Community members worried Dayton police reform efforts have stalled

They say they are concerned that some long-term police reform committees have not been operational and some recommendations for police reforms have stalled.

“We are aware that many recommendations have been implemented,” said Julio Mateo, who served on a police reform working group. “We also have lots of questions about other recommendations that we either don’t know the status of, they have not been implemented at all or they were implemented at first but were abandoned later by city officials for reasons that have not been shared with the public ...”

Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr. said though the police reform process has not been perfect or easy, the city remains committed to the original spirit and intent of reforms.

He said the city’s adopted more than 80% of the 142 police reform recommendations and the work continues.

He also said, “I’ve heard community members requests for a public update on police reform and have asked city staff to provide it, a future work session will be scheduled.”

“Regarding the long-term working groups, we are in process of developing a new Community Appeals Board ordinance and Use of Force Committee ordinance to strengthen the functionality and overall effectiveness of these groups,” he said.

A year ago

Dayton’s Use of Force Committee has not met since November 2022 even though its members say they asked the city to convene a meeting multiple times.

By charter, the committee is supposed to meet quarterly for responsibilities like helping prepare the annual use of force report.

A city ordinance, passed in late 2021, says the committee’s functions include regularly analyzing use of force data from the police department to assess changes; reviewing best practices in use-of-force policies around the nation; and making recommendations to the city commission for policy changes.

Committee members are appointed by the city commission.

In late June, Use of Force Committee members sent a letter to the mayor, city commissioners and the commission’s chief of staff that asked the city to arrange a meeting for the group, according to documents obtained by the Dayton Daily News through a public records request.

“Due to the city placing our committee on hold indefinitely, we have not been fulfilling our quarterly meeting obligations (our last meeting was November 2022) nor any of our task obligations assigned to us,” says the letter, which was signed by the committee’s six members.

Mayor Mims sent committee members a message in mid-August saying he asked Verletta Jackson, the commission’s chief of staff, not to convene a meeting.

Mims wrote that he planned to work with his colleagues on the city commission to develop and implement a new use of force committee ordinance to form a new committee.

“My aim is to have this new ordinance introduced and approved in the coming weeks,” he wrote. “From there, the process of establishing the new committee under the new ordinance will begin. There will be an opportunity to reapply to the committee for those that are interested in doing so.”

The mayor, back in January, sent committee members a message that said the city commission was considering some “structural changes” to the Use of Force Committee, according to emails obtained by this newspaper.

The mayor said this was supposed to “make sure the body is set up successfully to achieve its mission.”

Reaction

Jacob Wourms, co-chair of the Use of Force Committee, told this newspaper that he doesn’t know and can’t speculate what’s going on behind the scenes that would explain why the city hasn’t helped and allowed the committee meet.

But he said committee members remain committed to volunteering their time and talent for the important purpose of police reform.

“There’s a group of really well-intentioned, involved citizens who want to help,” he said. “To the public’s knowledge, the group still exists and we’ve been meeting and doing our work — that hasn’t happened.”

He added, “We as a group really want to continue the work, and we think it’s important work and we think police reform is an ongoing need — it’s definitely not something that’s been accomplished.”

Kevin J. Watt, a committee member, said he believes the mayor and other city leaders want to dissolve the current group and replace it with a new one.

He said he thinks this is taking place because committee members did not budge when it came to a proposed use-of-force policy for the police department.

“That’s 1,000 percent the only reason,” he said.

A police reform working group recommended that Dayton police change its policy to say that police would only use force that is “necessary” and proportional and objectively reasonable.

Dayton police, and the police department’s general counsel, opposed revising the policy to include the term necessary.

City law officials said creating a more strict standard than what the law requires would be a bad idea, particularly from a liability standpoint.

Wourms said many other police departments across the nation have use-of-force policies that require officers to use necessary force.

Watt said a police reform group, made up of citizens, did a lot of research and work and wanted the term necessary in the language.

He said he does not think the police department’s wishes should take precedence over what the community desires.

“If you don’t want to do what the citizens say you should do in the jurisdiction in which you work then you can go get another job,” he said.

Watt said the city is quietly disbanding the Use of Force Committee because its members were not willing to be a “rubber-stamp.”

Watt said he wants the city to reconvene the existing Use of Force Committee, but he doesn’t think that’s going to happen. He said the city should explain and have to defend its reasons for trying to get rid of the existing group.

Mims told this newspaper that in areas where there has been disagreement the city has tried to bring in expert opinions and review research to produce the best possible outcomes for the safety of residents and police.

Andy Sexton, the police department’s general counsel, said at a meeting this past spring that it is important to craft a use-of-force policy that’s right for the city, and the city wanted a policy consistent with the law and the national standard.

“We’re always looking at best practices and we talk about policy daily, if not weekly and we look at other cities and other situations that occur,” he said. “Other cities are putting necessity into their policies, but that’s what’s been deemed appropriate for that community. ... We don’t have that use-of-force issue that Baltimore had or Cleveland had.”

Police reform questions

On Wednesday, Mateo, a community activist, spoke at the Dayton City Commission meeting where he urged the city to host a public meeting to provide an update on ongoing police reform activities.

Mateo was one of 14 community members who signed and sent multiple letters to city officials and leaders in the last couple of months raising concerns about the ongoing police reform process.

More than 100 community participated in Dayton’s police reform process, and half a dozen signed the letters asking for a status update.

The community members said they are worried that recommendations that came out of the police reform process have stalled and the public is not being informed on a regular basis about what’s going on and any progress being made.

They said they believe the long-term police reform committees that were promised during the implementation phase are not operational.

“We asked City Manager (Shelley) Dickstein to host through the city an open, and facilitated public meeting to answer questions about the status of many police reform recommendations,” a message sent on Monday states. “We know you understand the importance of transparency in government, but unfortunately that has not been maintained when it comes to police reform.”