Akron's police oversight board gave an update on its work and took questions from city council Monday.
Chair Kemp Boyd, Vice Chair Donzella Anuszkiewicz and member Bob Gippin gave an overview of the Citizens’ Police Oversight Board’s work over the past year, including the hiring of police auditor Anthony Finnell, who also gave remarks during the presentation.
Much of the discussion focused on Finnell’s use-of-force policy recommendations to the police department.
Councilmember Phil Lombardo criticized Finnell's reports that have disagreed with use-of-force investigations already cleared by the police department.
“[A report] just throws gas on the fire for the city,” Lombardo said.
Finnell has only fully disagreed with two reports out of more than 100 he has reviewed, he said, and partially concurred with five.
"I don't see those two as adding flame to the fire,” Finnell said. “They do create that buzz. They do create that concern. But what it also creates is opportunities."
The reviews allow for the community to have a dialogue with the police and city officials about improving policing, he added.
The board is currently reviewing the police department's use-of-force policy and plans to issue recommendations.
Officers won't have to use force if citizens listen to their instructions, Lombardo said.
"I know when it's going to stop – when people start listening,” Lombardo said. "If we have people out there that respect authority and play by the rules, there's no problem."
It’s not always straightforward, especially for Black residents, Finnell said.
"Respectfully, I disagree, it's not just as simple as 'just listen' because sometimes there is a real fear in people's lives that if they get pulled over, that's it,” Finnell said.
One of the notable disagreements is in the case of Dierra Fields, a woman body slammed by an officer during an arrest.
While the original investigation found the takedown to be objectively reasonable, Finnell disagreed.
After Akron Police Chief Brian Harding responded to Finnell’s report stating he disagreed with Finnell, several Akron groups and citizens called for Harding’s resignation.
Board members also detailed some challenges they've faced, including disagreements with some on council about the extent of the board's authority.
Last year, the board went before council several times asking to approve its rules.
“It's not to say that we don't still have issues that we need to deal with and will probably always be dealing with, but I think we got through our growing pains surprisingly well,” Gippin told council Monday.
The board is particularly proud of hiring Finnell, as well as a deputy auditor, Keysha Myers, to conduct reviews of citizen complaints and use-of-force investigations.
The board has also submitted recommendations to the mayor and police union about the new contract, which is under negotiation.
The main recommendation, Gippin said, is for arbitration to no longer be an option in cases when an officer is fired for uses of force or citizen complaints.
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, Gippin told Ideastream Public Media.
An arbitrator is an appointed lawyer unaffiliated with the city or police department.
The CPOB wants the mayor to have the final say.
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 and is currently in arbitration, Gippin said.
Another key recommendation is to allow the police chief to reassign officers when there is a vacancy in a shift or a district, Gippin added.
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.
