Replacing Police Scanning With You
01/02/2026
Deaths Not a Far Stretch From Scene of Others Last March
Jan 1 - 2026 - Buffalo Police and Fire congregate on N. Pearl Street investigating apparent death of two individuals.
Buffalo PD and FD investigated the apparent death of two individuals at an address on N. Pearl Street in Buffalo last night.
These deaths, of which there is zero information on cause right now, occurred just a block from the connected street of St. Louis Place where Michael "Mickey" Harmon and Jordan Celotto were murdered last March. A one Bryan Chiclana is currently being held in that case.
Update 1/2 @ 1:05 AM: Channel 7 WKBW is reporting that the deaths are regarded by police as non-suspicious (Link - Warning: Website is profit-whipped and may not be readable). Food for thought on a seemingly given contradiction: Recall that the dual death of Gene Hackman and his wife were also non-suspicious but also not caused by CO. Natural causes were ultimately determined to be at root in both cases.
An Introduction From Your Editor-in-Chief
It's time to end reliance on police scanning as a means to tip off the media whether that be the mainstream media (MSM) or any iteration of the decentralized forms that are the focus of BuffScan.
Not just because agencies are increasingly moving to encryption but also, and way underrated as a point, because push-to-talk (PTT) communication is itself evaporating.
Police scanning must be replaced with something else.
BuffScan has long had its eye on what it thinks that "something else" is: Decentralized spotter-form news coverage by a wide range of entity types: Organized well resourced media outlets; eager spotters (something your Editor-in-Chief here considers himself when able to hop into that game); and on-the-spot "cognizants" who happen to have the charge and will to document what is happening in front of them.
BuffScan's editorial focus and fascination are the rise of these decentralized if not scattershot conduits of information and media which have risen as an eclipsing force over entrenched media operations. I have my critiques of, and suggestions for, the latter, but even without the advice and idea of a rando who literally (kind of) flunked out of journalism school, they too are adapting to the decentralized form. The fascination is not so much the who but the how. Though I think we, the spotters, coming up from the other end are doing it better and more interestingly.
Today we have a conflagration of technology that started back when just anyone could upload an HTML document to the web. It has evolved since then to include smartphones and social media. Combined, really, everything anyone needs now to be the reporter, to be the newsbreaker, and, undoubtably, be someone's problem, in the process.
It's this revolution that is the first major component of what are likely several that is "the replacement for police scanning." A cooperative hive of those interacting to cast into digital circulation what they have seen, encountered, and experienced. As much without a profit or agenda motive, or, refreshingly perhaps, with one that is at least well-labeled.
This movement is not owned by the well-resourced, the powerful, or to any one personality type, association, or institutionally supported. It is a byproduct of the will itself -- which means it flows from you.
A New BuffScan
BuffScan in 2026 begins this chronicling of you. You with your images and videos, you with your story, you with your open agenda and wonderful flaws and mistakes.
It's an odd place in the turbulence to seat BuffScan - but it's from where it may participate comfortably, sometimes as commentator sometimes as direct participant. After all, BuffScan has a vision and the will to demonstrate and explore through active exposition how exactly little radio boxes can be removed from the equation to rebuild the concept of newsgathering from the ground up.
So, encryption, be there or not. What we'll replace old fashioned police scanning with will be thrice potent and thrice on the backs of the corrupt and dark. If you have that bleak perspective I mean. I rather look more upon the manifestation of this movement as a chaotic good where, in that vein, we advance.
- David Pinero, Editor-in-Chief, BuffScanSpotter Watch, Spotters on the Spot
The following is a textual linkset of social media shares via the BuffScan Facebook Page and the BuffScan X feed. This list is provided to stimulate and support the decentralized spotter community.
- 716 Street News's coverage of that apparently deadly incident on North Pearl Street tonight along with an image set. A tragic start to the 2026 for the city. This address appears to be just down the, essentially connected, street from St. Louis Street where Buffalo icons Michael "Mickey" Harmon and his partner Jordan Celotto were murdered just last March. That being said, at the time of this sharing, no cause of death has been given. As Street 716 notes, this has more of a horrible CO accident vibe.
- BuffScan didn't get out there for the yearly switchover, but Buffalo Street News got it!
- This is why BuffScan advocates big time for them dash-cams! Hopefully one or the other had one. Buffalo Street News 716 got a first-hand witness account to an MVA New Year's Eve.
- Buffalo enjoyed a snowy New Year and Buffalo 716 Street News gave video kudos.
- Cheektowaga Scanner delights with a 2025 compilation of spotter and other footage it presented throughout.
- The Southtown Scanners amplified the plight of what appeared to be two lost horses. Their latest update though: They have been rescued.
- BuffScan heard parts of this on the scanner while working through a pizza-induced coma. Looks like Tonawanda Fire Alert clinched the scene of a house fire at 538 Two Mile Creek Rd with video. They also have an image gallery from the same.
- Looks like WNY Code 3 Photography & Video caught some ground footage of a fire response in Cheektowaga.
** If you operate a digital place for the presentation of captured news and drama and would like to be regularly reviewed for BuffScan's "Spotters on the Spot", please let me know.
BuffScan Pokey Report
The following are fresh listings in the publicly distributed Erie County Jail Roster as of yesterday 12/31/25.
- BLAZE, WALTER
- CLARK, LAMAR
- GALLO, MICHELLE
- IDIRIS, NASIR
- IVES, NICKOLAS
- OSHALA, MUSA
- PAIGE, JAMES
- PARKER, SCOTT
- SCHLOPY, SHAWN
** In providing this convenient aggregate listing please keep in mind the following: Incarceration in county jail does not imply guilt - statistically, most inmates are in fact legally innocent and are only incarcerated pending further legal proceedings. As well, many circumstances including mental health and addiction issues can lead to behavioral turbulence and conflicts with society that result in jail. In noting incarceration status please adopt a compassion-first regard. For a variety of reasons the given list may not be all inclusive of those individuals actually processed.
By BuffScan for BuffScan.
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