The Akron Citizens’ Police Oversight Board hopes to spend $965,870 in 2025, $500,000 more than its 2024 budget.
The board voted unanimously to pass the budget resolution at a special meeting Wednesday evening. Next, members will present the proposal to the city’s finance department, and then it will be put to City Council for final approval.
The half-million-dollar jump includes the hiring of a part-time data analyst, a full-time executive assistant and two part-time interns as well as a few one-time costs — including $120,000 for a database that will allow the auditors to digitize the data from use-of-force reviews.
When the board was assembled in 2023, it was provided with a preliminary budget, which in essence included salaries for positions laid out in the city charter. It also included some necessary costs for operation, said board member Brandyn Costa at Wednesday’s meeting. And last year’s $414,479 budget was a modification of the initial budget.
“What’s important to note is that this year’s budget did not fully capture or track along with the costs for our staff and our employees accurately,” Costa said about 2024.
Is an almost $1 million budget a reasonable request to put before City Council? That was the question on some board members’ minds after Independent Police Auditor Anthony Finnell walked them through the budget.
“I think there’s a true argument that if this board is to really be effective, it needs additional tools and resources,” Costa said. He added that, by investing in tools that can help the auditors identify trends and patterns of behavior in Akron, the city could potentially save money by not consistently paying out settlements related to Akron Police conduct.
City Council has “every good reason” to question the budget, said board member Robert Gippin.
“I think we can expect some really hard questions, and that’s appropriate for them…” Gippin said. “I have enough confidence that we can get this budget, or something like it, approved by council.”
Police oversight board will hire a data analyst to look at trends in Akron
One of the most expensive priorities for Finnell is to tackle the more than 350 use-of-force incidents to review, which currently exist in paper or PDF form. He proposed that the board spend $120,000 on a case management and database system that would allow the auditors to digitize and more easily review the backlog of cases.
Although the setup cost is expensive — the cost could decrease in subsequent years — it is a necessary investment because a typical spreadsheet “just doesn’t cut it,” Finnell told Signal Akron. He has not yet selected a potential system.
This cost also includes purchasing artificial intelligence software that would allow the auditors to address the mountain of body-worn camera footage they must look at as part of the use-of-force reviews, Finnell said. The current process is slow and tedious — the auditors must examine every video, and each incident contains multiple videos varying from a few seconds to three hours in length.
With the new digital systems in tow, Finnell wants to hire a part-time data analyst whose role it would be to research and monitor the patterns and trends in Akron. He also plans to hire two part-time criminal justice interns — high school students from Akron Public Schools — who will assist with data entry and analysis.
“At the end of the day, I want to know if the data relates to what the community is saying, if the data relates to what the police [are] saying, and be able to tell the story that the data tells us,” Finnell told Signal Akron.