Akron voters will soon weigh in on whether findings made by the city’s civilian police oversight system can legally be ignored by City of Akron officials and the Akron Police Department.
They will also determine whether the system will have stronger mechanisms to investigate allegations of police misconduct.
A charter amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot seeks to add significant authority to city law for the nine-member Citizens’ Police Oversight Board and the Office of the Independent Police Auditor. The CPOB and the auditor’s role were created four years ago when Akron voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in the wake of Jayland Walker’s killing by Akron police officers.
The CPOB oversees an independent police auditor tasked with investigating Akron Police Department use-of-force or other misconduct allegations after an internal APD probe is complete. It is made up of six members appointed by Akron City Council and three members appointed by the mayor’s office (with City Council approval).
It issues reports to the mayor, APD and Akron City Council, but that’s where its authority to address misconduct stops. While the charter requires who the auditor’s CPOB-approved findings are sent to, it requires no acknowledgement or action from those entities about it.
The ballot measure, identified as Issue 13 on November’s ballot, would change that.
For much of the first years of the board’s existence, some of its members and the auditor expressed frustration when they felt their recommendations were being ignored by the mayor, who helped initiate the 2022 ballot measure as a City Council member.
Independent Police Auditor Anthony Finnell and officials in Akron Mayor Shammas Malik’s office have all publicly touted a stronger working relationship and more responsiveness in recent months. A report released by Finnell issued ahead of the CPOB meeting on September 16 said the auditor is waiting for six responses to reports he’s issued challenging the APD’s findings in internal investigations. Three fall outside a 45-day response window that Malik promised in 2024.
Finnell has issued 18 reports that challenge the APD’s findings in internal investigations since he was hired in March 2024. He concurred with 97 percent of the department’s findings in the 629 incidents his office has reviewed.
On top of early frustration about the lack of response mechanisms, the implementation of the system beginning in 2023 revealed influence from the police union over who would be on the CPOB. Akron City Council also deferred to the police union’s litigation threats over the oversight system’s day-to-day operations.
The charter amendment on November’s ballot was made possible after a push from many of the same people who initiated the 2022 ballot measure, including groups like the Freedom BLOC, Akron NAACP, Greater Akron Fellowship of Clergy and police reform advocates who gathered more than 4,000 signatures over the summer. The Summit County Board of Elections verified the petition had enough valid signatures for the amendment to be placed on the ballot.
Oversight charter amendment would add subpoena power
The charter amendment would add the subpoena power originally sought by the CPOB in late 2023. That authority was rejected by Akron City Council at the behest of the police union, which vowed to take the city to court if any officers were compelled to testify by the oversight board.
The union’s attorney declined at the time to tell Signal Akron where in the collective bargaining agreement it said officers couldn’t be subpoenaed, insisting that “neither I nor the FOP like to litigate issues through the media.”
Subpoena power means the independent police auditor could compel witnesses of alleged misconduct to testify in an investigation instead of relying on materials previously gathered by the department, such as body-worn camera video and police reports.
“Right now, if the auditor wanted to question a police officer, that police officer could say no, the union rep could say no, the chief can say no,” said Raymond Greene Jr., executive director of Freedom BLOC, in an interview with Signal Akron. “But with the subpoena power, they’re compelled by the courts to answer the questions.”
To avoid potential legal challenges over the police union’s contract, Greene said, the subpoena provision would go into effect when the current bargaining agreement expires at the end of 2027, although the terms of the contract will stay in effect until a new deal is reached. A new agreement would have to incorporate the oversight system’s subpoena powers newly enshrined in city law, if the measure passes.
“The charter trumps that collective bargaining agreement,” Greene said, if the amendment were to pass. “This isn’t a ‘tomorrow’ type of thing.”
The auditor could also subpoena documents and other records relevant to an investigation and enforce the subpoenas in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas.
The charter amendment does have a carve out for potential subpoenas of police union members, declaring it won’t “seek to enforce a subpoena” that may violate collective bargaining agreements, but that doesn’t prevent the CPOB from issuing subpoenas “to bargaining unit members for matters not covered” by the contract.
CPOB challenges to internal APD investigations would require a response
If the charter amendment passes, and if the independent police auditor reviews a case and challenges the findings of an internal APD investigation — typically declaring the APD was wrong to declare an incident was within policy — the city can no longer ignore the issue.
The new language requires the police chief to “respond in writing to each individual recommendation” within 45 days of the auditor’s report. It would also require the chief to declare whether the auditor’s recommendations will be followed and the actions that will be taken or a justification for why they won’t be.
If the chief doesn’t respond within 45 days, the auditor’s recommendations will automatically be accepted, the measure says.
If the police chief rejects an auditor’s findings, it triggers what the ballot measure calls a “meet-and-confer” with the auditor within 10 days. If the two sides can’t reach an agreement on the outcome of an incident, it triggers the mayor’s involvement — they must decide the outcome and justify it in writing. If the mayor doesn’t respond in 10 days, the auditor’s recommendations will stand.
The ballot measure requests that the auditor’s office, via the city’s official website, publish a log of responses from the police department and mayor’s office to the challenges issued by the auditor and that the mayor’s office publish an annual report on how the office responded to every challenge or recommendation by the auditor’s office.
“This goes past any administration,” Greene said. “It’d be in the charter that this is how we’re going to conduct business in the City of Akron — doesn’t depend on an administration. It’s in the charter, it’s gospel.”
Diluted influence from the City Council, police officers
The charter amendment also changes how the CPOB’s members will be picked.
Currently, six members are nominated by Akron City Council and three are nominated by the mayor’s office (with approval from a majority of council). Under the new language, City Council would only be responsible for three seats, with the selection of the other three going to the current CPOB members. That would mean City Council, the mayor’s office and current CPOB members would have an equal say in the makeup of the board.
The ballot measure also caps the number of CPOB members who worked in law enforcement at two. On the current CPOB, at least three members are former police officers.
Existing language about the makeup of the board’s members stays, including:
- Ward representation, with no more than two members who can live in the same ward.
- Prioritizing attorneys with civil rights or criminal justice experience.
- A member aged 18 to 35.
- A member who is a religious leader.
- Someone with experience in mental health services.
- Someone affiliated with a group that “represents economically disadvantaged and underserved citizens of Akron.”
The three seats taken from Akron CIty Council and given to CPOB members for approval would be selected through a complex process:
- The CPOB will have a standing Membership Selection Subcommittee of between three and five members.
- When a CPOB-appointed seat becomes vacant, the committee will put together another committee, an external Civil Rights Selection Committee.
- That external committee will consist of between five and nine people from various nonprofits — no organization could have more than one member on the committee — that have operated in the city or Summit County for at least three years, advocating for “civil rights, racial equity, social justice” or other constitutional rights. Organizations focused on “partisan political activity, law enforcement representation” or police unions won’t be eligible.
- That committee will review applications, conduct interviews and submit written recommendations to the Membership Selection Subcommittee, which would then present those candidates to the full board for a vote.
Note: Below is the language of the charter amendment. The words with a line through them would be removed from the law and the underlined words would be added.
