Buffalo police captain to return to work after 30-day unpaid suspension for racist behavior

Mar. 30—A Buffalo police captain accused of making racist remarks in front of two Black police officers and a Black mental health clinician is returning to work next week after a 30-day unpaid suspension, following an internal affairs investigation and an arbitration hearing, Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.

Capt. Amber Beyer will also no longer head the Behavioral Health Team which she led, which pairs police officers with mental health clinicians to respond to calls regarding people having mental health crises.

Officers Brandon Hawkins and Katelynn Bolden and mental health clinician Erica Seymour filed a federal lawsuit alleging discrimination. Lawyers are seeking tens of millions in damages for Seymour and for Hawkins who, according to the document, was forced onto sick leave by the emotional distress but has been ordered back to work, and for Bolden, who is "extremely distressed" but is out of work for an unrelated physical injury.

Beyer was suspended in November after a complaint was filed to internal affairs about a September incident in which she allegedly read aloud a Facebook post by a mentally ill resident that the behavioral team was going to check on. In the post, the resident freely used a racial slur that targets Black people and Beyer yelled out the word as she read the post to members of her team, according to the lawsuit.

Under the police union's collective bargaining agreement with the city, officers can be suspended without pay for up to 30 days. Then they can remain suspended but with pay.

Beyer's case went to arbitration. At a hearing earlier this week, Beyer entered into a plea agreement on the disciplinary charges. Under the agreement, she accepted the 30 days of suspension without pay and to be removed from the unit.

Beyer is scheduled to return to work on Monday at which point she will temporarily be assigned to the commissioner's office. Then she can put in for a position on the open transfer list.

Beyer was disciplined last May for a separate racially charged incident, which also is mentioned in the lawsuit.

Beyer was shown a viral video of an incident involving police in another jurisdiction. Two white officers pulled over a Black officer who was wearing his uniform but driving an unmarked car. The video was circulating as an example of racial profiling.

In the team's office inside 68 Court St., Beyer responded to the video by saying she could see "both sides" of the incident, according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by Investigative Post. The federal complaint said Bolden and the officer who showed Beyer the video, Jason Wagstaff, challenged her, saying the video showed the white officers acted with racist intent.

Beyer then "ranted for approximately 20 minutes," the lawsuit says, about how Black officers are unfaithful toward their wives, and it would be logical for a white person to hold racist views if robbed by a Black person. The complaint paraphrases her as saying Black officers do not get post-traumatic stress disorder from patrolling Black neighborhoods, like white officers do, because Black officers are used to violence.

Following an internal affairs review of that alleged incident, Beyer was ordered to take implicit bias training.

Deputy Commissioner Alfonso Wright has been overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Behavioral Health Team.

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