Editing Buffalo, New York (section)

=== <span class="anchor" id="Public safety and crime"></span>Public safety ===
{{Infobox UCR
|aggravated_assault = 1,563
|city_name = Buffalo, New York
|year = 2019<ref>{{cite web |title=Crime, Arrest and Firearm Activity Report: Buffalo Index Crimes |url=http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/greenbook.pdf |website=New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services |access-date=May 12, 2021 |archive-date=May 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503023511/https://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/greenbook.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>
|source_url = http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/greenbook.pdf
|violent_crime =  2,533 {{positive decrease}}
|homicide = 47
|forcible_rape = 121
|robbery = 802
|burglary = 1,609
|larceny_theft = 6,008
|motor_vehicle_theft = 678
|property_crime = 8,295 {{positive decrease}}
|source_name = Buffalo City Police Department
|notes = Arson data not provided; 2019 est. population: 255,244
}}

Buffalo is served by the [[Buffalo Police Department]]. The [[police commissioner]] is Byron Lockwood, who was appointed by Mayor Byron Brown in 2018.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mayor's Office |title=Mayor Brown Announces Appointment of Byron Lockwood as Interim Police Commissioner |url=https://www.buffalony.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=185 |website=City of Buffalo |access-date=13 May 2021 |language=en |date=January 17, 2018 |archive-date=April 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425091044/http://www.buffalony.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=185 |url-status=live}}</ref> Although some criminal activity in the city remains higher than the national average, total crimes have decreased since the 1990s; one reason may be the [[gun buyback program]] implemented by the Brown administration in the mid-2000s.<ref name = "CrimeEncyclopedia" /> Before this, the city was part of the nationwide [[Crack epidemic in the United States|crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s]] and its accompanying record-high crime levels.<ref name ="CrimeEncyclopedia">{{cite book |last1=Ross |first1=Jeffrey Ian |author-link=Jeffrey Ian Ross |title=Encyclopedia of Street Crime in America |date=2013 |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |isbn=978-1-4522-7445-4 |pages=49–51 |language=en |chapter=Buffalo, New York}}</ref> In 2018, city police began wearing 300 [[Police body camera|body cameras]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=New York State Attorney General |title=Attorney General James Provides Funds For Police Body-Worn Cameras To The Buffalo, Niagara Falls, And Amherst Police Departments {{!}} New York State Attorney General |url=https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2019/attorney-general-james-provides-funds-police-body-worn-cameras-buffalo-niagara |website=[[Attorney General of New York]] |access-date=8 May 2021 |language=en |date=November 1, 2019 |archive-date=January 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128082733/https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2019/attorney-general-james-provides-funds-police-body-worn-cameras-buffalo-niagara |url-status=live }}</ref> A 2021 Partnership for the Public Good report noted that the BPD, which had a 2020–21 budget of about $145.7 million, had an above-average police-to-citizen ratio of 28.9 officers per 10,000 residents in 2020{{snd}}higher than peer cities [[Minneapolis]] and [[Toledo, Ohio]].<ref name="PPGPolice2021">{{cite web |last1=Kristich |first1=Colleen |title=Building A Safer Buffalo: Invest In Communities, Divest From Police |url=https://ppgbuffalo.org/buffalo-commons/library/resource:building-a-safer-buffalo-invest-in-communities-divest-from-police/ |website=Partership for the Public Good |pages=4–6, 12–13 |access-date=13 May 2021 |date=May 6, 2021 |archive-date=May 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507033515/https://ppgbuffalo.org/buffalo-commons/library/resource:building-a-safer-buffalo-invest-in-communities-divest-from-police/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The force had a roster of 740 officers during the year, about two-thirds of whom handled emergency requests, road patrol and other non-office assignments.<ref name="PPGPolice2021" /> The department has been criticized for [[Police brutality in the United States|misconduct and brutality]], including the 2004 wrongful termination of officer Cariol Horne for opposing police brutality toward a suspect<ref>{{cite news |last1=Knowles |first1=Hannah |title=Judge rules in favor of ex-Buffalo officer who said she was fired for stopping a colleague's chokehold |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/14/cariol-horne-pension-ruling/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=13 May 2021 |date=April 14, 2021 |archive-date=April 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414211653/https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/14/cariol-horne-pension-ruling/ |url-status=live}}</ref> and a 2020 [[Buffalo police shoving incident|protest-shoving incident]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hartfield |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Croft |first2=Jay |title=Buffalo officers quit special team after 2 officers are suspended for shoving a 75-year-old protester |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/05/us/buffalo-police-suspension-shoving-man-trnd/index.html |website=[[CNN]] |access-date=13 May 2021 |date=June 6, 2020 |archive-date=April 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412235039/https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/05/us/buffalo-police-suspension-shoving-man-trnd/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Buffalo Fire Department]] and [[American Medical Response]] (AMR) handle fire-protection and [[emergency medical services]] (EMS) calls in the city.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Drury |first1=Tracey |title=AMR's Tim Frost is connecting emergency services from Buffalo to the Southern Tier |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2019/11/13/amrs-tim-frost-is-connecting-emergency-services.html |website=Buffalo Business First |publisher=[[American City Business Journals]] |access-date=26 May 2021 |archive-date=June 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210622041804/https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2019/11/13/amrs-tim-frost-is-connecting-emergency-services.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The fire department has about 710 firefighters<ref>{{cite web |last1=Christmann |first1=Samantha |title=28 new firefighters bring Buffalo Fire Department to full staff |url=https://buffalonews.com/news/local/28-new-firefighters-bring-buffalo-fire-department-to-full-staff/article_b9d1a650-9c59-528d-a418-1e7cca3d2905.html |website=[[The Buffalo News]] |access-date=13 May 2021 |language=en |date=June 22, 2019 |archive-date=May 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516083010/https://subscribe.buffalonews.com/e/limit-reached-bn?returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Fbuffalonews.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2F28-new-firefighters-bring-buffalo-fire-department-to-full-staff%2Farticle_b9d1a650-9c59-528d-a418-1e7cca3d2905.html |url-access=limited |url-status=live}}</ref> and thirty-five [[Fire station|stations]], including twenty-three [[Glossary of firefighting#E|engine companies]] and twelve [[Glossary of firefighting#L|ladder companies]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Article 14: Department of Fire |url=https://ecode360.com/13552038 |website=City of Buffalo Charter |access-date=13 May 2021 |archive-date=October 22, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022054544/http://ecode360.com/13552038 |url-status=live}}</ref> The department also operates the ''[[Edward M. Cotter (fireboat)|Edward M. Cotter]]'', considered the world's oldest active [[fireboat]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mroziak |first=Michael |date=August 18, 2017 |title=All aboard the Cotter for a special family reunion |url=https://news.wbfo.org/post/all-aboard-cotter-special-family-reunion |url-status=live |access-date=2021-05-06 |website=[[WBFO]] |language=en |archive-date=January 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107225342/http://news.wbfo.org/post/all-aboard-cotter-special-family-reunion}}</ref>

