Akron plans to adopt sweeping changes to its police use of force policies and training, proposed by the Police Executive Research Forum, according to Mayor Shammas Malik.
鈥淥ur commitment is to work towards the implementation of every single one of these recommendations,鈥� Malik said during a Thursday press conference. 鈥淭here are some that we can do solely from an administrative or executive perspective. There are some that we will work with city council, that may have budgetary impacts.鈥�
The city also with the full report and updates on completing the 58 recommendations. According to the site, 18 recommendations have been completed already, including moving its use of force policies into one section and adding a statement in that section 鈥渨hich incorporates the principles of sanctity of life.鈥�
Akron hired the in September and paid $328,873 for the list of recommendations.
During interviews with officers and community members, the report鈥檚 authors heard repeated references to a landmark Supreme Court case 鈥� Graham v. Connor.
鈥淥fficers at every rank told us, in one form or another, that they wanted their actions evaluated under Graham鈥檚 鈥榦bjective reasonableness鈥� standard and hoped PERF would offer no recommendations that deviated from that framework,鈥� they wrote.
Under Graham, a unanimous 1989 ruling, an allegation of excessive force against an officer should be evaluated by whether a 鈥渞easonable鈥� officer would have acted the same way, not based on the motivations of the officer or whether force could have been avoided in hindsight.
鈥淚n PERF鈥檚 extensive experience conducting hundreds of management studies, it is rare for personnel to spontaneously reference Graham at all, much less for it to arise unprompted in every interview.鈥�
The new policies seek to go beyond that legal precedent, said Malik.
鈥淚t can be a floor for expectations, but it need not be a ceiling,鈥� said Malik. 鈥淩eally, a reflection that from each single situation we can learn something and we can continue to improve.鈥�
The report鈥檚 recommendations fall into five categories:
- Modernizing Use of Force Policies: This category includes the addition of 鈥渟anctity of life鈥� in the policy statement. Several recommendations on the department鈥檚 Taser policies were previously recommended by the city鈥檚 independent police auditor. The report also recommends banning head strikes as a way to force compliance, which is one of the completed recommendations, along with limiting the use of chemical sprays to crowd control. This section also recommends strengthening body worn camera policies.
- Strengthening Transparency and Public Accountability: This section recommended the public dashboard, now online, and consideration of an extended lookback for body worn cameras. Officer cameras are constantly capturing video while they鈥檙e on and, when activated by the officer, 30 seconds of video, without audio, is included in the video recorded from that point. The report recommends following other departments, which have up to two minutes of lookback.
- Improving Investigations, Oversight and Critical Incident Review: This section includes a recommendation to create a Critical Incident Review Board, which would expand the department鈥檚 shooting review board to review and identify training, policy, equipment and supervision improvements following a wider range of incidents. Several changes to the department鈥檚 disciplinary investigations process were also recommended.
- Building an Organizational Mindset of Training, Judgement, & De-Escalation: Recommendations include a 鈥渄uty-to-intervene鈥� policy, requiring officers to act if they witness misconduct by other officers and protections against retaliation. A policy would also require supervisor response on the scene after a critical incident and recognition for officers who use deescalation.
- Enhancing Safety, Medical Response, & Organizational Capacity: Recommendations include policies to prevent deaths caused by restraints; coordination between police and EMS; improvements to police headquarters and civilian replacements for some jobs in the police department, freeing up uniformed officers for tasks that require a police response.
Malik says the department plans to put policies and training in place for as many recommendations as possible by the end of the year, but some will require agreements with city council or the union and may take longer.
