First Posted: 2/18/2015
COLUMBUS — A bill introduced Tuesday in the Ohio Senate would appropriate $15 million toward the training of law officers in community-policing techniques. However, it stopped short of providing communities with money for the hiring of officers.
Senate Bill 23 would establish a Community Police Relations Commission, require training in community focused de-escalation techniques, and require the collection of data on the use of force and racial interaction in Ohio.
Recent events in Beavercreek, Cleveland, Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City have brought attention to the relationships between police and the communities they are sworn to protect.
“These incidents indicate a deeper systemic problem that requires a long-term solution,” said state Sen. Cecil Thomas, D-Cincinnati, the bill’s sponsor.
Community policing has been an issue in Lima in recent months with the local branch of the NAACP as well as a group of black ministers pushing for it. City Council appropriated funds for the hiring of three officers as well as a supervisor. However, funding the program in the long-term could be a problem.
The three-prong approach pushed in Senate Bill 23 would do the following:
•Establish an 18-member Ohio Community-Policy Relations Commission (non-compensated) to investigate and evaluate the circumstances and standards surrounding the use of force in police response to conflict situations and recommend best practices. It would appropriate $700,000 in 2015 to develop the Community Police Relations Commission.
•Requires that peace officers and troopers, as a part of their annual 24-hour continuing professional training, complete a minimum of six hours over a three-year period in each of the areas of de-escalation techniques, mental health and special-condition response, and cultural sensitivity.
•Requires the race, age and sex of one or more individuals be recorded after each officer-related incident if the law enforcement agency requires a report to be filed. It also would require a law enforcement officer who issues a traffic ticket to record the perceived race of the individual.
“This bill is not a final solution to the issues that need to be addressed, but it is a good starting point for our state to work toward better community and police relations,” Thomas said.
Thomas is a veteran of the Cincinnati Police Department, and former executive director of the Cincinnati Human Relations Committee. He was instrumental in diffusing civil unrest in Cincinnati in 2001.
