Akron’s Citizens' Police Oversight Board has issued recommendations for the city’s new contract with the police union, including removing the option for officers to appeal being fired over repeated uses of force.
In a meeting Wednesday, board members unanimously approved the board's suggestions.
The board, which was created through a citizen-led charter amendment passed in 2022, has the authority to make recommendations to the mayor and council ahead of contract negotiations.
The recommendations tweak the language of certain provisions and add new provisions altogether.
Under the current collective bargaining agreement, if the mayor terminates an officer, the union can appeal and go into arbitration, which often results in the officer being reinstated, said board member Bob Gippin, chair of the board's governance committee and led the charge in writing the resolution.
An arbitrator is an appointed lawyer unaffiliated with the city or police department.
“The decision to terminate an officer for a use-of-force violation, particularly — that should be made by the mayor, an elected official. Not an anonymous lawyer,” Gippin said.
Akron officials, including Mayor Shammas Malik, will soon enter negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #7 over its collective bargaining agreement, which expires at the end of 2024. The agreement governs police department operations, including promotions, investigations and discipline for union members.
The Citizens' Police Oversight Board wants to remove the right to arbitration after termination in certain instances.
“Where it’s use of force and even citizen complaints, we think the mayor should have the final say on it,” Gippin said.
A notable termination appeal happened in the case of former Officer Ryan Westlake, who was fired by former Mayor Dan Horrigan in 2021 after he was disciplined several times, including for an off-duty incident where he “muzzled” his girlfriend with a gun, according to Westlake’s personnel file.
Westlake appealed his termination and was reinstated after arbitration. Three years later, he was fired by Mayor Shammas Malik after several use of force incidents. A month before he was terminated, he shot and wounded a Black teenager who was holding a fake gun, but that was not factored into his termination, according to city officials.
Westlake appealed that as well.
Removing arbitration from the process will ultimately help rebuild trust in the police department, Gippin said.
“If in the end, the mayor makes the decision — as should be, alright? He’s elected to run the city, right? — that’s going to benefit the FOP in the long run, if their bad actors stay terminated and don’t get reinstated by some arbitrator,” Gippin said.
Arbitrators are often reappointed for future cases, which means there might be an incentive for them to side with the police officer rather than the mayor, Gippin added.
“A lot of people do [arbitration] full-time and depend on being reappointed, so that’s just not a consideration that ought to be in those sorts of situations,” Gippin said.
Another suggestion is to allow the police chief to reassign officers when there is a vacancy in a shift or a district.
Currently, reassignments are done in a bidding process, where more senior officers often bid out of “less desirable” shifts, such as overnights or in higher-crime areas, Gippin said. That means less experienced officers may be the ones consistently responding to potentially higher-risk incidents, he said.
“The positions that, quite possibly, are the ones in which you want, at least some more experienced officers, are being filled by people with the least experience," he said, "and honestly, I think everybody understands that that produces consequences."
The board’s suggestion would give the chief the power to make those decisions, as long as he or she gives a “stated reason,” rather than leaving it up to bidding.
Another recommendation is to prohibit officers and their legal representatives from viewing or accessing body camera video before making a statement in investigations. In the current collective bargaining agreement, officers cannot be ordered to give a statement until they “are afforded the opportunity to view the video(s) first."
The board is also recommending its own powers, as well as the powers of the police auditor, to conduct investigations and make reports and recommendations be included in the agreement, according to the resolution.
Also included is a recommendation to add national origin, ancestry, disability, marital status, familial status and gender as identities that neither the city nor the FOP will discriminate against, according to the resolution.
The resolution does not guarantee that the city and police union leaders will include the suggestions in the next contract, Gippin said.
The board will submit its recommendations to the mayor’s office. The city will begin negotiations in the coming months.
Police auditor addresses officer training concern
Police auditor Anthony Finnell brought forth a concern Wednesday that two police officers left guns unattended while responding to a traffic stop earlier this year.
Finnell discovered the concern while reviewing footage for a use-of-force investigation.
The incident happened in January when officers initiated a traffic stop on Maple Street, according to Finnell’s report. They found handguns and ammunition in the car, which they placed on the hood of a police vehicle, and arrested the driver.
Then, officers used force to remove a passenger from the vehicle, who had an outstanding warrant and refused to get out of the car.
However, while they were pulling him out, both officers who were dealing with the driver in another police car went to assist them — leaving the guns completely unattended in front of a suspect, Finnell said.
That is a safety and training concern, he said.
"I think it's different if I think something should have been done one way, they did something another way," Finnell explained. "I don't think that's necessarily wrong on either part, but in this instance, it just jumped out at me as an officer safety issue. And I could not not present it."
Finnell recommends an APD supervisor review the bodycam with the unnamed officers “and use it as a reminder to not leave weapons, whether their own or potential evidence unsecure at any time,” according to the report.
Finnell redacted the names of the officers from the report “since the recommendation could be classified as a training or mentoring issue and does not involve allegations of officer misconduct,” he said.
Finnell also brought a concern to the board about use of force against juveniles. The concern stems from a use of force incident from May, when police were called to a home due to behavioral health issues, according to Finnell's report. Police had been called to this home several times before. On this day, the juvenile became violent with officers, and while they tried to restrain her, she bit an officer's leg. He punched the side of her head three times before she released the bite. Finnell found this force objectively reasonable.
"The issue I have is the continuing issue with the use of force policy," Finnell said. "I found that the use of force policy does not address uses of force against juveniles."
Finnell is recommending he, the CPOB and the police department work together to review and amend the resisting arrest/use of force policy as needed, according to his report. He's also recommending dispatch add a note to the address of the incident to send a Crisis Intervention Team officer if available.
The board voted to accept both of Finnell’s reports.
