This week, NCLEJ delivered Oral Arguments for Class Certification in our long-running lawsuit against the City of Buffalo over racially-discriminatory traffic enforcement by the Buffalo Police Department (BPD). Our lawsuit charges that the BPD’s practices targeting Black and Latine communities in Buffalo, which were designed to harvest revenue for the City budget, violate the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
If our lawsuit is certified as a class action by the Court, this will allow us to secure relief and reform for thousands of Buffalonians whose rights were violated.
In 2013, the City of Buffalo established a program of traffic checkpoints in which the BPD stopped minority drivers without any suspicion of wrongdoing, attempted to develop evidence of criminal activity, and issued tickets for as many alleged violations as possible.
The statistics in this case are shocking. The BPD ran over 1,600 checkpoints, placing them in predominantly Black and Latine neighborhoods seven times as often as in predominantly white neighborhoods. Additionally, minority Buffalonians received over three times as many traffic citations compared to nonminority individuals relative to their population. Between January 2012 and December 2022, 75% of driving and vehicle citations were issued to minority individuals, despite their comprising less than 50% of Buffalo’s population.
This case underscores the incredible importance of the work we do. The Buffalo Police Department violated the civil rights of minority residents daily. They cannot be trusted to police themselves. Without court intervention and oversight, Buffalo’s communities of color will continue to face discriminatory policing practices that shatter lives.
The National Center for Law and Economic Justice advances racial and economic justice through ground-breaking impact litigation, policy advocacy, and support for grassroots organizing. We have provided legal representation and support since 1965.
