It’s been one month since Akron Police Chief Brian Harding was sworn in as the police department’s top leader.
Harding recently sat down with Ideastream Public Media to talk about impending procedural changes, the ongoing investigation into a mass shooting on the city’s east side and his overall goals for the department.
Department to announce changes to ‘crowd control’ policy soon
Harding will announce changes to the policy for how police respond to large gatherings, such as protest demonstrations, soon, he said.
“We’re looking at additional ones with crowd control, that kind of spells out how we do things and why we do it,” Harding said.
The updated policy is expected to come with the city’s settlement with the Akron Bail Fund on behalf of protesters. Last year, the organization sued the city and police department over the use of chemical irritants during a protest on Copley Road.
That settlement is due to be finalized this week, according to the court docket. Harding declined to answer when the policy change will be announced or what it will entail.
The department’s use-of-force policy may be tweaked as well, he added, as part of the department’s regular yearly evaluation of its procedures.
Investigation into East Akron shooting
Within a week of Harding being officially sworn in as chief, tragedy struck East Akron, he said. An unknown shooter or shooters opened fire into a crowded birthday party just after midnight on June 2, killing one person and wounding 27 others.
“The mass shooting recently is not something you'd like to have happen as a police chief, or anybody, but especially your police chief,” Harding said. “That's been a challenging time for our community.”
The shooting remains under investigation with no suspects identified, despite police using license-plate reading cameras and doorbell camera footage.
The police department installed Flock cameras around the city about two years ago. The cameras read and store license plate numbers and other identifying data. Officers can then input what they know about a suspect vehicle into a database and find where cars matching that description have recently driven.
While the cameras have helped the city solve many stolen vehicle and missing persons cases, they haven’t led to a break in the shooting, Harding said.
“I was hoping [the cameras] would be more beneficial, Harding said. “I mean, in a perfect world you'd get a, a great lead off that, that you can use for that. So, it’s been helpful, but … there's no resolution in the case because the Flock cameras.”
Detectives are “progressing” in the investigation and it remains the department’s number one priority, he added.
Overall goals for the department
Harding’s priorities, he said, are to expand community policing, increase recruitment and retention and curb gun violence.
The hiring process for police chief earlier this year caused some controversy in the community. Mayor Shammas Malik decided to only consider internal candidates due to a state law that he believes only allows for chiefs to be picked through internal promotion.
Some members of the Black community raised concerns about the lack of diversity in the police department, particularly among management ranks, as 11% of the department’s leadership is Black, according to department data.
Harding hopes to eventually promote four deputy chiefs, he said. Additionally, the city is working on a charter amendment that could allow for external hires for the police chief as well as deputy chiefs.
“I think having someone at that level that can really run [department priorities] down every day makes a big difference. That's kind of the goal. I think there's multiple ways to do it,” Harding said. “Currently, it would all be internally. The charter change proposals would be to open that up to a greater pool.”
Though the “vast majority” of residents trust the police, Harding said, there is still work to do when it comes to strengthening police and community relations, he added.
Harding wants to increase “park-and-walks” – where an officer will park their car and walk among the community and talk with residents.
This year, park and walks have already increased compared to the total number last year, he said.
Last year, the department recorded 773 park-and-walks, while this year there have already been 2,705, according to police department data.
Harding added that many people in the community are still healing from the fatal police shooting of Jayland Walker, which happened nearly two years ago on June 27, 2022.
“I think the community is still seeing the effects, the community is still healing. There’s a lot of work to do in that space,” Harding said. “It’s a thing that we realize, we're aware of, and we're going to embrace that. So we will continue to want to work in that regard.”
