Policing to change in wake of protests

How Ohio's law enforcement officers are supervised and trained is expected to change in the wake of nationwide protests and calls for reform.

Protestors and demonstrators across the country - including in Celina - have called for justice for George Floyd, who was killed in Minneapolis after a police officer kneeled on his neck, and numerous others who have died after encounters with law enforcement. Activists are demanding changes, including increased accountability and more action to fight against racial bias.

Local law enforcement officials and trainers told the newspaper they expected changes due to the outcry following Floyd's death, but were not entirely sure what the changes would look like. Some agreed to talk with the paper about how officers are currently trained, their office or department's policies on use of force and body cameras, and calls to defund the police.

Basic training

There are approximately 60 police academies in the state, and all teach the same basic curriculum set forth by the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy. To become a certified peace officer in Ohio, cadets must undergo a minimum of 737 hours of training.

Mark Ernst, commander of the police academy at Wright State University-Lake Campus, said changes had been made to the state's police academy curriculum after the 2014 riots in Ferguson, Missouri. At that time, Ernst served as the St. Marys police chief, but he remembers the changes in training made to the academy curriculum.

Following Ferguson, the academies added different classes focusing on subjects like crisis intervention, which Ernst said goes into de-escalation; implicit and explicit bias; and procedural justice.

In 2020, the demands of protestors echo the demands from 2014. Activists are once more asking for, among other measures, a bigger focus on de-escalation skills and closer examination of police biases. Many are also speaking out against the use of certain practices like chokeholds, which led to the death of Eric Garner in New York in 2014.

Chokeholds are not taught as a method of self defense in Ohio law enforcement academies, according to Ernst.

Ernst said he'd had a conversation with his most recent group of cadets about current events and told them that if they see another officer doing something wrong, to speak up and say something about it.

Historically, there had been a "culture of negativity" among police where officers could be afraid to speak out against another officer, especially when it was a young officer who might be speaking out against a senior officer, Ernst said. More and more, he continued, officers are being encouraged to step up and intervene.

"The shift started after Rodney King. Ferguson pushed that even more forward. I'm sure the tragic case of George Floyd will push that even further," Ernst said.

While he was unable to say what kind of changes might come from the recent unrest at the time of his interview, Ernst assumed the state would reevaluate its law enforcement training once more.

Instructors take their duties in training future law enforcement officers seriously, he said. While he was saddened by recent events, Ernst also expressed hope that changes would come from this incident that would be positive for everyone.

In the field

St. Marys police chief Jacob Sutton has served as a defensive tactics instructor for law enforcement for 12 years. When officers have to use methods of "subject control," instructors emphasize getting the encounters over with quickly, and use of force should be a last resort, Sutton said.

Officers are reportedly taught to start with communication in order to get subjects to comply. Sutton said the last thing officers want to do is use force, but most use of force incidents occur when people resist an officer.

What actions an officer takes depends on the conduct of the subject they are interacting with, Sutton said.

Currently, every use of force incident in the St. Marys Police Department is reportedly reviewed by Sutton and the city's director of public service and safety, Greg Foxhoven, who once served as the department's police chief. Punitive actions can include remedial training, Sutton said.

Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey said his office follows the state's guidelines regarding use of force and regularly trains deputies on using firearms. Deputies also take a "verbal judo" class, in which they are trained in talking people down, and they are trained on non-lethal self-defense tactics, including unarmed self-defense, the use of Tasers and pepper spray.

While he believes the 737 hours of training required by the state is a good basic overview of police work, Grey said he felt there should be more requirements for continuing education, and more of a focus on use of force training - when it's appropriate and when it isn't - and deescalation training.

Grey said his office was considering several policy updates that could be implemented pending deputy review or action from the state legislature.

One of the changes would list kneeling or standing on the back or neck when cuffing someone as a life-threatening technique, and thus be considered use of deadly force.

Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck, even after Floyd tried to tell the officer he couldn't breathe.

The proposed policy changes would state that deputies have a duty to intervene and report if any law enforcement officer is seen using excessive force or a prohibited technique. They would also implement changes in how the office reviews use of force incidents, outlining the need to review if officers were "protecting the rights of suspects/arrestees," and sending "serious incidents" to an outside agency for review.

When it comes to weeding out potentially aggressive or problematic job candidates, Grey said an extensive background check is performed. Applicants are also required to take a written psychological test, a lie detector test, a drug test and undergo physical examination.

New hires are put with a field training officer for 12 weeks to evaluate them, and are subject to a one year probationary period, during which they can be fired if issues, including temperament issues, arise.

