Wooster police announce policy reforms
WOOSTER – Two years to the day after George Floyd was killed by a Minnesota police officer, Wooster’s daily Black Lives Matter protesters announced their first major victory in their campaign for police reform.
A combined news release Wednesday from the Wayne County Racial Justice Coalition, the Wooster/orrville NAACP and the Wooster Police Department outlined the changes.
Official Wooster PD policy will now limit the use of no-knock warrants, carotid holds and chokeholds by its officers.
These changes reflect the reality on the ground, which shows officers rarely use any of the three, said Desiree Weber, founding member of the Racial Justice Coalition.
They also reflect federal policy, which limits the use of such holds and warrants, said Weber, also the chair of the Wooster/orrville NAACP Political and Community Engagement Committee.
This announcement comes after months of closed-door meetings and behind-the-scenes talks between the coalition, NAACP leaders, Police Chief Matthew Fisher, Assistant Police Chief Scott Rotolo and City Council Member Scott Myers, who attended as a private citizen.
Months of meetings and dialogue
The announcement marks 725 consecutive days of rallies on Wooster’s public square, and it also caps the end of months of deliberation between the three parties.
Among the coalition’s primary goals established nearly two years ago, are policy changes regarding chokeholds, carotid holds, no-knock warrants, police data transparency and diversity in hiring.
The BLM group said members will continue the daily rallies until all of their objectives are met.
Members of the coalition and NAACP, such as Weber, attended Wooster City Council meetings and Let’s Chat sessions and met with council members starting in June 2020.
According to the press release, Myers approached the coalition in December 2021, asking for police to be included in direct talks.
“After attending some Racial Justice Coalition meetings and reviewing their five policy goals – and with the knowledge that these issues represent tragic headlines in national news – I felt grateful to live in the Wooster community,” Myers said. “I was pleased to learn that the day-to-day (police) activities, training, and practices, were consistent with these five policy goals. I coordinated several meetings of the two groups to discuss.”
Three months later on Feb. 9, the coalition, police and NAACP reached an agreement to change the department policy on three topics..
“Everyone at our meeting was willing to listen, consider a different perspective and work toward a common goal of making Wooster, Ohio, safe for residents and law enforcement officers,” wrote Fisher. “We hope that we can be an example to others of the positive outcomes that can be reached through dialogue, conversations, and working together (even when we might disagree).”
How have these policies changed in Wooster?
Prior to these changes, carotid holds were never defined in Wooster police policy manuals. According to the Wooster Police Department, local officers receive no training in carotid holds.
Carotid holds and chokeholds now can only be used in situations that require deadly force, according to the new policy, placing these holds in the same category as firearms.
While both holds were rarely, if ever used, the goal was to make chokeholds more reflective of federal executive orders and state mandates, according to the NAACP and Racial Justice Coalition.
“For carotid control holds, this policy adoption is an example of WPD taking the lead to define an area of policy that was previously entirely absent from the policy manual,” the organizations said in the combined release.
Announce and knock warrants and daytime warrants are now the default policy for Wooster law enforcement.
A higher standard of fact and circumstance is now set for seeking no-knock warrants. Those facts and circumstances also must be stated in the affidavit submitted to the courts.
The new policy says the chief of police or command staff in his absence must approve any warrants that are not the default warrants.
“Change can be difficult, but it is great to see these policy changes be implemented – especially because they are the result of open and genuinely collaborative work by law enforcement and community members,” Weber said.
Going forward, the Racial Justice Coalition and NAACP hope to increase police transparency and diversity, she said.
“These changes to the policies on chokeholds, carotid holds, and noknock warrants not only make all members of the community safer, but that they will lead to further collaborative
projects to make changes that will benefit everyone,” Weber said.
How deadly are chokeholds and carotid holds?
A carotid hold is used to restrain an individual by restricting blood flow through the carotid artery, which passes through the neck, by applying pressure.
Unlike chokeholds that restrict airflow through the windpipe to cause unconsciousness or submission, carotid holds do not restrict airways.
Instead, this hold reduces blood flow to the brain, sometimes causing unconsciousness.
Some cities like Chicago have classified carotid holds as deadly force, limiting the use, following widespread protests against chokeholds in 2020.
Chokeholds have shown to be deadly. George Floyd died in 2020 after an officer knelt on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds in Minnesota.
In 2019, a New York City police officer put Eric Garner in a chokehold, which led to his death.
Other instances recorded by USA TODAY include Hector Arreola in Columbus, Georgia, and Muhammad Abdul Muhaymin in Phoenix, Arizona, and around 134 other cases of asphyxiation or restraint that led to deaths in police custody between 2010 and 2020.
Cities such as New York banned chokeholds while Los Angeles limited the use to situations that require deadly force. In 2020, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that encouraged law enforcement agencies to consider limiting the use of chokeholds, while Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine announced changes to the minimum standard for use of deadly force.
One year later in September 2021, the Department of Justice announced more restrictive guidelines on chokeholds, carotid holds and no-knock warrants for federal law enforcement.
How no-knock warrants can turn deadly
In no-knock warrants, officers do not knock or announce themselves.
They barge into a building with a warrant, often catching those inside unware, Jim Bueermann, a retired Redlands, California, police chief and former National Police Foundation president, told USA TODAY in February.
“If you’re sound asleep when somebody comes barging in your house, and the first time they’re announcing they’re the police they’re inside the door and there’s multiple voices yelling ‘search warrant,’ and multiple people yelling at him to show their hands ... he may think he’s a victim of a home invasion robbery,” Bueermann said.
While law enforcement officials have argued that no-knock warrants are necessary to prevent the destruction of evidence or to keep officers safe, their use has been increasingly regulated in recent years, USA TODAY reported.
No-knock warrants have resulted in the deaths of citizens not listed on the warrants, prompting such regulations.
The most recent high-profile case was in February when Amir Locke was killed after police entered his home and shot him in Minneapolis.
According to body camera footage acquired by USA TODAY, officers woke Locke when they announced their presence after opening the door to his home with a key.
An officer shot Locke twice in the chest and once in the wrist after he reached for a firearm.
At the time, law enforcement officers were conducting a search warrant as part of a homicide investigation. Locke was not on the warrant, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman.
Reach Bryce by email at bbuyakie@gannett.com
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