1,000 illegal guns recovered and 130,000 calls answered yearly by Akron police, chief says

Akron police chief shares info, answers residents questions

• Akron Police Chief Brian Harding said he’s been with APD since 1995, working with juvenile victims, 911 dispatch and the detectives bureau before being named chief in May of 2024.
• There are 423 paid officers on the force with about 20 on leave at any time, Harding said. The budget allows for 488 officers to staff four daily 10-hour patrol shifts.
• APD responds to 128,000 calls for service each year. Less than a quarter of 1 percent of calls involve uses of force, Hardings said. APD receives 28 to 40 formal complaints from residents annually. He said this doesn’t include complaints like “Why did you arrest me? I’m innocent.”
• He said APD has one of the best academies in Ohio. It puts officers through more than 1,000 hours of training compared to the state minimum of 740 hours.

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APD staffing issues remain, with recruitment dipping

• Recruitment is down, Harding said, with only 500 signing up annually. Of that number, only 130 will pass a basic medical exam and basic physical training.
• Currently, 25 percent of officers are eligible to retire after their 25 years of service and must retire when they hit 33 years of service due to how pensions work.
• Two years ago, APD lost 18 officers to lateral transfers (moving from one agency to another), so they opened up lateral transfers in APD. 
• He said APD will be hiring for the foreseeable future. Anybody interested in being an officer must be 20.5 years old to apply for the academy.
• The Citizen Police Academy is open to all residents and includes a police ride-along. 
• APD is working to build community trust, Harding said, with park, walk and talk practices going from 1,700 annually to 6,000 annually recently. This program is where officers walk around businesses, streets and parks to connect with residents and talk about issues or do things like play basketball with kids. The community engagement team goes to 550 annual events, and residents can invite the police to those events as well.  

1,000 illegal guns recovered annually in Akron

• The department recovers 1,000 illegal guns annually, Harding said, which is more than when he joined in 1995. He said there is an increasing number of long guns.
• He said the department created a crime gun intelligence unit in collaboration with the University of Akron and the federal Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) agency. This is where they use things like fire pin imprints to link shell casings to specific guns and link crimes together. Last year, the group helped to prosecute 40 federal gun cases and arrested 30 people through an ATF illegal gun sting.
• Call 911 if you hear shots fired, Harding told residents.
• Officers are now trained more in first aid like combat medics, he said. They can perform CPR and apply tourniquets.
• Despite concerns about using Flock camera license plate readers, Harding said the cameras have helped to solve multiple homicides.
• APD is also implementing first responder drones that can follow suspects with infrared cameras and clear calls before officers arrive.  
• The chief said police body cameras have shed some light on police accountability but miss some details in complex mental health and family affairs calls. 

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Questions and answers with APD Chief Brian Harding

Harding opened the meeting up and answered several questions from the audience:

• Q: Has Akron Mayor Shammas Malik gone on a ride-along? Harding said he knows of one Malik has done but he may have done more and wants to do another.
• Q: Which neighborhood has the most crime? Summit Lake, West Akron and East Akron are hotspots, according to the chief. Data is available about specific neighborhood crime on the APD website. 
• Q: Why it is hard to solve the Kelly Avenue shooting? (Editor’s note: This was a reference to the June 2024 mass shooting in East Akron where 28 people were shot, including one fatally.) In large group shootings like the one on Kelly Avenue, Harding said, a person will shoot initially and then somebody will shoot at the first person in self-defense, and then another person will shoot and it repeats, which makes it difficult to determine the actual perpetrator(s). 
• Q: What percentage of recovered weapons are obtained illegally? These guns are not usually black market guns, but an ineligible gun owner will pay an eligible gun owner to buy them a gun, he said.
• Q: What can be done about speeding in neighborhoods? APD uses speed trailers to track speeding based on complaints, Harding said. A community member added that they think speed signs are “a waste of money.”

Residents ask about safety at Lock 3, recent shootings

• Q: One resident wanted to know why there was a helicopter circling her home on Friday, June 19. APD does not own a helicopter but rented a helicopter for crime gun work Friday from the Ohio State Highway Patrol. 
• Q: Are teens destroying Lock 3? Teen gatherings are hard to deal with because police have to balance enforcing behavior without preventing teens from lawfully gathering in an area. He said street ATV takeovers have decreased, and a downtown teen takeover resulted in multiple arrests. 
• Q: Are recent shootings into homes random or targeted and can people protect themselves? These are targeted events, he said, but sometimes the shooters get the house wrong. He suggested residents buy cameras, including doorbell cameras. 
• Q: A community member asked about a recent Fraternal Order of Police Facebook post that At-Large Council Member Eric Garrett called “completely racist.” Harding said APD has a strong social media policy but he does not want to comment on the union’s social media. 

