Akron’s Citizens’ Police Oversight Board on Wednesday evening reviewed four use-of-force incidents and one complaint involving the Akron Police Department, with the board — including three new members — voting to approve Police Auditor Anthony Finnell’s recommendations.Â
Finnell’s reviews determined the tactics utilized in three of the incidents were within the bounds of the police department’s policies, but he stated the actions of the police officers involved in two of the cases violated policies and warrant review.
In both of those cases, Akron officers punched suspects multiple times in the head while detaining them.
A minor, whose name is redacted from the report, was walking in late March with his jacket hood up and one hand in his jacket pocket — the other holding his cell phone. Officers thought he may have been armed, according to Finnell’s report, a suspicion exacerbated by the teen fleeing officers as they approached on foot after exiting their unmarked patrol vehicle.
“Placing one’s hands in their pockets and wearing a hood can be reasonably interpreted as efforts to keep warm on a day when the mean temperature was 42 degrees Fahrenheit,” Finnell’s report stated.
Finnel found the actions of the officers, specifically three punches thrown by Detective Jeffrey Woolley while the teen was detained by two other officers, as not reasonable.
“Body-worn footage and interviews confirm the juvenile’s hands were restrained or pinned, raising questions about his ability to comply,” the report stated. “Head strikes under these conditions are inconsistent with constitutional standards and APD policy.”
In this case, Finnell recommended the police department ban head strikes on juveniles “unless there is a clear and immediate threat of deadly force,” enhance training for officer interactions with juveniles and mandate early body-worn camera activation.
He recommended the police department change the official designation of Woolley’s actions from objectively reasonable to not objectively reasonable and seek disciplinary actions against him.
Five punches to the face and three knee strikes
On Feb. 3, two officers spotted a man yelling and flailing his arms in traffic. The suspect swore at them, refused to provide his identification and attempted to walk away.
The officers took the man down; a struggle ensued. While attempting to handcuff the man, an officer identified in the report grabbed the man’s hair and punched him in the face five times. A second officer delivered three knee strikes to the man’s body before deploying his Taser twice.
“Each of those punches had the potential to cause serious injury and head trauma,” Finnell’s report stated.
Finnell recommended that the police department update its findings in the case to not objectively reasonable and take disciplinary actions. He also recommended Akron police amend its use-of-force policy to limit strikes to the head and clarify procedures around the department’s behavioral crisis response.
Finnell reviews three other cases
Other cases reviewed by Finnell included:
Officers conducting a traffic stop discovered a driver had warrants and a suspended license. The driver allegedly ignored verbal commands and returned to her vehicle. She was removed, handcuffed and later refused medical treatment before being transported to jail.Â
Finnell found no issues with the officers’ use of force but did take issue with their failure to fasten the woman’s seatbelt before transporting her. A supervisor who responded to the scene was aware that she was not secured in the back of the patrol vehicle and told officers to drive slowly and safely — which still violates department policy, as there are no exceptions to the seat belt requirement.
-In another traffic stop case, officers threw punches to the head of a driver while attempting to detain him. Finnell didn’t object to this use of force because the report stated the suspect was attempting to place his vehicle in drive and flee while officers were inside of the car. Finnell noted this posed serious danger to the officers, and the punches weren’t as dangerous because the driver was sitting in his vehicle and not pinned to the ground.
But he did make one comment: “Those punches weren’t effective,” Finnell said Wednesday evening.
–In a complaint filed with the police auditor’s office, a woman who was arrested and whose vehicle was towed alleged that personal property was missing from her vehicle. When she was initially stopped, APD’s system showed her license was suspended. This proved to be erroneous; her license had been reinstated in another county, but the system had not been updated.
She alleged that officers did not allow her to contact someone to recover her vehicle and avoid towing costs, which officers at the scene said is discretionary. Finnell said the towing of the vehicle was part of departmental policy based on the type of suspension that showed up in the system.
Finnell found her complaint to be unsubstantiated, not unfounded, meaning there isn’t enough evidence to prove her allegations.
Anuszkiewicz asks new board member to explain public commentsÂ
Toward the end of the meeting, board Vice Chair Donzella Anuszkiewicz started a dialogue with new board member Duane Crabbs about public comments he made recently during an Akron City Council Public Safety Committee meeting, giving him an opportunity to address them after she said she received numerous calls from the community voicing concern.Â
“I want to give you the chance here to explain what you meant,” Anuszkiewicz said to Crabbs. “Because to them, it sounded a little bit like whataboutism.”
Chair Kemp Boyd initially hesitated to allow the conversation, but Crabbs said he was more than happy to address her concerns.
At the heart of the issue were comments Crabbs made that seemed to downplay the frequency of fatal police violence when compared to the frequency of deadly violence in the community. On Wednesday, he said his background as a first responder gives him a unique perspective on death.
“I’ve done CPR on a dozen young men who’ve been killed, and so, death is death,” Crabbs said. “When there’s 30 deaths to every one that happens with the police, I want all 31 to stop.”
He said that, just as police departments must break down the “thin blue line” to hold officers accountable and reform, the community must break down the “no snitch rule” to curtail violence.
“To imply that we’re only concerned about police when there’s evidence that in communities where there is more violence, the police tend to react more violently,” Crabbs said. “There’s a correlation between those two.”
