Feds, Warren OK police policy

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

After eight years, the U.S. Justice Department and city of Warren have agreed to a set of steps the city continues to take to resolve problems found in the police department.

Warren Mayor Doug Franklin and Police Chief Tim Bowers said at a news conference Friday at the police department that the problems raised in a Justice Department report in 2006 already have been addressed.

Bowers estimated that 90 percent of the steps outlined in the agreement that the city and Justice Department filed Friday with Judge Benita Person of Youngstown Federal Court have been implemented.

The Justice Department began investigating the police department in 2004, at about the time when a number of federal civil-rights lawsuits were filed against the department.

The Justice Department found that the police department had carried out a pattern and practice of illegal policing through its improper use of force against citizens, said Jonathan Smith, chief of the Special Litigation Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Smith and Steven Dettelbach, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, outlined the steps contained in the settlement that the police department will take.

Dettelbach called it a “settlement that we are confident will ensure the safety and rights of the citizens of Warren while also keeping the police forces safe.”

During the investigation, the Justice Department interviewed citizens. In 2006, it issued recommendations for improvement, but it hasn’t addressed directly what it found wrong with the department’s conduct.

When asked Friday, Smith said the investigation found that the problems were primarily related to improper use of force by officers. The Justice Department didn’t make a finding that improper treatment of citizens was related to racism or other types of bias, he said.

Thomas Conley, president and CEO of the Greater Warren-Youngstown Urban League, said after the news conference that he agrees that the problems were not specifically race-related, even though he and other black leaders raised the issue most of the time.

“In my time, I’ve felt it was an issue of class, which encompasses both black and white,” Conley said. “I wouldn’t say it was a race issue. It was a class issue.”

First among the issues outlined in the agreement, Dettelbach said, is a requirement that all use-of-force incidents be documented, that officers report them and give a narrative of the event. They also are prohibited from talking among themselves before filing the report.

Second, the citizen-complaint process must be written in detail “to make it easier and more real” for citizens, Dettelbach said. Staff shall be trained in what to do when someone makes a complaint, and the police department “is committed to investigate all complaints,” Dettelbach said.

Third, the department has agreed to adopt a state-of-the-art early-intervention and risk-management system in which problems and problem officers are identified early. It’s designed to promptly correct a problem or officer in regard to use of force, injuries to prisoners, discharging of firearms and use of a stun gun or pepper spray. The agreement “commits to a review every three months,” Dettelbach said.

Fourth, officers will be trained at least once per year on proper use of force, reporting requirements and de-escalating techniques, Dettelbach said.

“Officers I’ve talked to in the field want this kind of training,” Dettelbach noted. “They want less than anybody else to have to employ force.”