Buffalo, NY (WBEN) The former head of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association says he's elated to hear of the departure of Joseph Gramaglia as Buffalo Police Commissioner.
"I was happy to see the new mayor make make a change in the hopes that they have the incoming would be a more trustworthy individual," says John Evans, who left the post a couple of weeks ago. He says morale in the rank and file has been the lowest he's seen in his career. He also says the choice of Alphonso Wright as the new commissioner was the best choice.
Evans says he was upset when charges filed against Martin Gugino during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 were overturned. "I didn't see how that wasn't criminal to this day. I don't know that if anybody went down and interfered with an arrest that they wouldn't be in some serious trouble," believes Evans. He says matters became toxic, especially with inconsistent discipline meted out.
Evans says body cams were weaponized by Buffalo Police in internal affairs matters. "The guys or girls make a great arrest, go through necessary paperwork, procedure, and then they'd have internal affairs, look at the blue teams. Under Blue team review whatever they found that was contrary to the MLP, they'd bring the officers up on internal charges," says Evans. He claims that was not the intent of these body worn cameras. He hopes that can be worked out.
Evans says he's confident new PBA president John Davidson and new Commissioner Wright will be able to iron out a great deal of outstanding issues without going to arbitration.
