AKRON, Ohio – Twelve police officers will join the ranks of the Akron Police Department in a move intended to reduce gun violence in the city and increase police engagement with the community.

What You Need To Know

  • The Akron Police Department will hire 12 police officers in a move intended to reduce gun violence in the city and increase police engagement with the community

  • The new hires will be paid for through a nearly $4 million federal 2020 Community Oriented Policing Hiring Program over three years

  • Homicides, gun violence and firearms-related incidents have spiked in Akron in 2020

  • In May, 45 cadets graduated from the first Akron Police Academy since the city ended its training program in 2008

A nearly $4 million federal 2020 Community Oriented Policing Hiring Program will pay for the new hires over three years, the city announced Monday.

“As we mark a recent, single-year high in the number of homicides, we are redoubling our efforts to keep our neighborhoods safe and interrupt the cycle of violence,” said Mayor Dan Horrigan in a news release.

While a dozen recruits will be hired, current officers will be able to vie for the new positons, which include:
• Five officers for the Neighborhood Response Team
• Two officers for the Gun Violence Reduction Team
• Two officers in the Community Relations office
• Three officers deputized by the FBI for the Safe Streets Program

With the additional officers, Neighborhood Response Team members will spend at least a quarter of their day walking, riding bicycles and talking to community members, Horrigan said in the release.

Throughout the year, gun violence and other crimes have been on the rise in Akron, as in many cities around the nation. Summer was particularly deadly in Akron, with two teenagers and several children killed between May and August.

In total, Akron reported 44 murders so far this year, up from 33 in 2019 and 32 in 2018, according to the department’s crime dashboard. 

Firearms-related incidents are also up by 71 percent this year, with 767 reported so far in 2020, compared to 448 in 2019, according to the police department. Akron police have recovered 867 weapons, which is 25 percent more than the 692 weapons recovered in 2019. 

The increased gun violence is due, in part, to COVID-19-related policies early in the pandemic that restricted jail capacity to protect the health of inmates.

In August, the Akron police posted a response on its Facebook page.

“Many offenders arrested for weapons offenses are immediately released with a summons —which is essentially a ‘ticket’ to appear in court in the future,” the department wrote. “Leaving offenders with only a summons for a weapons offense is not an effective deterrent to gun violence, nor does it justify the risk to officer safety inherent in the arrest process.”

Since then, some of those challenges have been addressed, said Lt. Michael Miller. Police are now able to jail more criminals charged with weapons offenses if they have prior felony convictions, he said.

With the new hires in place, Akron’s Gun Violence Reduction Team will focus on hot spots notorious for gun-related crime, the city said. The department also plans to use data to track down and eliminate illegal weapons to help reduce gun violence in neighborhoods.

The hiring spree comes on the heels of the graduation last spring of 45 cadets from the first Akron Police Academy since the city ended the training program in 2008. Akron was forced to close its academy because of lack of funding during the Great Recession. Prior to reopening the academy, new recruits had been sent to other academies around the state to train.

The officers trained through the winter as the pandemic was taking hold, and graduated into a community on lock-down.