COLUMBUS, Ohio – Pledging that “we are going to heal our communities,” Gov. John Kasich created an advisory board yesterday to develop first-ever standards for law-enforcement agencies statewide as a step toward “bridging the gap” between officers and those they serve.
READ MORE: In the Columbus Dispatch
Kasich wants better-trained, high-quality police officers on Ohio’s streets and a statewide standard specifying the situations in which officers are empowered to use deadly force.
He issued an executive order creating the advisory panel yesterday after accepting recommendations from his Ohio Task Force on Community-Police Relations after four months of hearings and study.
“The governor of this state is not going to look the other way,” Kasich said. “It is not acceptable to have these divisions between our friends in the African-American community and law enforcement.”
Set against the backdrop of Ferguson, Mo., and fatal shootings of a black boy and black man by white police officers in Ohio, Kasich created the task force last December in a bid to ease distrust and avert rioting and violence seen in other states.
Creation of the 12-member Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board panel was one of the recommendations included in the task force’s 600-page report.
The panel’ s first job will be to draft standards for the use of deadly force, hiring, and recruiting for Ohio’s approximately 800 law enforcement agencies.
“We will create the first statewide standards on a number of these things,” Kasich said. “We don’t want people in the streets, burning buildings and hating one another. We have to do this. It has to work.”
The plan met with skepticism from the union representing most of Ohio’s police officers.
“What might work for one agency might not work for another. We’ve got rural areas, we’ve got urban areas,” said Mike Weinman, director of government affairs for the Fraternal Order of Police.
Ohio has minimum standards for police officers, but none for police agencies. The advisory board is being asked to come up with standards on the use of deadly force and officer recruiting and hiring within 90 days.
According to Kasich’s office, the panel will continue taking feedback from the public and will report annually on its work and the compliance of local law enforcement agencies.