Officer Detail: Gregory M. Kwiatkowski

General Information

Name Gregory M. Kwiatkowski
OpenOversight ID 96404
Department Buffalo Police Department
Race White
Gender Male
Birth Year (Age) Data Missing
First Employment Date 1990-08-31
Number of known incidents 2
Currently on the force No

Assignment History

Job Title Badge No. Unit Start Date End Date
Lieutenant Unknown
Lieutenant Forced Retirement 2021-08-10 2021-08-10
Police Officer P2048 1990-08-31

Descriptions

  • Sep 13, 2026

    In numerous cases, police officers are convicted of repeatedly not just falsely arresting individuals for no wrongdoing, but brutally physically assaulting individuals after they are in handcuffs when they are restrained and already suffering. The DOJ has found that many offenders remain on the force and continue to violate basic Constitutional rights in policing. Officer Gregory Kwiatkowski is emblematic of this faulty system. In 2006, Buffalo Police Officer Cariol Horne, a 19-year veteran of the force, assisted Kwiatkowski on a domestic violence call. Upon arriving at the scene of the crime, Officer Horne discovered Kwiatkowski punching the handcuffed suspect, Neal Mack. Kwiatkowski was unrelenting in his assault and went as far as choking Mr. Mack. In order to stop the assault, Officer Horne grabbed Kwiatkowski’s arm. In return, Kwiatkowski turned and punched Officer Horne. The beating required Officer Horne to have the bridge of her nose replaced. Instead of reprimanding Kwiatkowski, the BPD fired Officer Horne. Kwiatkowski went as far suing Officer Horne for defamation.

    Kwiatkowski was promoted, and continued his pattern of misconduct and police violence. In 2015, the DOJ criminally charged him, BPD officers Raymond Krug, 36, and Joseph Wendel, 37, for using excessive force and violating the civil rights of four teens, one of whom was shot by BPD officers with a BB gun, while he was handcuffed and in a police car and later assaulted while they were in custody at the police station, requiring them to seek medical treatment. Two of the teens filed a civil suit against the BPD, which the City and was settled for $75,000 each in 2013.

  • Sep 13, 2026

    Kwiatkowski was suspended in 2010 for a physical confrontation with another officer; and struck another officer as another officer, Cariol Horne, tried to remove him from choking a handcuffed African American suspect. Kwiatkowski has been in trouble with the department in the past. In 2010 that he had been involved in a confrontation with another officer at a district station house. At the time, he was already at the center of an internal investigation following a fight in May 2010 involving other officers at Page’s Grill and Bar in Lancaster.

    Kwiatkowski was forced to retire and Officer Horne was accused of obstructing police duty and other charges in the Kwiatkowski

    incident. She was found guilty of the charges in 2007 and fired from the force. Following Kwiatkowski’s 2014 indictment, Horne renewed her fight to restore her pension, which she was successfully awarded after a lengthy legal battle.

Incidents

Incident 252

Date May 30, 2009
Department Buffalo Police Department
Officers Gregory M. Kwiatkowski , H Mccarthy Gipson , Joseph D. Wendel , Raymond M. Krug
Description

Lt. Kwiatkowski arrived at Treehaven Road in Buffalo to respond to a vehicle that had been stopped by the Cheektowaga Police Department (CPD) and that was believed to be involved in an ongoing series of BB gun shootings, including one which occurred earlier that night. Lt. Kwiatkowski was the first BPD officer to arrive at the scene. Other CPD officers were present at the scene when Lt. Kwiatkowski arrived and had already removed the vehicle’s four occupants, who were all between 16 and 18 years old.

At the time of Lt. Kwiatkowski’s arrival, all of the occupants were compliant and completely under the control of the CPD officers. Upon arriving at the scene, Lt. Kwiatkowski used unlawful and unreasonable force on each of the four occupants. Specifically, Lt. Kwiatkowski admitted to forcibly pushing each of the suspects heads and upper torsos into the vehicle around which they were being detained. He also called the four Black teenagers “savage dogs” and asked, "Do you like shooting at white kids?"

Outcome

A federal judge sentenced the former Buffalo Police lieutenant to four months in prison in 2018.

Address Treehaven Road
Buffalo, NY
 

Incident 237

Date Nov 01, 2006
Department Buffalo Police Department
Officers Gregory M. Kwiatkowski , Cariol J. Horne , H Mccarthy Gipson
Description

In 2006, Officer Cariol Horne intervened to stop a fellow officer, Gregory Kwiatkowski, who was choking Neal Mack, a Black man who was already placed under arrest and handcuffed. Horne was assaulted by the officer during the intervention, and thereafter the Buffalo Police Department punished officer Cariol Horne by terminating her for attempting to stop the assault by her fellow officer upon a citizen —just one year shy of receiving her full pension.

In October 2020, Buffalo adopted "Cariol's Law," to require police to intervene if a fellow officer uses excessive force. In 2021, a New York court awarded her the pension and back pay she earned. The city has yet to pay Cariol her pension.

Address Buffalo, NY

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