“Even though we’re not changing the legal standard … it’s a different way to get there,” said Dayton police Chief Kamran Afzal.
“Not using unnecessary force was part of the DNA for the DPD long before any of us came together to discuss use of force issues,” he said.
But the proposed policy does not contain some of the most important recommendations of a use of force police reform working group, including a change to say police should use only “necessary” force, said Angelina Jackson, chair of a use of force advisory committee.
“The city law department cited redundancy and concern over the length of the policy in reaching this decision,” Jackson said. “Their rationale did not make any mention of public and officer safety, which is the primary consideration underlying the recommendations.”
Five Dayton police reform working groups met for months and developed and issued 142 recommendations for changes to policies, practices, training, recruitment and other activities.
A working group focused on use of force produced 21 recommendations for changes, and police say 13 are finished or complete and ongoing and a couple are in progress.
But a few other recommendations to revise the city’s use of force policy were “delayed” and have not yet been accepted by the Dayton City Commission, even though they were issued in March 2021.
“The working group’s policy recommendations are designed to minimize force, reduce citizen and officer injury and prevent officers from being placed in situations that endanger themselves or others,” said Jackson, with the Use of Force Committee.
Law department officials said they needed time to review and evaluate the proposed language and consult with national experts while getting additional input from members of the police department, the reform working group, the police union and outside agencies that went through police reform changes, like the Cleveland Police Department.
Use of force policy changes have significant implications because these can be life or death situations for officers and community members, said Barbara Doseck, Dayton’s law director.
The law department’s 17-page proposed use of force policy includes something like 80% of the working group’s recommended language verbatim, police and law officials said.
But the use of force police reform working group recommended changing the policy to state that police should only use force that is necessary, objectively reasonable based on the totality of circumstances, and proportional the level of resistance or aggression or noncompliance.
The law department’s proposed policy says officers should only use force that is proportional and objectively reasonable, but it does not include the word “necessary.”
Numerous cities across the nation, from tiny Hopewell, New Jersey, to big cities like Chicago, all have included the word “necessary” alongside of “proportional” and “objectively reasonable” in their use of force policies, said Jacob Wourms, vice chair of the ongoing Use of Force Committee.
The Cleveland Police Department has the word necessary in its use of force general order.
“Cleveland has implemented many policy provisions similar to those being recommended and has seen reductions in both use of force and officer injury, removing the notion of an added burden on law enforcement,” Wourms said.
The working group also wanted police to revise their policy to include specific use of force prohibitions, most of which are not included in the law department’s proposal.
The recommended language in general would prohibit police from using or threatening to use force to resolve a situation more quickly; subdue a person who is not suspected of criminal conduct; retaliate against another person and respond to people engaged in the lawful exercise of First Amendment rights.
However, the law department’s proposal contains the reform working group’s recommendations to specifically prohibit the use or threatening of force to prevent a person from resisting or fleeing in the future and against people who are handcuffed or restrained and compliant.
Andrew Sexton, Dayton’s general counsel, said the Dayton Police Department’s rules of conduct — which predate police reform — already forbid officers from engaging in most of the prohibited activities that the working group recommended spelling out in the use of force general order.
One provision says officers will not verbally abuse or use unnecessary force against any person in custody, and another says officers will not willfully mistreat or give inhumane treatment to any person being arrested or held in custody, Sexton said.
The rules of conduct also say “an officer will use only such force as is necessary in effecting an arrest” and “no officer will use unnecessary force against any citizen.”
Chief Afzal said the rules of conduct govern all actions and interactions by DPD officers — not just those connected to use of force.
Dayton police officers used force just 152 times last year, even though they responded to 139,760 calls for service or self-initiated incidents, and the true number of citizen contacts is probably way higher than that, Afzal said.
Use of force incidents are rare “split-second decisions,” Afzal said, adding that the goal is to make the ideas and requirements in the policy instinctive and second nature.
The policy already is 17 pages long and it would be a mistake to make it overly complicated and confusing, he said.
The Use of Force Committee will meet early next month to discuss the law department’s proposal and provide feedback.
Ultimately, a proposal will be sent to the city commission for consideration.
Police and law officials say it could take 12 to 18 months to train the entire department on a new use of force policy, if approved.
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