Justice Department, Warren improve police department

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

U.S. Justice Department oversight of the Warren Police Department that began around 2004 is apparently coming to an end.

The Justice Department and city of Warren jointly asked federal Judge Benita Y. Pearson in Youngstown last week to terminate a settlement agreement between the parties signed in 2012 that required the city to improve in its “pattern or practice of excessive force” against citizens. She is expected to grant the motion.

For eight years before the consent agreement, the Justice Department investigated and monitored the city’s police department following citizen complaints about unconstitutional policing.

Since 2012, the city has improved its policies and practices, including use of force policy, civilian complaints process, management and supervision, and training, the motion says. The city came fully into compliance in 2016 and has continued to comply the last two years, as required, the motion says.

The city’s compliance has been verified through annual onsite visits, employee interviews, ride-alongs, interviews with the public and data reviews.

At a news conference Monday in city council chambers, Mayor Doug Franklin noted that he was the new safety-service director in 2004 when the Justice Department process began.

“It’s been a lengthy, I will say in-depth, thorough process. What I want to emphasize is I believe in my opinion we are a better department, a better law enforcement agency, as a result of having gone through that process.”

Franklin said it’s important that the city build upon the momentum of recent years and “strive for continuous improvement, continuous education to become better stewards of the public trust, because as with all relationships, relationships are fragile.”

Thomas Conley, president and CEO of the Greater Warren-Youngstown Urban League, said the police department has made “a lot of changes as far as procedures, as far as training.

“I’m pleased from my end,” he said, but added: “It doesn’t mean everything is fixed. There is always constant review and constant changes that will have to be made to continue to make the police department better.”

Traci Timko Sabau, assistant law director, who has worked closely with the police department on Justice Department issues, said one indication that the department has improved is that there has been only one civil suit filed against the police department since the consent agreement began in 2012.

“Our officers now are among the most highly trained officers in this area, if not Northeast Ohio,” longtime Warren Law Director Greg Hicks said, calling Warren a “model department.”

Eric Merkel, who became police chief in June 2013, said Monday was “one of the proudest days of my career.” He said the most significant changes were in policies, training and supervision.

All use-of-force policies changed, in some cases multiple times. The citizen-complaint process has been “corrected,” Merkel said. And a process was created to track officer conduct and to take action when an officer is “having too many issues.”