Buffalo Police Are Getting Their Steps In

As the warmer weather starts to arrive in Buffalo and Western New York, we're starting to see a lot more people outside on the streets of the 716. From people riding their bicycles and scooters to folks running and walking, it's so much nicer to be outside when outside doesn't imitate a frozen tundra.

If you plan to spend any time outside in Buffalo, you're going to see an unusual sight around town as some members of the Buffalo Police Department are going to be getting a little more exercise thanks to a new program that started a couple of weeks ago.

Buffalo Police Starting To Have Foot Patrols

In a press conference, Acting Buffalo Mayor Chris Scanlon announced the creation of a new patrol unit in the Buffalo Police Department.

The Foot Patrol Integration Unit, or FPIU for short, will take twenty police officers and assign them to patrol neighborhoods citywide in Buffalo. Four Lieutenants and sixteen police officers have been instructed to walk every city street and engage with the people who live in Buffalo's neighborhoods. Being that Buffalo is approximately 52 square miles, officers have a lot of steps ahead of them.

There was a time in Buffalo's history when seeing a police officer walking down the street was a normal occurrence, but departments nationwide started to get away from that practice and began focusing more on vehicle-based patrol. Buffalo Police Commissioner Alphonso Wright said at the press conference that this program is truly designed to help the BPD build a stronger relationship between the department and the people who have empowered them to serve the public.

While this seems like it has noble goals, there are several community activists that are warning this maybe an entry way for the police to return to a form of broken window policing and spend resources harass people for low level issues instead of focusing on major crimes and issues that truly impact the crime rates in Buffalo.