Q&A: Mayor Shammas Malik on the state of police oversight in Akron, Dierra Fields case

On the two-year anniversary of the killing of Jayland Walker by Akron police officers, Signal Akron reported on where the police oversight system stands since its creation in the wake of the death.

In the past two years, the Citizens’ Police Oversight Board was established — this spring, it hired its first-ever independent police auditor to investigate alleged police misconduct, particularly in use-of-force cases.

Since he was hired in March, Independent Police Auditor Anthony Finnell issued three reports about police use-of-force cases and made policy recommendations to the mayor’s office, Akron Police Department, and Akron City Council, as called for under the city law adopted when voters passed Issue 10 in November 2022. 

Finnell, as he told Signal Akron and has said publicly during CPOB meetings, had not, at the time of the story’s publication on June 27, received a response from the mayor, police department, or council about any of the reports. 

Since the Akron City charter does not dictate what happens after the independent police auditor issues his reports, the mayor, police department, and City Council are under no obligation to respond to them or take any action. 

“The charter talks about recommending policy changes, but it doesn’t talk about what’s to be done after those recommendations are made,” Finnell told Signal Akron.

Signal Akron’s Doug Brown requested an interview with Akron Mayor Shammas Malik, who, as a City Council member before he was elected mayor, was instrumental in getting Issue 10 on the ballot, which amended the city charter, established the police oversight board and created the process in place today. 

Only a portion of what was discussed in the interview could be included in the story, so Signal Akron is making a transcript of the full interview available so readers can get deeper insight into the mayor’s perspective on police oversight, the city’s role and relationship with the law department, police and the oversight board, and the next steps for the CPOB. 

The transcript of the interview, conducted on June 26, has been lightly edited for clarity.

Signal Akron: You’re probably the most important figure in this [conversation] as a framer of Issue 10 that created the oversight process and now as the mayor who makes decisions. When the charter language was created, why wasn’t there a next step in the charter?

Mayor Shammas Malik: What next step would that be?

The step after the auditor issues his reports and recommendations (to the mayor, police chief and City Council).

I think the goal from my perspective, and I was one person who participated, is to have an independent voice and view on cases and, more generally, on policy. The auditor is not the one making policy, the auditor is not the one making decisions or issuing disciplinary judgments. But that office can provide an independent view on both of those things.

In this case, that is what their job is to do, it’s to provide that feedback, and in some cases they’ll concur with decisions that were made and in some cases they’ll disagree, and they will share that reasoning, those thoughts, with the administration, with council, with the police department, and with the public. 

The onus is on the elected officials and public officials who are actually managing the safety forces day to day to then respond as they see fit. 

Let’s say there’s a mayor less interested in police reform and police accountability. Couldn’t that mayor and the police just completely ignore it and not even respond to the reports and recommendations?

That is why we have elections. The goal of the oversight board is not to create an alternative management structure for the police department. It’s to create a voice that has independence and information that can then weigh in. And then it is up to the elected officials to address those concerns. 

That’s important to know, so I appreciate you saying that.

I would add one thing, which is that I felt it was very important, when I was on council, that this role be independent of the mayor. As the mayor, I still feel that way. That is something I believed before and still believe, and I think it’s really important that people get a perspective that I really don’t control. There’s certainly discussion and collaboration, but the auditor’s office has the ability to weigh in that I don’t control, and my administration does not control.

City Council President Margo Sommerville told me that the law department told her that City Council is not going to have any involvement in responding to the auditor’s reports. I’m wondering if you have an idea about how your administration is going to handle reports and findings going forward?

I think it’s important, as I just said, from a policy standpoint, from my administration’s standpoint, the goal is not to have reports or anything that are just put on the shelf. There would be no value to that. We are looking through what that process will look like in terms of following up and responding to reports that are issued. We’ve had a number of internal meetings, we had one yesterday. 

We’re working [on] getting with Mr. Finnell and his team and really sitting down and hammering out a process that we think will work for everybody, that provides us enough time to review things, and look at it, and create some manageable expectations in terms of the workload, but also that does respond. 

There have been two reports that have been shared, and those are going to be responded to and then we will have a clearer process going forward. That is the goal. Do I wish that process was already in place? I do. But we’re working through this as things are being set up. 

There’s been a lot of work making sure [Finnell] has access [to documents and files], making sure he can get started — I didn’t want to delay that either. 

I’m glad that he’s been able to do his work, and I’m glad that he’s been able to share reports and recommendations. I want us to get to the next phase, and I believe we will in relatively short order. 

When it comes to council, after I saw that portion of your email [requesting a response to Sommerville’s comments] I did go back and talk to the law department because I wanted to better understand that. I do think if I would state my understanding, that it is a little bit more nuanced. I think council has a role insofar as, one, council selects members of the board, whether it’s the ones they select entirely on their own or the ones where they approve the mayor’s nomination, so that is a significant role. They also have a budgetary role that’s there.

And I think that also, there can be an expectation that, “Hey, we’d like you to come in front of us and brief us on what you’ve been working on, what you’ve been up to, and we’d like to share some of our thoughts about where we are and what we see as priorities.”

Also, when there are specific reports and recommendations, it’s entirely valid for members of council to stand up and say, “Hey, I really agree, I think this thing the auditor is saying really has merit and we’d like to see action on it.”

