, a supervisor responsible for monitoring officers on injured-duty status suspected that some officers were not as injured as they claimed to be. After reviewing security camera footage inside police headquarters, the supervisor found officers assigned to the camera room were coming and going regularly and not staying for the duration of their shifts.
An internal investigation sustained absence-from-duty charges against all eight officers, while two also had charges of falsifying business records sustained against them. Shields said then-Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia signed off on sustaining the charges in 2024, but the officers were not formally served until 2025. Under his successor, Alphonso Wright, the case was ultimately closed with the charges sustained but no discipline imposed.
“You have video, you have cameras, you have records that are falsified; that, to me, is pretty serious," Rivera said. "Whether it's government or private business, we would take it very seriously when you falsify public records.”
Rivera and other members of the committee are considering subpoenas for Gramaglia and Wright to explain how the case ultimately closed without disciplinary penalties.
"The council does have subpoena power, and I believe that both individuals are local and still residing, certainly within Erie County, and I believe within the City of Buffalo," said Lisa Yaeger, Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Buffalo.
Property crime and retail theft
Councilmembers also questioned Shields about recent property crime trends and how the department is responding.
Shields said burglaries are down 17% but that larcenies are driving the city's property crime numbers. She said much of that increase is tied to retail theft and acknowledged frustration from business owners over the department's ability to address it.
Shields said the department is working with the administration to revisit policies governing how officers respond to retail theft, arguing that previous changes have made it more difficult for police to intervene in some cases.
Councilmember Zaneta Everhart also questioned how many of the 26 motor vehicle thefts reported during the previous seven days involved people younger than 18. Shields said she did not have that information available during the meeting but would provide it to the committee.
