Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Evaluations continue to be made and lessons continue to be learned from the Christmas Weekend blizzard that struck and grinded the City of Buffalo to a halt.
This includes the Buffalo Police Department, who not only continues to break down all that transpired between Friday, Dec. 23 and Christmas Day in the city, but is looking ahead to be better prepared for future storms to potentially strike Western New York.
Among the items that Buffalo Police are evaluating as a result of the blizzard is a deeper look into the current equipment on-hand to handle a major winter event, as well as any potential upgrades or additions with resources needed for future storms.
For Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia, it starts with looking into what vehicles the department has that can be able to navigate through the deep snows.
"We have, I think, about 80% of our fleet or all-wheel drive vehicles, both our [Dodge] Chargers and our [Ford] Explorers, and we've been transitioning to all Explorers. I'm not sure anybody could be equipped from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning when you are in that blizzard," said Gramaglia on Friday. "We saw plow trucks getting stuck, we had National Guard F-350 trucks that were bogged down and got stuck right away."
In addition to upgrades to patrol cars and other equipment in the department, Gramaglia admits they are looking into other vehicles like all-terrain UTVs.
I call them 'ultimate terrain vehicles'. I'm not sure exactly what the 'U' stands for, but I'll call them the 'ultimate terrain vehicle'," Gramaglia said.
"I think, for us, we'd get the most 'bang for our buck' out of those, meaning I could use those vehicles all year round. Snowmobiles, we have the availability to get snowmobiles, both through state resources, county resources, volunteers. We saw how the volunteers really stepped up in the various snowmobile clubs. We can get them in for the times that we need them. So we are looking at identifying those UTVs and some other opportunities for equipment, but officers worked with what we had. Typically, we don't see that. Typically our all-wheel drive vehicles are getting through the snow."
Gramaglia knows other law enforcement agencies across the country are looking at similar upgrades and additions to their task force for similar events going forward. In New York State alone, both the Erie County Sheriff's Office and State Police have similar vehicles and equipment already available.
If the Buffalo Police Department was to acquire such equipment for future storms the city may experience, Gramaglia knows it will be a huge benefit to the department going forward.
"They have the option of taking off, like a tire change. You can take the wheel off and put a tractor tread on them," Gramaglia said. "We're looking at those options, but we've got parades, we've got festivals, we've got races, we've got Linear Park, we've got other parks. This would give us an opportunity to not only utilize these in inclement weather, but to utilize these through different community events and different other events that I just mentioned. We would also be able to utilize these things for our dive team and for SWAT team for a myriad of functions in that. So that's something we are looking at.
"I want to make the smartest decision possible when I make a recommendation on a purchase that we can really get the most use out of a piece of equipment."
For New York State Police, the use of these specialized all-terrain vehicles like a UTV are absolutely crucial, not just from an emergency situation, but even from a regular law enforcement standpoint.
"You have UTVs, with normal tires that most people would buy for the general public, but ours have specific tank tracks on all four. So instead of four tires, it's got four tank tracks," said Trooper James O'Callaghan from the New York State Police. "It basically will go through snow and any sort of element that we come across, including deep water, which a lot of people don't think of, but we can do that as well."
State Police was able to use a lot of these UTVs and other pieces of equipment during and following the blizzard in the City of Buffalo, and as O'Callaghan explains, it was for a number of various reasons.
"One to get medical supplies, water supplies, food to different people that they couldn't get these items because of the road conditions and the extreme walk in the weather. We use it for search and rescue for different people that were having medical issues, and unfortunately, we did use them for people that were found deceased, and were able to go and get those bodies and remove them from that situation using these vehicles," O'Callaghan said. "Not just included in the city, but outside the city, we had specialized vehicles, as well, that we'd take down roadways that were all jammed up with cars.
"To walk it would have been extremely difficult, but also to drive it in a vehicle would have been impossible. That's where these vehicles come in handy, and they really, really make a difference when you have this kind of condition, a blizzard or something extreme like that."
As Gramaglia said with the intention to use these vehicles for more than just snow storms, O'Callaghan has seen first-hand the different uses for the State Police's equipment in every season.
"A lot of times if we have a missing persons, or possibly a suspect that would be in a woods or something like that, we use these vehicles to go into a woods. If a vehicle's too large to get into a woods or a place like that, a lot of times we can get a UTV track or a four-wheeler," he said. "We have four-wheelers with tracks, as well. Obviously a snowmobile outside of winter is not great and are not useful, but we do use these vehicles for different elements. Or, we have a lot of gorges and State Parks and things like that. Someone could have fallen, gotten injured, and the only way to get to him is by these smaller UTV vehicles that can go off road or [through] extreme conditions."
While many regions across the nation are not always going to experience major winter weather like Buffalo did over the holiday weekend, O'Callaghan believes they are extremely useful whenever they are needed in a crucial or vital situation.
"We live in an area where winter is a guarantee. Winter is coming, a storm or a possible bad snow usually comes, at least, once a year. Is it to a blizzard condition? Maybe not, but you're, at least, in the knowledge of we are going to get bad weather sometime in our winter here in Buffalo. And I think having these just opens an opportunity for you as a department to utilize and to help the public. It's one of those things where most departments, at this point in 2023, now that they're invented, they're well documented as being useful in different sorts of events, I think it's one of those things where it is absolutely crucial for a department to pick these items up."
