During a rare meeting of Buffalo Common Council’s Police Oversight Committee, a group of community members asked, again, for the support of a new model of police supervision led by city residents bestowed with the authority to subpoena police and investigate complaints against officers.

Those community members, who serve on the all-volunteer Buffalo Community Police Advisory Board, got an answer they were not expecting.

Common Council member Ulysees O. Wingo told them during the Zoom meeting a month ago that such a model already exists, and it is the committee of council members that they were appearing before: the Police Oversight Committee.

“It’s just a matter of using this current structure because now we’re talking about recommending another police advisory board with a new structure that is literally impeding on the powers that are already given to the Common Council,” Wingo said.

“And I’m taking a risk by saying this but we have the structure built now and I don’t want us to think just because this is not getting us the result as fast as we want, that we need to change it and do something else.”

Read the article on WIVB –>