AKRON, Ohio — The city announced during a press briefing on Monday it will launch a Citizens Review Board and reinstate its Reimagining Public Safety Committee. Akron officials also are looking into outfitting police cars with dash-cams.
“The board will provide an independent community voice to the mayor, city council and also the chief of police in reviewing citizen complaints of the Akron police officers, analyzing public safety patterns and trends related to those complaints, and regularly engaging with the community,” City Council President Margo Sommerville said of the Citizens Review Board.
The press briefings were launched in the wake of the shooting of Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old Black man who in late June led Akron police on a car and foot chase that ended with Walker shot multiple times. A public service for Walker was held July 13 at the Akron Civic Theatre.
Since then, the city has been the scene of civil unrest with protests almost daily as community groups call on Akron officials to make policy changes.
Sommerville said the city’s Reimagining Public Safety Committee will begin meeting again on Monday at noon, with its first topic the Citizens Review Board.
Originally launched in 2020 after protests erupted around the nation over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, the public safety committee’s goal was to create a dialogue with Akron residents about police reform and safety.
In early 2021, the committee released eight recommendations under topics that include accountability and transparency, prevention and personnel, and culture. The city has since implemented some of the changes recommended, including outfitting police with body-worn cameras.
With the public safety committee reinstated, it will now incorporate the Citizens Review Board in its oversight, Sommerville said.
During Monday’s briefing, which will now be held as-needed instead of daily, Mayor Dan Horrigan said over the weekend he met with Summit County Black Elected Officials.
“It was a very open, honest and a frank discussion about a number of issues,” he said.
That discussion included talk of dash cams for police cruisers, said Police Chief Steve Mylett, which both he and the mayor support.
Summit County Black Elected Officials have sent a letter to Governor Mike DeWine to ask for funding assistance as the cameras are costly, he said.
If the system is compatible, dash cams can be synched to work together with the existing body-worn cams, Mylett said.
“I think it will only enhance our ability to tell the public what we're doing, how we're doing it, why we're doing it and, you know, under what circumstances are we doing it,” he said.
Mylett discussed recent social-media activity that led Akron police to forgo wearing their name tags.
People used officers' name tags to research and then publicize their addresses, family information and photos, he said.
“The job has inherent dangers to begin with,” Mylett said. “But what we saw over the last couple of weeks was reprehensible and it needs to stop.”
Following the Walker shooting on June 27 and a press conference that followed in early July regarding the shooting, officers began receiving credible threats, he said, as the FBI warned of two extremist groups who put bounties on officers’ heads.
“So because of that, and because of the safety issues with our officers, I authorized them to remove their name plates temporarily. This isn't in perpetuity,” Mylett said. “It's until I assess through my partners, the federal partners and state and local, that the threats are no longer credible or no longer exist.”
Officers’ badges are imprinted with a number so officers can still be identified and patrol cars also are numbered for identification, he said.
Mylett and Horrigan were asked whether they plan to meet with some of the community groups requesting face time in regard to the Walker shooting.
Misinformation has been circulating regarding a meeting with a community group Mylett said he and Horrigan opted to not attend. Despite rumors, he and Horrigan were not a no-show, he said.
The officials had planned to meet with the group but were advised by the U.S. Justice Department, which is facilitating the meetings, to opt out because the parameters of the meeting changed at the last minute, Mylett said.
What changed was the media was also in attendance. The mayor didn’t directly answer a question whether city officials will attend future meetings with community groups if media is there.
“I will continue to work with them to be able to set those up, to have those really frank and honest discussions,” Horrigan said of the Justice Department. “And we'll leave it back at that.”