Akron must develop new procedures for how police deal with peaceful protests as part of a settlement announced Thursday.
The city will hire an expert to create the new policies and solicit public input, according to the agreement with the Akron Bail Fund.
“The Akron Bail Fund has reached a settlement with the City of Akron that will reform how Akron police treat political protesters,” according to a Thursday news release.
The activist group sued the city in 2023 after Akron police officers used tear gas on dozens of people protesting a grand jury’s decision not to indict the officers who fatally shot Jayland Walker.
Police said they deployed chemical agents after protesters threw water bottles at them, but Ideastream Public Media video shows the opposite.
Cleveland-based law firm Friedman, Gilbert + Gerhardstein represented the Akron Bail Fund. Instead of a financial settlement, the group wanted to focus on reform, said attorney Elizabeth Bonham.
“[The agreement] doesn’t and can’t reform the system of policing that we have that is poisoned, but what it can and does do is serious harm reduction,” Bonham said. “I believe this will prevent future police violence, future police attacks and allow dissent to be protected.”
The new policies must limit police using force on protestors, including lethal weapons, according to the agreement. The procedures must also require police officers to record their responses.
“The City must implement new policies that limit police use of force, ban police from punishing free speech, require police to record their own activities, and prohibit police from cooperating with other jurisdictions as a way to avoid accountability,” officials wrote in the news release.
City officials must hold at least one community forum on the new policies and accept feedback on a draft of the procedures during a public comment period, according to the agreement. Police must also be trained on the new procedure before it takes effect.
Community input will be key, Bonham added.
“My client and activists and others are going to have to keep the pressure up in order to secure the kind of enduring reforms that this contemplates,” Bonham said.
City officials have also agreed to pay $30,000 to cover the plaintiffs’ attorney fees.
City officials and the police department has been planning to update “crowd control” policies for some time, Mayor Shammas Malik said in a statement.
“My administration has previously committed to reviewing police practices and creating a new centralized crowd control policy,” Malik said in the release. “This move is part of a larger commitment to strengthen our procedures to build trust with our community. “
They plan to model Akron's new policy off of the International Association of Chiefs of Police's crowd control policy, "which is widely regarded as best practice nationwide,” Malik added.
The new procedures must be in place by April 2025.
“As we reflect on the recent anniversary of the police murder of Jayland Walker and the state suppression of community dissent that followed — our clients’ message is the same as it was then: Justice for Jayland,” officials said in the release.
The city has been under an injunction prohibiting force against nonviolent protestors, which a court issued in the days following the April 2023 protest. That injunction will continue until the new policies are enacted, according to the press release.