Akron police encounter 3-D printed gun switches

• Q: How do officers deal with the concealed carry law? Every officer assumes every driver is armed, Harding said.
• Q: Does APD recover 3D-printed guns? These types of guns are not often found, but officers do come across 3D-printed Glock switches that turn Glocks into automatic weapons.
• Q: How many new recruits will there be? Harding said 30 people will graduate from the police academy and 35 will retire this year. 
• Q: How many women apply to be APD officers? In 2023, APD had a record number of women, with 12 of 35 cadets being women, Harding said.

Twenty five officers assigned to overnight shifts

APD Captain Forrest Kappler said he runs the department from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., and his wife is a third-generation North High School graduate. He lives in West Akron.

He told the audience:

• The minimum night-shift staffing is 25 officers in 12 cars and a police van. In short-staffing scenarios, they’ll start the shift with 39 calls for service and not catch up until 3:30 a.m. 
• Minimum staffing with a short staff is challenging because time off is usually denied, meaning families suffer. Kappler said he has not seen fireworks with his kids yet.
• Officers like those responding to the recent Highland Square shooting went against their human instinct and ran into gunfire. He said it takes a “special person to run into that line of fire.”
• Kammer works and cares for the community, Kappler said, and calls police and city leadership late into the night with concerns and issues. 

Conversation with a Councilman

• Kammer starts his ward meetings with an informal conversation with residents. Here’s what was discussed prior to the regular meeting and Harding’s presentation.
  • A Wayne Street resident will be putting out flags between Firestone Boulevard and Brown Street, similar to Birch Street. 
  • Stay Awhile Cafe on Brown Street is “very nice,” Kammer said.
  • He is working to correct an incorrectly spelled name on a flower bed.

Ward 7 questions from the community

Residents raised concerns about road construction and other items. Kammer answered several questions from the community during his Conversation with a Councilman meeting, including:

• Q: Why won’t the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) let them place flags along the highway, even though other communities can?
  • Kammer said he was approved for flags every summer between 2018-2020 but, after taking a break in 2021, he was denied in 2022-2023. This summer, he mailed Ohio House Reps. Veronica Sims, Jack Daniels, Derrick Hall, Casey Weinstein and Bill Roemer asking why. 
  • ODOT said he can put up flags on a bridge over the interstate, but he is liable. He said he will not do it because, without their permission, it feels illegal.
  • FirstEnergy no longer allows flags on its poles, Kammer said.
• A resident said the speed trailer on Woodsdale Avenue isn’t where the speeding issue is, and that cars have to go around it.
  • Kammer said they are placed based on where they are requested.
  • He said there will be permanent speed signs on East Catawba Avenue and East Woodsdale Avenue.
  • Another will be placed on Hammel Street between Archwood Avenue and East Wilbeth Road. Two permanent asphalt speed tables will be installed on North and South Firestone Boulevard near Aster Avenue, and there is a temporary one installed on Triplett Boulevard. 
• Q: What will be done with Heintz Hillcrest Park, since it won the Akron Parks Challenge?
  • There will be community events like touch-a-truck and ice cream socials to attract people who can give input about what to do next, according to another resident who is helping to organize the project.
    • Organizers want to install a new water fountain with a pet basin, walking trail mileage signage, a landscaped picnic table area with umbrellas, a swing set near Brown Street, disc golf, a fire pit, a zip line and park benches at 60- to 90-foot intervals like Firestone Park instead of the 250- to 500-foot intervals that are there currently. 
• Q: What can be done about streetlights not working?
  • Kammer said FirstEnergy’s streetlights are becoming more difficult to replace. He said a few years ago they’d be replaced within 24 hours. He said some lights are city-owned, but most are owned by FirstEnergy. The city is trying to install more of their own LED lights. 
  • Kammer said to contact both 311 and FirstEnergy when a streetlight is out. 

• The meeting ended at 7:14 p.m.