Buffalo's finest are under the microscope in a class-action lawsuit that accuses the Buffalo Police Department of racial profiling and discriminatory policing.
The suit, led by a grassroots organization Black Love Resists in the Rust, specifically claims how Buffalo citizens have experienced discrimination during traffic stops.
The National Center for Law and Economic Justice delivered oral arguments in federal court in Buffalo Wednesday.
I sat in on those arguments and spoke with the attorney for the plaintiffs and two of the plaintiffs.
“Our clients fear for their lives when they interact with the police and they're less likely to trust the police,” declared Anjana Malhotra, attorney for plaintiffs, National Center for Law & Economic Justice.
Attorneys representing thousands in Buffalo who have been ticketed on traffic stops in the city say they are seeking justice against what they call "long-standing" police policies harming the Black and Latino communities.
“Our data showed that the Buffalo Police were far more likely, seven or eight times more likely to issue multiple tinted window tickets to Black drivers versus white drivers,” explained Malhotra.
The suit looks back to 2012 when the Buffalo Police Department created a Strike Force Unit to crack down on crime by setting up checkpoints in high-crime areas.
But many Black and Latino drivers were hit with traffic tickets. Data shows 6,000 received tickets for tinted windows.
Two plaintiffs I spoke to told me they felt they were racially profiled by city police in traffic stops.
"When I went downtown and seen it was all Black people. I didn't see one white people in that ticket thing,” replied Shirley Sarmiento, plaintiff. “I think they gave me the same ticket twice.”
“I’ve never been stopped in the boarding neighborhoods or close to the suburban areas. It's always been like my neighborhood,” responded QueeNia AsheeMaat, plaintiff.
The attorney for Buffalo Police argued it was “community members” who asked police and the mayor for greater police protection in high-crime areas back in 2012. But the judge questioned why traffic tickets were given, violating a driver's 4th amendment right.
“But the city itself today acknowledges that there was a request for more policing on the east side of Buffalo that wasn't for traffic problem, that it was for crime,” said Malhotra.
“We didn't say, oh, come ticket, and arrest us for, like, having a lapse inspection sticker – that not what we asked for. We asked for an increased presence to maybe deter people that are going to commit violent crimes,” reflected AsheeMaat.
The city's attorney argued even if the police department does not use "best practices" it does not give rise to discrimination.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told me he can't comment on pending litigation, but in a recent interview with 7 News, he talked about how community policing launched in the spring of 2022 changes how officers engage with citizens.
“It's tremendous. It's the number one priority of our police department. So, in our strategic violence reduction plan that we really launched officially in March of ’22. It relies heavily on being present, visible, and engaged, having our officers out, being in the community — being visible in our hot spots, and in the areas that are prone to violence. We're getting our officers in those areas on directed patrols, activating their flashes so that they can be seen up and down the block. but we want them out of the car and just talking to people. we are doing more foot patrols,” Gramaglia noted.
Attorney Malhotra for the plaintiffs has more than 30 witnesses in this case. They also will present a 124-page report from an expert claiming Buffalo’s supervision and discipline, and accounting systems are “the worst in the country."
“And the city has one of the highest racially biased traffic complaints,” Attorney Malhotra stated.
There's no word on when the judge will issue a ruling. Attorneys told me they expect the case to head to trial sometime next year.
