OH Governor DeWine Police Reform Press Conference 6.17.2020

Governor DeWine and Attorney General Dave Yost conducted a press conference this afternoon to announce additional police reform measures that they will be pursuing, both through executive action and with the General Assembly.   Governor DeWine opened by acknowledging the calls for reform that have intensified in response to the death of George Floyd.  DeWine, as a former prosecutor and Attorney General, has traditionally been a strong supporter of law enforcement, but admitted that there are some people who simply shouldn’t be an officer.  He said that he’s spent many hours talking to the Attorney General, the NAACP, the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, mayors and experts on law enforcement about additional measures the state should be pursuing.  The Governor said he spoke with Representatives Phil Plummer, former Montgomery County Sheriff, and Cindy Abrams about House Bill 703, a bill they introduced last week to study and implement professional police practices.  Governor DeWine acknowledged that many of the ideas are not new – that they have been proposed before – but that now is the time to see that they are implemented.  He stressed that this will be a process and that it is going to take time to implement and an ongoing commitment to culture change.
 
Governor DeWine said that the measures and proposals are focused on improving accountability, training and transparency:

• All candidates must pass psychological test to show they are fit before even beginning training to be an officer.
• Ohio Police Officer Training Commission (OPOTC) will check references and assess character before issuing peace officer certificates.

• Professionalism
  • Asking General Assembly to create law enforcement oversight board to develop ethics and professional standards under the OPOTC.
  • The board should have the authority to suspend or revoke peace officer certificate for conduct that violates the ethics and professional standards – right now the certificate can only be stripped if an officer is convicted of a felony.
  • The board should have the authority to discipline officers who do not report misconduct by other officers.
  • The board would be like the discipline boards of other professions – lawyers, doctors, nurses, etc.

• The state is going to fund 6 additional hours of de-escalation training – including use of force and implicit bias training – this year.  It will be offered free to any officer who has not already received this training this year.

• Advanced Training Hours
  • Ohio is prohibited from mandating advanced training unless it is paid for by the state or their employer – meaning many officers never receive continuing education. 
  • Asking the General Assembly to discuss finding a permanent funding stream for advanced training every year.

• Use of force data
  • Asking the General Assembly to create a standard definition of “use of force” and mandate all agencies to report on every incident of use of force to the Office of Criminal Justice Services.
  • Charging the Office of Criminal Justice Services to start creating a public database now to provide information on every use of force incident – not just statistics, but substantive detail.

• Chokeholds
  • Asking the General Assembly to ban use of chokeholds unless it is determined that it was a life or death situation.
  • Charging all executive agencies with a law enforcement role to review their use of force policies and implement the no chokehold policy now.

• Investigations of officer involved shootings, in-custody deaths and instances of serious physical harm
  • Asking the General Assembly to mandate third party investigations of these types of incidents – no internal investigations.
  • The Governor is directing the Highway Patrol to no longer do internal investigations – investigations will be conducted by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) in the Attorney General’s Office.
  • The Attorney General is directing that the Highway Patrol do investigations of incidents involving BCI agents.

• Independent prosecutions
  • Asking the General Assembly to mandate that an independent prosecutor be required in officer involved shootings, in custody deaths and cases of serious physical harm.

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• Body cameras
  • Governor is directing the Dept. of Public Safety and the Highway Patrol to outfit all troopers with body cameras.
  • Asking the General Assembly to examine what help the state can do to provide assistance to local agencies to provide body cameras for all officers.

 
Previously announced efforts that Governor DeWine is already implementing:

• Encouraging more than 400 police law enforcement agencies that are not certified, more than half of the state’s agencies, to pursue state certification in the best practices developed by the Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board. 
• Asking the Collaborative to develop a new standard to address the response to mass protests – when do tactics become excessive, protecting media, what to do when crowds won’t disperse, etc.  
• Creating a new office of law enforcement recruitment will be established in the Office of Criminal Justice Services to address recruiting a diverse workforce. 

 
Today, the Governor announced that Dr. Patrick Oliver, Director of the Criminal Justice Program at Cedarville University, will serve as lead consultant to the recruitment office.  Dr. Oliver has 27 years of experience in law enforcement, including as Chief of Police in the cities of Fairborn, Grandview Heights, and Cleveland, Ohio, and as Ranger Chief of Cleveland Metropolitan Parks. He also spent 11 years as a trooper with the Ohio State Highway Patrol.