Citizens' Police Oversight Board

Criminal Justice

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024
6:00 p.m. — 7:30 p.m. EST

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166 S High St, Akron, Ohio 44308 Akron, OH 44308 (Directions)

Akron Municipal Building, City Council Chambers - 3rd floor

The Citizens’ Police Oversight Board provides external and independent overview of Akron policing practices. They also oversee the Office of the Independent Police Auditor (OIPA). The OIPA will consist of 3 full-time employees including an Independent Police Auditor, a Deputy Independent Police Auditor, and an administrative staff member. The Board is made up of 9 Akron residents. Three board members are appointed by the Mayor with approval from City Council. The other 6 are appointed by a 2/3 majority of City Council. No more than two members can be from the same ward.

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Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Akron - OH Documenters Team

Note-taking by LeKesha Parkman

Board discusses ways to boost community engagement

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Live reporting by Wittman Sullivan

Board members focus on community engagement efforts, raise concerns about other municipalities limiting police board oversight

Wittman Sullivan
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 2/21
The 9 member Citizens Police Oversight Board (CPOB) was established in 2022 after issue 10 passed The board and the board appointed Independent Police Auditor, Anthony Finnell, work to review police conduct and provide recommendations with the goal to create accountability
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 3/21
Kemp Boyd (Board Chair) started the meeting started at 6:04 PM with Donzella Anuszkiewicz (Vice Chair), Brandyn Costa, Robert Gippin, Shawn Peoples, Beverly Richards, Ericka Burney-Hawkins, and Crystal Jones Present The previous meeting minutes passed unanimously
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 4/21
Finnell made a document that shows 24 reports, 23 of which the auditor found no issues with the Akron Police Department (APD) conduct and 1 is in progress He said no Akron Public Schools students applied for the intern position but 1 out-of-district student applied
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 5/21
GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE REPORT The governance committee met on Oct. 30th and discussed use of force policies. They also discussed how a community engagement committee's structure and responsibilities according to Gippin He said there will be a committee meeting on November 19th
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 6/21
He said they will present at the November 20th Ward 8 meeting and the November 25th Akron City Council Public Safety Committee meeting at 2:15 pm to discuss the annual report akroncitycouncil.org/committee-meet…
akroncitycouncil.org/committee-meet…
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 7/21
Jones said she is considering co-chairing the community engagement committee with Castle for personal reasons. She said she wants to committee to focus on educating residents about the board and collecting community feedback about use of force
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 8/21
Boyd said Castle agreed to co-chair the committee
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 9/21
Costa asked how police use of force reviews will interact with community engagement about use of force Gippin said community engagement will influence board positions about policies that will be recommended to city administration
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 10/21
BUDGET AND FINANCE COMMITTEE REPORT Costa said there is $165,000 left for this year's budget most of which is for labor. He said there won't be a large carryover as seen in previous years and there might be a $13,000 deficit that will require additional funding
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 11/21
Costa said there are $20,000 that were not used for community engagement that will be used to fill deficits or carryover to the next year
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 12/21
Boyd thanked board members and staff for their time and effort on the board and Gippin for his work with the Community Engagement Committee
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 13/21
Anuszkiewicz said she attended a conference recently At this conference there was a discussion about a Critical Care Response Team created in Phoenix Arizona in response to police discrimination against disabled and homeless people phoenix.gov/police/crisis-…
phoenix.gov/police/crisis-…
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 14/21
She said a CPOB in New York monitors officer language and can go as far as to recommend prosecution and discipline of officers She said the charter must be amended to give the Akron CPOB more power beyond recommendations
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 15/21
She said officers practice how they are trained Younger officers were trained for use of force only using homeless people and people of color. This practice was later reviewed and changed by the New York CPOB
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 16/21
Gippin said he agrees but doesn't see a charter amendment as a priority He said his takeaway from the conference is that community engagement is important
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 17/21
States are limiting CPOB power according to Gippin Gippin said the Ohio CPOBs need to collaborate to protect oversight powers komu.com/news/midmissou…
komu.com/news/midmissou…
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 18/21
Anuszkiewicz said officer badge numbers change when they are promoted. This makes it difficult to track incidents involving an officer as they ride the ranks. . Electronic case management (like proposed by Finnell) would help to counter that issue owlbadges.com/police-badge-n…
owlbadges.com/police-badge-n…
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 19/21
Anuszkiewicz suggested doing "board swaps" with the Cleveland CPOB where the boards would occasionally attend each others meetings and help learn from eachother clevelandohio.gov/city-hall/depa…
clevelandohio.gov/city-hall/depa…
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 20/21
The meeting ended at 6:55 pm. the next CPOB meeting will be December 18th at 6:00 pm at Akron City Hall (166 S. High Street). For more coverage check out Akron.documenters.org
Akron.documenters.org
Wittman Sullivan @WittmanSullivan 21/21
Have a question? think we got something wrong? Send any questions about this meeting or these tweets to documenters@signalakron.org
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