Auglaize County Sheriff Al Solomon said his office's policy outlined specifically when deputies could use force, such as when they are making a "lawful arrest" or protecting others. Deadly force is permitted when deputies have reason to believe they are in imminent danger or about to be caused serious bodily harm.

Use of force incidents are reviewed by the next person in the command chain, and if the incident is deadly, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is called to review it, Solomon said.

While Auglaize County Sheriff's Office policy does not list chokeholds as a permitted technique, there is also nothing specifically banning its use, Solomon said. A change in policy might be coming, depending on what that state's legislature and committees do, he continued.

Body cameras

Body cameras have been touted as a way to increase law enforcement transparency. Yet not every law enforcement office is equipped with body cameras, and law enforcement officials argue there are times when cameras shouldn't be recording.

Sutton said his police usually have body cameras on, and that as a precaution, supervisors will often do checks on police through their body camera footage.

Grey also said his deputies were required to have body cameras on and recording during most interactions with the public, and that the footage was also used for "quality assurance." Supervisors in his office can pull body camera footage and contact people to ask how deputies treated them. He said he's always reminding deputies that somebody is recording most of what they do, whether it's a member of the public or the sheriff's office itself.

Both Sutton and Grey expressed that the body cameras weren't just a way to increase transparency, but also a way to protect their officers. When complaints about officers come in, supervisors don't have to decide whether to take the complainant's word or the officer's - they can pull up video and audio of an incident.

However, the cameras aren't always rolling, a fact that law enforcement officials have at times come under fire for. Law enforcement officials have argued there can be a grey area when it comes to what they can and can't record, and that sometimes, it's a matter of preserving privacy, such as when officers go into private homes.

Some offices still don't have body cameras at all. Solomon said he believed body cameras could be useful in protecting officers. However, the Auglaize county budget had recently been cut across the board, he continued, and purchasing body camera equipment, along with the equipment needed to store video footage, could cost thousands of dollars.

"Defund the police"

Activists across the nation have made different demands for accountability in law enforcement and police reform, but one cry in particular has gained a lot of attention.

Calls to "defund the police" can mean different things to different people. Some use the phrase to call for an end to police militarization, and want to move funds used for police equipment into community-based social programs in hopes of addressing the root causes of crime. Others have demanded getting rid of traditional law enforcement altogether.

Solomon said demands to defund the police were "absurd," and that defunding law enforcement wasn't going to fix the problem. Law enforcement officers are needed by everyone, he said.

Sutton said that as a Republican, he believed in limited government and didn't believe in a police state. Social work and programs could help communities, and he said he would rather people get help for their problems than have law enforcement become involved.

If another way could be found to stop crime before it happened, or if more could be done to find if crime is a learned behavior or a societal issue, he would support it. But a community couldn't get rid of its police department, he said; crime won't just disappear.

Sutton also feared potential funding cuts to law enforcement programs would mean reduced training. Education on case law and investigative techniques are important in how effective a department is, he said.

Grey said he felt there should always be a review of what law enforcement does, but it scared him when people who had never done the job tried to tell them how to do it. He also pointed out other issues in law enforcement that would not be addressed through defunding.

Police unions can contribute to problems when they defend an officer that has shown problematic tendencies, he said. According to him, Mercer County is one of two sheriff's offices in Ohio without a union.

He also felt officers needed to have a vested interest in the area they're serving. In Ohio, it's no longer required for law enforcement to live in the community they serve, he said.

Proposed changes

On Wednesday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Attorney General Dave Yost announced proposed reforms aimed at improving law enforcement's training, transparency and accountability.

The proposed plans include mandating independent use of force investigations and prosecutions; creating an officer-involved shooting investigative unit within the OBCI; creating a public database for use of force incidents and mandating use of force be reported to the Office of Criminal Justice Services; banning chokeholds except in cases where officers are fighting for their life or protecting the life of another; providing monetary assistance to local law enforcement to help purchase body cameras and storage equipment; outfitting the Ohio State Highway Patrol with body cameras "where appropriate"; funding advanced training for law enforcement officers every year; requiring police academy applicants to pass a psychological exam; and having the Office of Law Enforcement Recruitment encourage more minorities and women to pursue law enforcement careers.

The plan also called for the creation of a law enforcement oversight and accountability board comprised of members of law enforcement and the public, which could potentially suspend or revoke a peace officer's certificate for code of conduct violations.

"Under current law, there is no mechanism in Ohio to revoke a peace officer's certificate for conduct that is egregious, but not criminal," DeWine said in a press release. "Officers can be fired from one agency for racial profiling, lack of professionalism, or for simply not doing their jobs, yet they can carry on with this behavior when they're hired somewhere else. It is time to treat a peace officer certificate more like a professional license."

Most of the proposed reforms depend on action from the Ohio General Assembly.