The lone candidate to be Akron’s next police chief was on the hot seat Saturday morning on the stage of Buchtel Community Learning Center’s auditorium.
Deputy Chief Brian Harding, joined on stage by Akron Mayor Shammas Malik and University of Akron law professor Brant Lee for the first of two town halls, was repeatedly challenged about racism in the Akron Police Department. He was booed and chided multiple times by members of the predominantly Black audience who were upset with some of his responses to their questions.
“I’m sure everybody can feel the tension in this room right now – I can sense you’re uncomfortable,” said Caleb Mays to Harding about 90 minutes into the town hall. Mays was arrested during the 2022 Jayland Walker protests and later acquitted.
He told Harding and the crowd an officer used racial slurs toward him during his arrest in front of other officers and a sergeant who did nothing about it. “We’re not here to necessarily make you feel more comfortable, but everybody can feel this feeling. Just know that’s how we feel on a daily basis in our own communities.”
The presumptive next police chief acknowledged the friction in the room during his closing remarks.
“Naturally, there’s a lot of tension,” Harding said. “The only thing I can ask from each of you is to judge me on the person that I am, judge me on the decisions I made or don’t make. Judge me on those. I understand that, I appreciate the dialogue.”
Harding discusses ‘Signals 44’ newsletter
During the town hall, Harding distanced and defended himself from the racist and stereotype-laden “Signal 44” newsletter written by Officer Terry Pasko in the late 1990s. In the lawsuit filed by the family of Jayland Walker, lawyers wrote in a court filing that Harding “said at the time that he was not offended at appearing in the newsletter, felt the newsletter had no adverse effect on the shift and thought the contents of the newsletter were ‘funny.’”
On Saturday, Harding claimed that he only found the comments in the newsletter that poked fun of his haircuts to be funny. Internal affairs never asked him at the time about anything other than the comments about himself, he said.
“I said it before and I’ll say it again: It was divisive, it was wrong, and it has no place in the police department and no place in our society,” Harding told the crowd about the newsletter. “And I want each of you to understand that racism will not be tolerated in the Akron Police Department and I will not tolerate that.”
Harding acknowledged that racism exists and is wrong, but he drew the ire of the crowd when he wouldn’t answer questions about racism within the Akron Police Department.
“Overall, I don’t think we have a racist department,” Harding said before members of the crowd booed him. “I truly don’t believe that.”
He later told the crowd, “I’m not aware today of racist acts from our officers that are based on racism. I’m not saying it couldn’t be there – if it is, then I guess we have to understand why.”
Harding said that racism can be addressed by police officers spending more time doing “community engagement” and that the department needs more officers in order to do that because they don’t have enough time between calls to develop relationships in the community.
“Giving [officers] a minute and a half between calls does not give them the opportunity to engage [with the community],” he said. “And if you don’t have the chance to consistently engage and develop relationships with people, it just further divides.”
Malik addresses why Harding is the lone candidate
Akron activist Djuan Wash was upset about Harding’s views on race relationships and also the lack of action after the 2022 killing of Jayland Walker. Harding had said that Walker’s killing was one of the worst things to happen during his time with the APD, but he also said that he, as chief, couldn’t punish the officers who shot Walker even if he wanted to because then-Chief Steve Mylett cleared them.
“For me, what’s upsetting about all this is your inability to call a spade a spade, your inability to recognize that racism is a thing,” Wash said to Harding. “You may be concerned about a vote of no confidence from the union, but you should really be concerned about a vote of no confidence from this community. … Your inability to face this stuff head on is certainly a vote of no confidence from me.”
During the town hall, Malik addressed why Harding was the lone candidate left. The event was originally supposed to feature both Harding and Deputy Chief Jesse Leeser as candidates. Malik announced on April 17 that Leeser was no longer under consideration and Harding was the lone finalist.
It left people in the crowd, already upset by the internal search process that left only two white men under consideration, confused about what was happening. Malik said Leeser gave a bad interview last week and the mayor decided to drop him right after.
“In terms of the other deputy chief, he came in for an interview, and I felt coming out of that interview that I did not feel comfortable moving forward with him in the process,” Malik explained to the crowd. “… There was a hesitation to engage in the public aspects of the process. We’ve been communicative the entire time of that being a part of the process.
“I also want to be really clear – I said coming out of the interviews last Friday that I felt comfortable moving forward with one of the candidates. I have a responsibility not to present candidates to the public at a public forum who I know I would not select to hire in this role. I think everybody would understand that. That would be a farce,“ Malik said.
Saturday was the first of two town halls with Harding. The second is scheduled for Tuesday, April 23, at 6 p.m. at East Community Learning Center.
