Police response to protests under review
A former United States attorney and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs will conduct a thorough, researchbased review of the city’s preparedness, communication and response to protests Downtown, City Attorney Zach Klein announced Wednesday.
The review will be similar to those conducted in cities such as Charlottesville following a 2017 protest involving white supremacists that resulted in the death of a counterprotester, Klein said.
“The reality is these protests aren’t going anywhere,” Klein said. “While the reasons may change, we will still have
protests.”
Klein said the review will be led by Carter Stewart, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and will be conducted with the help of the John Glenn College at a cost of $250,000.
The majority of that money, just over $200,000, will be paid with funds from the police division’s drug seizure account. About $49,000 will come from the city’s general fund.
Klein said he consulted with people involved in the Charlottesville review and learned that a large part of the eventual report — aside from policy recommendations and a full examination of the city and law enforcement response — was community healing.
“It’s a process where businesses, protesters, police all could look at the report and see that it was done truly independently and objectively so the city could move forward post-protest,” Klein said.
The review will examine the preparedness of the city for a protest like the one that began on May 28 in response to the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police, as well as communication and police and city leadership response until as recently as July 18.
Stewart was “the right person at the right time to bring independent credibility and voice“to the review, Klein said, because of his level of expertise, community ties and lack of involvement in local politics.
This review, which will culminate with a written report presented to City Council by the end of the year, will be a “holistic” look at the city’s response versus the investigations into individual officers’ actions and isolated incidents.
Stewart said the team of researchers and investigators will be multidisciplinary, and who is picked to be a part of the team will determine how much trust the community has.
The eventual research will take a three-pronged approach, Stewart said. The team will gather evidence and information through interviews with protesters, witnesses and law enforcement and a review of communications, incident reports, videos and other similar evidence.
The group will be looking to interview people involved in “key incidents” and then working backwards, as well as asking people to reach out to be involved in interviews, Stewart said. John Glenn College Dean Trevor Brown said the interviews will be conducted confidentially and will not be recorded, adding an extra layer of privacy.
Brown said faculty and staff members and students will be involved in the process, both as interviewees and interviewers.
Stewart said a group of researchers and independent experts will analyze the gathered information to evaluate where gaps may have existed between community expectations and what happened.
That analysis will then lead to research-informed recommendations for the city on how to respond better in the future to similar incidents, as well as what to continue doing right.
Mayor Andrew J. Ginther, City Council President Shannon Hardin and Police Chief Thomas Quinlan all said Wednesday they support this research and look forward to reviewing the finished report and recommendations.
Quinlan said he believes officers will be forthcoming and speak freely as part of the investigation because of the added layer of confidentiality that doesn’t exist in the ongoing investigations into potential administrative and criminal misconduct.
“To look forward, we must sometimes pause and look backward,” Quinlan said. “Ultimately, any failures ... rest on my shoulders.” bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner