Buffalo, NY (WBEN) It's been a year since George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis Police. That moment in time and history has led to changes in policing from Minneapolis, across the nation and here in Buffalo.
The man who leads the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association says officers are under much more scrutiny as a result.
Buffalo PBA President John Evans says officers have been trying to avoid confrontation. "We're trying to avoid it at all costs, in that the scrutiny level is unbearable, the highest it's ever been," says Evans. "Officers always try to de-escalate situations. There is far more training in the forefront as far as de-escalation. Also, the use of force continuum is looked at frequently."
Evans says officers have to go out of their way to avoid using force. "It's not enough to give someone an order to put their hands on the car, you have to beg and plead with them and issue order after order before you're able to go on a hands-on level," notes Evans. He says there's a more permissible society not having consequences for illegal acts and that's creating a quagmire for officers.
Evans notes new policies like Cariol's Law, which requires intervention by officers in the case of wrongdoing by colleagues, are repetitive. "Long before that, we always had a duty to intervene if we saw something was legally wrong. The stop ticket nonsense, if you don't issue a citation for a driver, you have to fill out a stop ticket to explain why you pulled them over," says Evans. He says it's not a productive policy and won't lead to less combative situations.
