Just days after Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown retreated on previous calls for the termination of two police officers who shoved Martin Gugino to the ground and broader calls for police reform, Council President Darius Pridgen is demanding that the administration take a slew of actions to reign in a notoriously undisciplined police department.
Pridgen is expected to pass three Buffalo Common Council resolutions aiming to combat police brutality and institutionalized racism. The first resolution asks Mayor Brown to enforce the City’s “Duty to Intervene” policy, requiring officers to protect citizens from the unnecessary use of force committed by fellow officers.
That law has been dubbed “Cariole’s Law”, after former African American police officer Cariol Holloman-Horne, who was terminated just days short of receiving her 20-year pension, after she intervened to stop the use of excessive force by a white police officer who was later terminated in another excessive force case.
“We do have a policy, but we want to make sure that all police officers know that policy and know that they are to assist in situations. We also want that policy to be looked at, to be amended as needed and that it be reported back to the Council and that every police officer would be trained again on the duty to intervene within the next 30 days,” Pridgen is reported as saying during a Council meeting Monday.
The second resolution will establish a task force of representatives from the Council’s Police Oversight Committee and other City departments to craft a reform agenda forward.
The third resolution asks the New York State Attorney General’s Office to investigate attendance records of Horne to determine how many days of work Horne needs to qualify for a pension — presumably in preparation for a settlement agreement with Horne.
