Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein said the police chief’s highest priorities include overseeing the ongoing police reform work and improving police-community relations.
“He has a demonstrated track record for engaging community and valuing community engagement in his leadership,” she said.
Afzal starts his new job on Monday, Dec. 20, three days after interim police Chief Matt Carper plans to retire.
Afzal, who most recently was the police chief in Hopewell, Va., will be in charge of a department with more than 360 sworn officers and a budget of more than $60 million.
One of Afzal’s responsibilities will be to ensure the police reform process that began last year after the racial justice protests sparked by George Floyd’s death stays on track, and that proposed changes are carried out, city leaders say.
Most of the 142 police reform recommendations have entered the implementation phase, and supporters say they have the potential to transform public safety in the city.
One prime example is a plan to send mediation specialists instead of armed officers to certain kinds of calls, such as neighbor disputes, panhandling and animal complaints.
But completing all of the police reform work is expected to be a heavy lift, and there’s some evidence that police-community relations are headed in the wrong direction.
A citywide survey conducted earlier this year found that satisfaction with police services in Dayton declined to the lowest level since 2016.
About 52.1% of respondents said they were content with services, down from 56.4% in the last survey in 2019.
Dissatisfaction with police services increased to 17.9% of residents ― up from 15.1% in 2019, according to the survey that was conducted between late May and late July.
The survey also found that the share of respondents who said policing services were “very important” to them dropped 10 percentage points to 62%, compared to 2019.
Similarly, there was a 10-percentage-point drop in the share of respondents who said they had a “great deal” of respect for police in Dayton (52%), compared to 2018.
The survey suggests the relationship between police and community members is not as strong as it has been in the past, said Steve Raabe, owner of OpinionWorks, which helped administer the survey.
Raabe said the survey also found that only about 45% of residents agree or strongly agree that police are responsive to the needs of their neighborhoods and that police are held accountable for their actions.
“The idea of accountability is something the majority of residents have reservations about,” he said.
Some members of the police reform groups said they hope some of the proposed changes to policies and practices will improve accountability.
When implemented, the reform recommendations hopefully will help prevent police from using inappropriate and unnecessary force, said Theresa Haire, the Montgomery County public defender who was a member of the use-of-force reform group.
Some community members say there are still big issues that need to be fixed, illustrated by a traffic stop in September in which police dragged a paraplegic man from his vehicle.
A representative for the police union declined to comment for this article, but union leaders have denied that officers did anything wrong during that encounter.
Some police supporters have said the survey is a small sample (1,200 responses) and not a true representation of the larger community’s feelings toward the police department.
Afzal said the relationship between police and the community is extremely important, but he noted that surveys are snapshots of a moment in time.
Afzal said he’s not surprised by the survey results since for the past year or so communities generally have heard a narrative about policing that he believes isn’t true.
Afzal said his philosophy is to push the narrative that police are here serve the community instead of police it.
The citywide survey results also show that Dayton residents think the city is getting safer, and police data show declines in most serious types of crime.
Part I violent crimes — including homicides, rape, aggravated robbery and aggravated assault — have declined more than 16%, according to police data through mid-November.
Part I property crimes, like breaking and entering and burglary, also have seen significant reductions.
A growing share of residents say they both feel safe alone in their neighborhoods during the day (86.5%), as well as safe alone at night (56.6%), the survey found.
“The feeling of personal safety is at a high level right now — higher than it’s ever been,” said Raabe.
City Manager Dickstein said the survey results didn’t surprise her, because across the nation, community-police relations have been strained in the last year or longer.
“I don’t think the work of policing or being the chief of police is ever an easy job — I think it’s particularly challenging right now regarding community sentiment, regarding availability of resources,” she said.
Dickstein said she believes Afzal will be able to bring people together to mend and enhance the relationship between the community and police.
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