By Jeremy Pelzer
cleveland.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio—In the wake of police confrontations with civil-rights protesters earlier this year, a state panel has put into place new guidelines for how and when law-enforcement agencies should use deadly force (including chokeholds) and handle mass protests.
The guidelines aren’t mandatory, though they’ll now be part of a series of standards Ohio law-enforcement agencies must abide by to become voluntarily certified by the state.
Under one of the new standards, adopted late last week by Gov. Mike DeWine’s Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board, law-enforcement officials may only use deadly force – including, specifically, chokeholds or vascular neck restraints – to defend themselves or others from serious injury or death.
The standard is “in accordance” with two U.S. Supreme Court decisions that, respectively, allow deadly force to prevent a fleeing “dangerous” person from escaping, and assert that the “reasonableness” of use of force must be judged not on hindsight, but based on “the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene.”
The advisory board’s second standard requires law enforcement agencies involved with responding to mass demonstrations to put into place written policies on 12 different issues, including training, crowd management and control techniques, and deployment of use of force, weapons, and tactics.
The standard doesn’t specify exactly what those policies should consist of – just that a written policy needs to exist. However, the advisory council recommended, among other things, that police should create a “tiered response plan” that escalates only when needed and directing police action only toward “individuals displaying harmful behaviors, such as violence, property destruction, or other serious crimes.”
In a statement, DeWine expressed support for the new standards. “We must rebuild trust between the public and law enforcement, and these changes continue to build on Ohio’s work to improve community-police relations,” the governor said.
Karhlton Moore, executive director of the state’s Office of Criminal Justice Services, said in an interview that the state’s new chokehold standard came as the result of both the federal government including chokehold restrictions in its law-enforcement certification guidelines and DeWine’s desire to limit their use. The issues of police use-of-force and protest response came to the forefront earlier this year after Minneapolis resident George Floyd was killed by police, sparking protests that often met with controversially strong responses from law enforcement.
“Certainly the standard could have the result of saving someone’s life,” Moore said.
However, he added that many police departments in Ohio already have limits on chokeholds and similar maneuvers.
Of the 800-plus law-enforcement agencies in Ohio, only 471 have so far have agreed to comply with state standards, according to a release from DeWine’s office. Another 113 agencies are in the process of being certified.
However, the agencies that have been certified employ 94% of Ohio’s law-enforcement officers (a 15% increase since June) and serve 86% of the state’s population.
Mike Weinman of the Fraternal Order of Police said the advisory board’s standard to require police departments to have mass protest policies while still allowing them to craft the details of the policies themselves “seems like a smart compromise.”
The chokehold standard, Weinman said, “seems workable.” But even though the standard isn’t mandatory, he said, “there are defense lawyers who will grab these [standards] and say, ‘Well, why didn’t you meet this?’”
Kareem Henton, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Cleveland, voiced skepticism about the new standards only being voluntary.
“Honestly, it sounds like window dressing to me. ...Because it’s not mandated, so it really doesn’t have any teeth,” Henton said. “It’s a way for the state to check a box and say that they were being proactive. ... I guess it gives them a bit of plausible deniability with regards to being culpable in the actions of some of these law enforcement agencies.”
Henton said he wished the Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board and similar organizations had representation from groups such as his that have been actively participating in protests.
“Ideally, they need to get with some of the more community-based organizations and individuals, and actually collaborate on the issues — not just identifying the problems, but actually coming up with solutions,” he said.
(c)2020 The Plain Dealer, Cleveland