Tim Barfield states in articles and interviews on police advocacy websites that officers should use deadly force without hesitation, that Black Lives Matter activists are terrorists and that Black people have “broken values” and a “victim mentality” couched in claims of discrimination.
Barfield, the former Wellington police chief who is described as a “police survival mindset” trainer, publicly lambasted those critical of the officers who killed George Floyd.
If the police wanted to ‘kill’ blacks all they would have to do is get out of the way”
Tim Barfield, Law Officer, July 2016
He has been paid thousands of Akron taxpayer dollars over the last 13 months to work as a police consultant and expert witness who helps to defend federal lawsuits against the Akron Police Department.
Barfield rose to prominence in pro-police circles as a use-of-force trainer, as well as through his writings on the Law Officer and Police1 websites. There, he describes officers as warriors who use violence in a battle of good vs. evil and argues police don’t discriminate against Black men because Black men commit crimes at rates “almost without comprehension.”
The life of a police officer is more important than a criminal when a difficult decision in a critical incident needs to be made.”
Tim Barfield, Police1, Feb. 2016
Barfield’s work helping to defend lawsuits against the city comes at the same time Akron Mayor Shammas Malik has made repeated public pledges to address systemic issues within the Akron Police Department amid high-profile killings and other incidents of force used on Black residents.
The lawsuits include allegations of unconstitutional force on three Black men, a class-action federal lawsuit filed by more than two dozen people who were unconstitutionally arrested during the Jayland Walker protests, and another federal lawsuit alleging unconstitutional policing tactics during those protests.
Malik said he was unaware of who Barfield was and didn’t know his law department had been hiring him until Signal Akron sought comment for this story on Jan. 3. Malik said that he has since reviewed Barfield’s writings and that the law department’s policing expert won’t be hired by his administration again.
“I find the comments to be racist, I find them to be abhorrent, I think they don’t represent the values of this administration or the values of this city,” Malik said. “We’re not going to engage with him any further.”
Malik said he appreciated being made aware of Barfield’s writings and his work for the city.
“I want to know this, these are the kinds of things we want to get out on the table,” he said. “Similar to the use-of-force review that we’re going to do, I think we can take a really hard look at the vetting that occurs for expert witnesses and the process entirely when it comes to the defense of these kinds of lawsuits about use of force. … Every system has room to improve, and I think this is a pretty good example. (On) Friday afternoon we got some information, and here we are Monday trying to address it.”
Barfield says he helps judges and juries understand officers’ mindsets
A longtime officer, sergeant and lieutenant in the Maple Heights Police Department, Barfield became chief in Lorain County’s Wellington in 2014. He retired in 2023 and now travels the country training police officers and speaking at conferences for them. He is a prominent member of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association.
Barfield told Signal Akron that the City of Akron hires him to help judges and potential juries understand the mindset of police officers. He said it’s because people don’t understand what they have to go through. He emphasized the Graham v. Connor standard, which allows officers to avoid liability if their actions could be deemed objectively reasonable in the moment, regardless of how an incident is viewed after it happened.
Videos don’t capture the fear that officers have in moments when they use force on people, he said, and he is hired to explain “the pretty complex process dealing with the brain and how it makes decisions and how we see things.”
Like in his posts online, Barfield said during an interview if police officers arrest and use force disproportionately on Black people, it’s because “Blacks commit more crimes than whites” and are disproportionately violent toward police officers.
I am not saying that there is no racism (individually) but America is the least racist country in the world today. That can be proven but it does not matter because the media tries its hardest to keep the lie alive.”
Tim Barfield, Law Officer, March 2016
Signal Akron asked Barfield if officers should approach interactions with a Black person as if they are more of a threat than a white person. He likened it to being nervous around “the same bully beating you up every day.”
“Those kinds of biases build up in individual peoples’ minds when you’re more cautious about one group than others,” he said about Black men. “I can only deal with statistics.… Seven percent of the population commit 50% of the murders in our country.”
Barfield said he was unaware of Malik’s public calls for police reforms but lamented that “politics have entered use of force” in the last decade. “You have people saying things out of emotion that don’t have understanding about what happened. They’re making decisions about that stuff and saying things because they have a political slant” and “don’t know what they’re talking about.… Just because it looks bad doesn’t mean it’s bad.”
Barfield’s work in defense of Akron police officers
The first contract hiring Barfield was signed by Eve Belfance, the law director in Mayor Dan Horrigan’s administration. The other four were signed in 2024 by Deborah Matz, the law director hired by Malik last January.
Copies of the law department contracts and invoices obtained by Signal Akron document that the city has paid Barfield at least $13,500 for work as an expert witness and as a consultant on retainer as the city has defended Akron police in at least five federal lawsuits since December 2023.
