BUFFALO, N.Y. — At its core, Black Love Resists in the Rust v. City of Buffalo is a lawsuit looking to seek damages and institutional change for policing but only now, with class certification officially underway, is the case able to move forward in federal court.

The suit alleges complaints of police misconduct lodged against the Buffalo Police Department were either not addressed or completely ignored, despite the department having practices and policies in place.

Alleged infringement on the plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment rights for unlawful detainment and 14th Amendment rights for equal protection is what’s at issue in the case, specifically for Black and Hispanic citizens.

The lawsuit alleges 87% of checkpoints to monitor and deter crime were placed in neighborhoods of color. The U.S. Supreme Court previously ruled checkpoints like those in the argument to be unconstitutional. Detainments that wielded millions of dollars in tickets and fines are part of the classes being solidified in the suit.

The argument is those tickets disproportionately targeted these same communities and served as part of targeted 'dragnet' policing.

"Figuring out how to end [racial discrimination] isn't easy," said Claudia Wilder, litigation and advocacy director for the National Center for Law and Economic Justice. "We're here to work with our community clients, with the people of Buffalo, hopefully eventually with the city, to devise practices and policies that actually do significantly reduce or, we hope, eliminate racial discrimination. And when we find things that work, those can be shared."

Offering a third-party perspective is attorney John Elmore, who says common questions of law and fact is needed to be the basis of this certification process because of the overwhelming amount of complaints in this case. 

Damages can now be sought after, and those are the X's and O's of this case — but an important point is that this data they're now collecting is from a 2018 lawsuit with changes having been implemented since then.

"The fact that the City of Buffalo undertook a lot of police reform, was consistent with what police departments did across the nation. After the George Floyd case, a lot of things happened and after other cases, which received a lot of national publicity of police abuse and excessive force," said Elmore. "There's been police reform across the board and the City of Buffalo is no different."

A lot of back and forth in court Wednesday was posturing for exactly what the classes are going to be defined as, and the plaintiffs put an emphasis on not seeking individual damages, but general compensation as well as injunctive action.

Lawyers spearheading the case say they're hoping to implement meaningful change in local policing and can hope to be a case cited in litigation for other communities down the road.

City of Buffalo officials told Spectrum News 1 they do not comment on pending litigation.