The city of Akron has move up the deadline for completing deadly police use of force investigations. The head of the Citizens Police Oversight Board hopes that means a door is open for bigger changes in the next contract.
In a memorandum of understanding signed March 13 and released this week, the union and city agreed to 110-day deadlines for disciplinary investigations, including in deadly use-of-force cases.
Under the contract ratified last year and running through 2027, the deadline was 120 days. The amendment allows for a 45-day extension in disciplinary cases that do not include deadly use of force if the chief of police “becomes of aware of new allegations or information” that could lead to administrative charges.
A dispute between the city and police union over a written reprimand issued by the city led to the negotiation, according to the MOU. There is now a 180-day time limit for written reprimands, which are generally given for minor policy violations.
“These updates highlight that there is common ground to be found even on challenging issues,” said Chief of Public Safety Craig Morgan. “We’re happy to come to the table to make changes that will benefit our officers and our community. These small updates make our discipline process more uniform and will lead to greater clarity for our community about the timeline of discipline.”
The city consulted with Akron Independent Police Auditor Anthony Finnell before making the changes, according to Finnell, and he hopes that’s a sign his office will be consulted in the future.
“I think this is a start to moving in that direction because before there was never any consideration or conversation for the oversight process at all,” he said.
Finnell and the Citizens’ Police Oversight Board review disciplinary investigations by the department after they’re completed and make recommendations to the chief of police. Voters created Finnell’s office and the CPOB by charter referendum in 2022.
Finnell said the disciplinary deadline should be closer to a year to allow time for the full process.
“With any department that I've seen, 110 days on a deadly force case or deadly force investigation just doesn't seem right, but we'll see,” he said. “If that's the timeline that everyone's forced to work with, now we're going to have to figure out a way to be more efficient to fall within that timeline and see if that's possible.”
According to Finnell, his office gets an investigation after the department completes it – that takes 30–to-45 days. Then his office gets it and does a review. Any recommendations for the city have to go in front of the board for a vote. That can take up to a month, Finnell said. The city agreed to 45 days to consider those recommendations, which brings the total time right up to 120 days.
“So, we asked for additional time to be built into the contract to account for in these steps in the process,” said Finnell.
He’s hopeful the concerns of Akron’s Citizens’ Police Oversight Board will be considered during the next round of contract negotiations.
“The city's made a commitment that this conversation is not going to end,” said Finnell. “We’re going to continue to work in that direction to get reasonable accommodations within the contract to allow the oversight entities, the board and auditor's office, to be considered in this process.”
