In late October 2021, after a tumultuous year and a half of the pandemic, protests and escalating gun violence, Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood put out a request to his officers and staff.
It was the 150th year of the Buffalo Police Department. In less turbulent times, there would have been any number of ceremonies and events to mark the special anniversary throughout the year.
"I didn't want this year to go by without celebrating our 150th anniversary," Lockwood said.
He had an idea: The hallways of Buffalo Police Headquarters are adorned with old photos including one from 1933 of hundreds of uniformed officers lined up in front of the McKinley Monument, with City Hall in the background.
He wanted to try and do something similar. So he asked anyone interested to come join him for a group photo. About 100 officers took part.
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Looking around at the crowd that had gathered, Lockwood noted that a lot has changed since that other photo was taken 88 years ago, everything from technology to the makeup of the department.
"It can just show you the transition. It went from all white males. Now, it's diverse. Male, female, people of color," he said.
In his 38 years with the Buffalo Police Department, Lockwood has been a part of that historic transition, from being one of a few Black men hired by the department following court-ordered affirmative action plans, to being its top cop – the second Black man to hold the job.
Lockwood, 63, retires at the end of this week and talked about his career with The Buffalo News. He has served as commissioner for the last four years, during which he focused on growing relationships between the police and the public.
His goal was for all police officers to think of themselves as a "community police officer."
When he first started at the police academy, Lockwood, who grew up on the East Side, had never dreamed of becoming commissioner, although he had wanted to be an officer since he was a little kid.
He remembers how some officers, not all, made sure to let rookies on the force who were Black, had Spanish surnames or were women know they weren't welcome.
"When I came on, you were just trying to keep your job ... to survive. Any little thing you did or if someone didn't like you they would go out of the way to get you," Lockwood recalled.
In his class at the academy, there were 48 recruits – 22 white, 22 Black and four Hispanic. Just 10 Black recruits were left by the end of the academy, although some would later win their jobs back.
Lockwood said it was tougher for Black officers then. It wasn't necessarily about race. Many officers had family and friends already on the force. He didn't know anybody, and no one was going to cut him any slack.
"I knew I couldn't do what other people could do. I knew I had to be on top. Be there on top or be there earlier ... I knew I had to follow the rules and regulations right down the line. Right to the T," he said.
Lockwood started as a patrol officer in the old Precinct 4, which was located at Michigan and William streets. He later became a detective and worked in various units: vice, narcotics, intelligence and homicide. He then became detective sergeant and was based in what would become the Ferry-Fillmore District (C District). In 2006, he was promoted to deputy police commissioner and in 2018, Mayor Byron Brown named him the commissioner.
'Let’s not go in there as soldiers'
Brown said he chose Lockwood because of their shared ideas about the role of policing.
"I knew that he shared my passion and shared a desire to bolster community policing. And that was one of the key reasons why I chose him for that position," said Brown, who has been friends with Lockwood for decades.
Lockwood tried to set a new tone.
“Let’s not go in there as soldiers,” Lockwood described his message, back in 2018. “Let’s go in there as officers who are going to reach out and see where we can help in the community. I’m not saying we can fix all of the problems, but … as far as public safety, we can help them with that – making sure their neighborhoods are safe.”
He disbanded the controversial Strike Force team that sent police officers into crime hot spots and introduced the Neighborhood Engagement Team, a group of a dozen officers who were tasked with reaching out to neighbors in those high-crime areas.
He made sure those officers knew that making arrests wasn't their priority.
Despite being the head of the department, Lockwood tended to stay away from the spotlight. He rarely spoke at news conferences. But he was well-known for attending community events, whether they had anything to do with policing.
Having grown up in Buffalo, he had a close connection to what happened on the streets. "They always say Buffalo is a small city," he said. He found that far too often, he would know family members of the victims of crimes.
During his tenure, Lockwood tried new approaches to old problems. He started the Gun Violence Unit, a squad that focuses on nonfatal shootings.
He and the mayor held events they called "Taking it to the streets," where they would bring a mobile command van to a neighborhood for a day.
He formed the Behavioral Health Team, which pairs specially trained police officers with mental health clinicians to respond to people experiencing mental health crises. That came together in late 2020 at a tense time, after a Buffalo police officer shot and wounded a homeless man who struck another officer with a bat. Some activists were demanding that police be completely removed from such a role.
The team's approach has since proved successful, with hundreds of people in crisis steered into programs and services, Brown said. "They're not being arrested," he said.
Covid slows efforts
Up until 2020, Lockwood believes his approach to community policing was showing signs of success – people in the community were calling the police with tips and information. And it seemed to be catching on within the department, too. Officers would approach him with ideas on projects to take on with the public. District chiefs were competing against each other in putting on the most fun community open houses.
But almost all attempts at engaging the public came to a halt as Covid-19 spread throughout the world. The virus struck many police officers. At one point one full platoon was out sick.
Community events weren't allowed and the station houses even closed their doors to the public for fear of spreading Covid.
"It was really tough," he said.
But as the pandemic seems to be winding down, those community policing efforts are starting back up, Lockwood said. And he's confident that they will continue after he leaves.
He hopes he shared his devotion to the community with the younger rank and file who follow him. "You've got to get along with the community," he said.
He said he hopes officers take to heart something he makes a point to share with new police officers.
When you're a police officer, quite often, you're meeting people under terrible circumstances. "That's the worst day of their life ... The emotions are very, very high," he said. "So the first impression shouldn't be the last impression. So you have to go in there and you have to work with them to bring them down and let them understand that, hey, we can get through this. We're going to work on this ... I try to tell all the new classes that come out that."
