Touted police reform plan hasn’t appeared
In early December, Gov. Mike Dewine reaffirmed his commitment to a series of policing reforms ranging from a statewide database of discipline and use-of-force incidents to professional licensing.
“There is really no reason why we should not move forward in regard to this bill,” the Republican governor said during a news conference. “It helps to protect the police, and it helps to protect the public. These are reforms that are timely and reforms that need to be made.”
However, more than a year after George Floyd’s death and eight months since the reforms were promised, there is still no bill.
What happened to reforms?
When the murder of Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer sparked nationwide protests and conversations on race and policing, Dewine in the summer of 2020 said he would ask the Gop-controlled Ohio Legislature to implement a series of police reforms.
This April, the governor outlined elements of the reform package, which also included an oversight board for police officers. He announced that Rep. Cindy Abrams, R-harrison, and Rep. Phil Plummer, R-dayton, would be the ones crafting the bill, to be introduced “in a few days.”
But by the time lawmakers went off for summer break in July, nothing had appeared.
Countless discussions were held with community leaders and law enforcement circles, Abrams and Plummer said, but concerns from officers about who was on the oversight board and how licensing would play out were still being addressed.
In addition, the two were being consumed with trying to pass out a state budget by the June 30 deadline.
“We’ll review the bill and hammer out the differences this summer. We should be ready when we get back,” Plummer told the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau at the time.
Stalled since the summer
But there haven’t been any conversations on the potential bill since the summer break, said Michael Weinman, a lobbyist for the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio.
Abrams confirmed that. Ohio Democrats have expressed frustration over that lack of action throughout the year, especially as their own bills for police reform have gone nowhere.
“Well over a year has passed since Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. Months have passed since the killings of Ohioans Casey Goodson, Jr. and Andre Hill. Yet this Legislature has refused to act,” said Canton Rep. Thomas West, president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, in October.
Abrams denied that the potential bill was dead or being kicked to the bottom of the list. It’s just that this year has been unusually full of urgent issues, she said, from redistricting to vaccines to other matters.
“It’s been a busy, busy, busy, busy year for the general assembly,” she said in response to criticisms about how long it’s been delayed. “We just haven’t had a chance to come back and really focus in on what we were doing with that.”
Abrams noted that she put in the state budget $15 million for police training. However, a use-of-force database was taken out of the budget in the hopes it would be more fully vetted in the reform package, Weinman said.
Abrams said she doesn’t have a timeline on when the reform package will be introduced and has to sit down with Plummer to talk about it. There’s still a year left for legislative business this cycle.
Titus Wu is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
“It’s been a busy, busy, busy, busy year for the general assembly. We just haven’t had a chance to come back and really focus in on what we were doing with that.” Rep. Cindy Abrams, R-harrison