Earlier this week, Buffalo Police Chief Jason Carder provided the City Council with a year-end review of his department’s operations.
He shared some rather big numbers, including more than 14K police calls in 2020 and the fact that dispatch handled nearly 42,000 phone calls.
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted life in nearly every aspect in 2020, but according to Carder, it was partially responsible for a huge increase in DUI arrests, nearly doubling from normal arrests in past years…
During the difficult months of 2020, enforcement of the state’s public health orders limiting patrons and hours of operations were left to local police departments and Carder chose to handle those issues proactively and not in a punitive fashion…
Of course, protecting the community is law enforcement’s primary responsibility and Carder’s department worked jointly with several agencies to seize approximately 25 pounds of methamphetamine in 2020 with a street value of more than 1 million dollars.
It was a unique and difficult year for everyone, but Carder referred to the $4200 raised at last year’s BBQ for Blues event as evidence that the community supported the service provided by his department.
