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Mayor Brown Announces Opening of New Buffalo Police Department Internal Affairs Office

BPD Internal Affairs Satellite Office Will be Located in City Hall 311 Suite

Mayor Byron W. Brown today announced the Buffalo Police Department will open its new Internal Affairs Division (IAD) office in City Hall. The new office will be located in the city’s 311 suite of offices on the second floor of City Hall. It will be staffed by Buffalo Police Department personnel Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The IAD office at BPD headquarters will remain open and accessible to the public.

“This is another effort by our Administration to help our residents provide information confidentially to the Buffalo Police Department that may be of a sensitive nature and could involve internal investigations by the Department,” said Mayor Brown. “It’s imperative that our residents have the chance to submit information that may involve professional misconduct and it’s just as important that our police personnel are afforded the necessary and appropriate due process to determine the nature of any complaint that’s filed with the Department. It is our belief, based on the examination of other major police departments’ procedures, that it is best to place this Internal Affairs function away from Police Headquarters.”

Earlier this year in January the Buffalo Police Department changed the Professional Standards Division within the Department to the renamed Internal Affairs Division (“IAD”) and then Captain Harold McLellan was promoted to Inspector and placed in charge of the renamed division.

“What’s particularly unique about the location of the BPD’s Internal Affairs Division in City Hall is that the division will be located within the city’s 311 suite of offices and that will enable city residents to come to City Hall and meet directly with the IAD personnel on any issue they may have,” said Mayor Brown. “While there are many police departments across the country that have placed their Internal Affairs operations outside of police headquarters, we believe this may be the first in the country where the Internal Affairs Division is physically connected to a municipality’s 311 system.”

In addition to setting up this new office for the Internal Affairs Division in City Hall, residents can still file IAD-related complaints online at www.bpdny.org or call 851-4557.

“It’s important for our residents to know that they can come to City Hall, file a complaint and not have the concern that they might actually see the police officer that they had previously encountered, “said Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda. “It’s also just as important to protect our dedicated police officers and ensure them that they will be accorded the right to a fair and impartial investigation into whatever complaint may have been lodged by a city resident.”

With the Buffalo Police Department’s enforcement of Mayor Brown’s Zero Tolerance anti-crime agenda, overall crime has been reduced in the city by approximately 11% since January 2006 and violent crime has been reduced by 4% in the same period of time. Since the beginning of this year, violent crime is down 6.4% compared to the same time period in 2009 and overall crime is down 2.2%.