Civilian oversight of Buffalo police is needed.

The Buffalo Police Department, as the subject and investigator of complaints of police misconduct, is creating a problem. We need a citizen review board. Accountability, impartiality and perspective are essential.

Claims that the community does not want a civilian police review board ring hollow. People who are subjected to excessive policing want this, as do those of us who believe that state-sanctioned violence is counterproductive. In fact, we would all benefit from it.

Just ask people in Denver or Eugene, Oregon, who have benefited from police reform through community intervention programs and seen crime rates drop.

It must be taken into account that police officers expose themselves to extreme dangers. However, police misconduct is indeed protected.causing dangerous impunity.

Police training leads them to use unnecessary, even deadly, force based on the assumption that the officer has 2.5 seconds to determine whether a person is likely to kill him. Unnecessary adrenaline rushes are conducive to mistakes.

Union contracts are designed to protect police officers. This protection is provided by delays in questioning officers in the event of a police-involved shooting, by allowing officers to review statements from citizens before making their own, and by periodically expunging officers’ personnel files.

The district attorney’s office decides whether to charge police officers for their actions. Prosecutors are not always impartial: the work of the police and the prosecutor are closely linked, which gives rise to biases.

Qualified immunity protects officials from liability in civil suits by requiring that the exact circumstances of the violation of the plaintiff’s/citizen’s rights have already been found to be protected by a court. It is unlikely (impossible?) that the exact circumstances will be fully reproduced.

Distrust of police in our segregated community is linked to: implicit bias; the legacy, history, and reality of systemic racism; and the over-policing of Black, Brown, and/or Indigenous communities, as evidenced by police checkpoints, tickets, traffic stops, and even injuries and deaths.

All these factors argue in favour of a police force acting with impunity – perceived as immune from the consequences of its actions.

We need a police review board with teeth that can ensure that officers are truly held accountable, prevent misconduct, and build trust. If the powers that be help us establish such a board, we will have a safer and more peaceful community. Please let the Mayor and your City Council representative know what you think about this issue.