COLUMBUS – An investigation into the actions of Columbus police officers during protests downtown earlier this year found very few confirmed instances of wrongdoing, but Mayor Andrew Ginther says the results left him “surprised” and “angered.”
Investigators said their job was difficult because some officers were unwilling to share information, after-action reports were not completed and some actions were within existing policies at the time.
“The results from these investigations prove to me more clearly than ever before the need for police reform,” Ginther said during a news conference Tuesday releasing the findings.
Most of the more than 30 complaints referred to a law firm were determined to be unfounded or unsubstantiated, or the officers in question were exonerated.
“We can…agree that this report painfully highlights the need to pass meaningful police reform in Columbus and ensure greater accountability through the creation of an independent Inspector General and a citizen review board,” Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-Columbus) wrote in a statement after the results were released.
Beatty, Columbus City Council president Shannon Hardin and Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce, all of whom are Black, were doused with pepper spray by officers during disturbances outside the Statehouse on June 6.
“I am frustrated and disagree with the initial report and the fact that so few officers can be held accountable for their overt and unnecessary use of force,” Hardin said.
“We are once again witnesses to a demonstration of the deficiency and ineffectiveness of the system and how it is ultimately designed to discount and discredit [citizen complaints],” Boyce said.
An issue has been placed on the Nov. 3 ballot in Columbus calling for the establishment of a civilian review board with subpoena powers and an office of an inspector general to investigate complaints of excessive use of force by police.
The city referred 32 of the complaints it received to the law firm of Baker Hostetler to investigate to determine if officers’ actions violated Division of Police policy and whether they should be referred to the division for discipline or administrative action, Ginther said.
Twenty-one offenses have been turned over to a former FBI agent to investigate potential criminal charges, he said.
According to the report, 25 of the companits were “not sustained,” which Ginther says meant that there was not a preponderance of evidence to prove the complaint or exonerate the officers. One complaint so far has been sustained, he said.
Nine of the complaints were reportedly deemed “unfounded” and four officers were exonerated. Two of the complaints were withdrawn.