Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The brand new Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia got a chance to respond to the community on Thursday, as the Buffalo Common Council held its first public forum with the Commissioner at the Frederick Law Olmsted School.
Both the Commissioner and University District Councilman Rasheed Wyatt expressed that this public forum is essential for proper communication and crime prevention.
"It's a paramount thing, communication… it's about a better understanding on both sides," said Commissioner Gramaglia on Thursday.
"If we are talking about police reform, it's about conversation, not legislation," Councilman Wyatt added.
Commissioner Gramaglia says he continues to work on strategies to help reduce crime and violence in the city. This includes a new crime plan strategy that involves plenty of data-driven response, combined with community partnership and engagement.
"We have a gun violence problem [in our city], and we are working very hard to focus on reducing that," Gramaglia said in his opening statement to the assembled community. "How do we do that? Talking, communicating, coming together, building trust, building bridges."
The Commissioner also states the other side of this comes from the enforcement side.
"We know who the trigger-pullers are, we are developing our intelligence on them everyday… we need to lock them up," he expressed.
With the recent violence and threats of violence that have taken place in local high schools and colleges, most recently at SUNY Buffalo State College on Thursday, the Police Commissioner touched on the credibility of these threats, and how the Buffalo Police Department plans to handle them going forward. Gramaglia referred to a recent case, where the Buffalo Police Department made an arrest Wednesday night of a 15-year-old student at Maritime Charter School after making terroristic threats against the school.
Gramaglia warns parents with children, as well as the community to not share the threats on social media on their accounts.
"We have to warn people not to share these things. It seems like when they get shared on social media, it becomes more real because it's being shared more," he said. "Talk to your kids and find out if they are seeing any threats on social media, and encourage them not to share, but to bring them to an adult. We can judge from there if it's a real concern."
A new Community Police Advisory Board is being formed by the Common Council, and is calling upon community members with diverse backgrounds ranging from criminal justice to mental health. You must be, at least, 18 years or older and be a city resident to fill out an application. People have until Wednesday, April 13 to apply.
To fill out an application, click here:
