BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - In the wake of last year's widespread criticisms of policing in America, public perception of law enforcement agencies locally may be changing for the better.
"Now it's time for solutions," Murray Holman of Buffalo Peacemakers and Stop the Violence Coalition said. "One of the solutions is to work with law enforcement and get the right people in place and tell them how we want them to police. It works. Now you're going to see a shift because mostly all across America in urban societies, (gun crimes) are going on. They're tired of Black-on-Black crime."
Shootings in Buffalo and other major urban cities have spiked since 2020. US Attorney JP Kennedy on Thursday said there has been more than 400 shootings already in Buffalo and the city is on pace for 90 murders, more than double what it was in 2017. While the COVID-19 pandemic is a factor in the rise in violence, other factors include fewer resources for community organizations that help prevent crime, an increase in social media use, and some believe police have been hamstrung by criticisms after George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis and other viral incidents between police and minority communities.
"I don't know that the narrative has changed but I think it was suppressed for a while," Buffalo Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said. "I go back to 2018 and 2019. Commissioner (Byron) Lockwood made it his mission right off the bat when he became a police commissioner to say that community policing was a priority. That every police officer in this department is a community police officer. That is at the basic core of our job."
Credit was also given by Gramaglia to the Buffalo Police Department's Neighborhood Engagement Team, which was introduced in 2018 and encourages walking patrols by the department.
"You saw a significant reduction in our shooting victims and our shooting incidents, about 25% reduction," Gramaglia said. "That's not just a one-year anomaly. We were lower than a decade of shooting incidents and victims. That's no mistake. That came through community efforts."
Gramaglia believes that because police are now able to get back out on the streets due to fewer concerns with COVID-19, community relations will improve again.
Still, a viral video of a police encounter could quickly break the growing trust. That's why Gramaglia said police need to be smart and utilize their training.
"We need to be as professional as we can be," Gramaglia said. "Body cameras are certainly helping with that. The officers are eager to have those body cameras and to use them to show the very vast amounts of positive interactions and professional police work that can be done. Behind every badge is a living, breathing human being who have a lot of emotions and care a lot about what happens. Even through a lot of that negative rhetoric last year, our police officers were showing up every day working and working hard for the community."
Holman said there needs to be more young people involved with community groups. As for police?
"They got to come out of those cars and out of those buildings and say who they are," Holman said. "You'd be surprised if a young person doesn't know who an FBI agent is. They might just see Buffalo Police or Marshal coming by to do an arrest. It's time for them to come out those walls and get more involved and now it's a balance. We all have family members that are in law enforcement. I'm telling those families to get together and meet your neighbors next door and make it work."