Barfield was paid by the CIty of Akron for the following cases:
- $4,900 for an “expert report” in the lawsuit filed by Charles Hicks. Akron police officers pinned Hicks to the ground and shoved snow in his mouth and nose. That lawsuit was dismissed earlier this year by a judge because Hicks pleaded guilty to charges connected to the incident in Akron Municipal Court.
- $2,500 to be on “retainer” for the lawsuit filed by 24 protesters and bystanders who alleged they were illegally arrested by Akron police officers during the Jayland Walker protests in 2022. The city settled that lawsuit for $747,000 earlier this year.
- $2,500 to be on “retainer” for the lawsuit filed by the Akron Bail Fund, which alleged unconstitutional tactics by the APD during the Jayland Walker protests.
- $3,600 for a “written” and “verbal” opinion for a lawsuit filed by Ladamien Malone, whose lawyers allege he was “gang tackled and attacked” by officers without provocation, causing permanent head injuries. That lawsuit is ongoing.
- An unknown amount to help defend against accusations filed by Jordan Ely, who was punched and forcefully arrested by Akron police officers. Ely’s federal lawsuit was settled for $15,000 last month. An invoice for Barfield was not included in the public records request.
City attorneys used Barfield as recently as October, with federal court records indicating he filed an “expert report” as part of the defense of officers in the Malone lawsuit.
The problems in the black community are values problems and not racial problems.”
Tim Barfield, Law Officer, Jan. 2018
Email leaks outside of the Akron law department
Others within the city administration are working behind the scenes to support Barfield.
An email Signal Akron sent to Malik’s spokesperson on Friday afternoon that detailed a general overview of this story was forwarded to city attorneys. From there, the email was sent to former APD Detective Kevin Davis, who describes himself, like Barfield, as an expert who is frequently hired to defend officers who use force. Malik said “it appears that someone in the law department let Kevin Davis know” about Signal Akron’s story.
Davis sent Signal Akron an unsolicited 1,118-word email on Saturday in defense of Barfield.
In a phone interview on Monday, Davis wouldn’t say who from the city sent him Signal Akron’s email and again attacked the idea that Barfield’s statements should be scrutinized.
“Mr. Barfield was hired by the City of Akron to competently defend them, and I think that you’re going off on the wrong track here instead of looking at the actual problems involved,” he said.
“This reporting leads to the misperception that there is racism in policing or that somehow the City of Akron police department is defended by a racist.”
Barfield use-of-force interviews in local media
Barfield has been presented as a force expert in news stories about high-profile incidents in Northeast Ohio. He defended the APD’s 2022 killing of Jayland Walker, telling WOIO that police must have believed they were under attack from Walker and telling the Akron Beacon Journal that body-worn camera footage “can’t capture the fear” felt by officers and that fear is enough to justify force.
In a 2017 traffic stop of a Black driver named Robert Hubbard that made national news, Euclid Police Officer Michael Amiott was recorded on his body-worn camera ordering the man out of his car. He then wrestled him to the ground within seconds and repeatedly punched the man in the head and face as he was pinned on the ground before arresting him for resisting arrest and driving on a suspended license.
News 5 Cleveland brought Barfield on to “give the officer’s point of view on the Euclid traffic stop that turned violent.”
Barfield told the reporter that the repeated punches to the man’s head were justified because he didn’t comply. Hubbard’s attorney said he was never given a chance to comply; CNN reported that dashcam and bystander videos disputed the claim of noncompliance.
Amiott was eventually fired, reinstated by an arbitrator, criminally charged for assault and convicted (Kevin Davis, the retired APD detective who contacted Signal Akron, testified in Amiott’s defense. His conviction was overturned for procedural reasons). Euclid was sued and settled with Hubbard for $450,000.
In a 2021 post on Law Officer after the city settled with the driver and after the officer was reinstated to the force (but before he was charged criminally), Barfield railed against the “cowardly leaders” who punish officers like Amiott.
Barfield wrote that after the News 5 Cleveland story aired, Amiott called to thank him for “standing up for him” and police officers. Barfield blamed the media for pressuring Euclid police to fire the officer and called department leaders cowards when they did. Stories about the incident, he said, should report on the injuries the officers received.
“Nowhere in the story does it mention that he was injured during the incident to include a ruptured tendon in his hand, a broken finger, and four pulled muscles in his shoulder along with months of physical therapy that he had to work through,” he said.
During the officer’s criminal assault trial nine months later, Amiott testified that he injured his shoulder and hand when another officer struck him with a Taser intended to hit only the motorist.