With vacant and abandoned homes prone to [[arson]], [[squatting]], [[Prostitution in the United States|prostitution]] and other criminal activities, the fire and police department's resources were overburdened before the 2010s. Buffalo ranked second nationwide to [[St. Louis]] for vacant homes per capita in 2007, and the city began a five-year program to demolish five thousand vacant, damaged and abandoned homes.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Belson |first1=Ken |title=Vacant Houses, Scourge of a Beaten-Down Buffalo |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/nyregion/13vacant.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=13 May 2021 |date=13 September 2007 |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308185039/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/nyregion/13vacant.html |url-access= limited |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Lyons |first1=Sarah |title=Buffalo's Demolition Strategy |url=https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/housing_neighborhoods/housing_conditions_and_repairs/housingneighborhoods-_buffalos_demolition_strategy.pdf |website=Partnership for the Public Good |publisher=[[University at Buffalo]] Law School Housing Court |access-date=13 May 2021 |date=2009 |archive-date=May 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516083008/https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/housing_neighborhoods/housing_conditions_and_repairs/housingneighborhoods-_buffalos_demolition_strategy.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> On [[2022 Buffalo shooting|May 14, 2022, there was a mass shooting]] in a Tops supermarket on the East Side of Buffalo where 13 victims were shot in a racially motivated attack by a [[white supremacist]] who was not a Buffalo native. Ten victims, all of whom were black, were murdered and three were injured.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2022/05/21/1100560941/the-youngest-of-the-10-buffalo-shooting-victims-was-laid-to-rest|title=The youngest of the 10 people killed in the Buffalo shooting was laid to rest|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523131309/https://www.npr.org/2022/05/21/1100560941/the-youngest-of-the-10-buffalo-shooting-victims-was-laid-to-rest|archive-date=May 23, 2022|publisher=NPR|date=May 21, 2022|via=Associated Press|access-date=January 11, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Ten killed in mass shooting at Jefferson Avenue supermarket; shooter in custody |url=https://buffalonews.com/news/local/ten-killed-in-mass-shooting-at-jefferson-avenue-supermarket-shooter-in-custody/article_6e8132fa-d3b7-11ec-a714-2b3fbeaf848c.html |date=May 14, 2022 |access-date=January 11, 2023 |website=Buffalo News |first1=Lou |last1=Michel |first2=Ben |last2=Tsujimoto |first3=Maki |last3=Becker |archive-date=May 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220514205116/https://buffalonews.com/news/local/ten-killed-in-mass-shooting-at-jefferson-avenue-supermarket-shooter-in-custody/article_6e8132fa-d3b7-11ec-a714-2b3fbeaf848c.html |url-status=live}}</ref>