Part of that process – to me, the auditor is not the manager or decision maker, they are providing ideas and perspectives, and then it’s for the administration and police department and council to have discussions and dialogue around that. We are certainly more than willing to talk with council members about perspectives and recommendations that are shared from the oversight board as folks reach out, just as we’re willing to engage on any other policy issue in the city. 

My perspective would not be that they lack a role. I think there is a role. It is a role similar to the other boards and commissions. 

The mayor’s office and police department have a clear role in personnel and policy, so I was confused about what City Council could actually do to weigh in on the auditor’s reports. 

You could phrase it more as an indirect role. Certainly there is a role for discussion and dialogue, and there is a role of appointment and approval, which is not insignificant, as well. 

President Sommerville said you could put forward a ballot measure that would codify the response steps to the reports and recommendations from the auditor. I’m assuming that’s something that’s not going to happen or that you have no interest in doing?

With charter amendments, there’s always a question about how detailed to be. If you put in too many details or specificity – are we going to say that reports are due in 30 days or 45 days, or just that a report is due and not specify a timeline?

One thing I want to be really clear about, as one of the framers of this – maybe I shouldn’t use the word framers, but you did – it is the commitment of my administration that we will respond to reports and recommendations that we’ve received.

It will always be my commitment, and that’s a commitment I can make as mayor. I view it as a burden and expectation that voters have placed upon this office, and I take it extraordinarily seriously.

I do want to go over the Dierra Fields case. It’s my understanding that as soon as you learned about the incident, you quickly handed over files to the auditor. 

I think initially it came to my awareness through Signal. I think that the auditor had separately made a request that the police filled. I don’t think it was me that requested the police fulfill the auditor’s request. I think that happened naturally in the normal course of the process. That’s my understanding. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am. 

We then, as an administration, released that information proactively once you had brought it to our attention. We released that information basically as soon as it was brought to my attention and we were able to look through it. We felt it was important to share that information with the public. 

I want to focus on this case because it’s literally the first report Anthony Finnell did and I want to know what’s happening now with it. I’m curious about a timetable from your office, if you know it yet, for responding to his recommendations and also what a response might look like. 

I don’t have specifics for you on that. We did talk about it in the meeting yesterday, and there is going to be a response, but I don’t have a specific timetable for you on that. 

I’m still trying to flesh this out in my head. When I was attending the Dierra Fields trial, the city prosecutors were going with the exact opposite of what the auditor’s report suggested. I’m curious about the role of the oversight board and the auditor and its relationship with the city and law department?

I don’t think the auditor has a role that directly relates to prosecutions or those kinds of criminal matters. I think that certainly the law department is included in those reports and recommendations and gets those as well, but the auditor’s primary role is in the disciplinary process and in regard to police policy, and not so much as it comes to prosecutions. The law department and prosecutor’s office have the primary role there, and that is fairly clear.

Do you feel that Anthony Finnell overstepped his role when he said that there was no probable cause for the charges Dierra Fields faced? 

I’m not going to, I don’t have, I’m not going to speak to that. We are in the process of setting all of this up. We established independence for this office and that’s important, but at the same time, as I said before, the auditor’s office is not making prosecutorial decisions. That’s not their focus, but I’m not going to speak to it beyond that. 

I’m wondering about the relationship between the mayor’s office and the law department and its prosecutors. How much influence do you have in the day-to-day operation of the prosecutors, or even on big-picture issues of what to prosecute?

It is an interesting question. Although prosecutorial issues are typically pretty sensitive, it’s not that different of a situation than the day-to-day operations of any city department. I’m not directing people making a lot of operational decisions, micromanaging at any level of city department, unless I see a decision I disagree with, and even then it’s probably not me starting by ordering something, it’s probably me asking questions and getting more information. 

The prosecutor’s office has that role and responsibility, and from there the law department and law director oversee that, and I and the chief of staff oversee the law department and law director. There’s natural management that happens, and my input is more general across issues and policy and less specific. But certainly if there are specific questions I have on a specific case, that would be something that would certainly be within my domain to inquire about. 

And since I know where you’re going [with this line of questioning] –

Yeah, yeah (Mayor Malik’s role in the Fields prosecution)

In this case, the Fields case, I did ask questions and asked for more information about their process, and that was an instance in which I wanted more information. 

Did you get that information, and were you comfortable with the prosecution?

I’m not going to speak to it beyond that, beyond that I did ask for information and ask questions about the specifics.

Is there anything about the oversight process, the auditor, where you feel I may be missing context based on my line of questioning or is there anything I should know?

There are a lot of different threads to this. There are a lot of pieces to be worked through in standing up this office and making sure it functions. This is something I worked on probably more than almost any other singular issue while I was on council. I have a deep commitment to making this work, but I also recognize that this is complicated.

If you look at almost any other community in America, I think that having an office like this adds value and is really important, but I also think you’ll see that they are all works in progress.

I’m a pretty action-oriented, directional person. I want to get things working as quickly as they possibly can, but I’m also trying to acknowledge that some of this is going to take time and we are all working on it. 

My administration is always going to work collaboratively with Mr. Finnell, the auditor’s office, and board. We may not always agree but are always going to work collaboratively with them. I look forward to getting that process in place to really set out some clear expectations around responding to recommendations and reports and how those are developed and get some of those things released. 

I see that as a responsibility that the voters and, in part, me in a past life have placed upon this office. I take it extraordinarily seriously.