'Wow. Wow': 62% of Akron says yes to Issue 10, sending police oversight plan to council, mayor

A campaign born out of protest in the days after the death of Jayland Walker ended when the polls closed at 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. Akron decided it would go further than it has to oversee its police.

With every precinct counted in the unofficial results, 61.7% of Akron voters said yes to Issue 10, which tasks City Council and the mayor with crafting new rules for a more robust civilian oversight board and police auditor next year.

"All I can say is wow. Wow," said Judi Hill, president of the Akron NAACP and a leading proponent of the police reform initiative put on the ballot and approved by the citizens. "The people of Akron have spoken."

A statement released Thursday morning by Walker family attorneys Bobby DiCello and Kenneth Abbarno said the family is “overjoyed and humbled” by the passage of Issue 10, which they called “Jayland’s Law.”

Though advocates have been pushing for police reform and accountability in Akron for years, the shooting death of Walker by Akron police this summer pushed the citizen petition drive forward.

“Jayland’s family is proud to belong to the Akron community, a place where Americans used the democratic process to enact meaningful reform in honor of Jayland’s life and others who have lost their lives to police violence," the attorneys said in the statement.

Hill said Tuesday's results mean Mayor Dan Horrigan and his law director must implement the new civilian review board as envisioned by the thousands of citizens who campaigned to put the issue on the ballot and the nearly 30,000 who voted for it.

The new board must be instituted by the end of July with the rules written into the city's charter by the end of June. Some critics of the proposal say there will be litigation as they believe aspects of the new model of police reform conflicts with the police union contract and the right of officers who use force to remain silent.

Horrigan issued a statement Wednesday morning saying he respects the will of the voters and supports the creation of the Citizens’ Police Oversight Board.

"The City’s Law Department will now take the next steps to determine the best path forward for the creation of the newly passed Board," he said. "... Issue 10 dictates that Akron City Council must pass any required legislation by June 30, 2023, in order to create and implement the Board, and we aim to meet that deadline. We may have chosen different paths to get here, but as long as we're unified in moving forward, I believe the formation of this Board can and will make Akron stronger.”

Getting Issue 10 on the ballot in just two months' time was no small feat. Dozens of activists collected nearly 7,000 signatures, many belonging to new or infrequent voters. Supporters of Issue 10, including civil rights activists at the Akron NAACP and The Freedom BLOC, encouraged petition signers and their neighbors to support the police accountability issue since absentee balloting began a month ago.

On Tuesday, they stood outside precinct locations and transported voters to the polls. "I've taken three myself," Hill said of driving voters to a single location in North Hill.

Live results:See the latest Issue 10 and Summit County results

Flyers on both sides of Issue 10 and robocalls opposing it hit Akron residents in the final days before the election. Opposing political action committees formed to campaign for and against the charter amendment. Reform-minded clergy, Black elected officials and a few members of City Council pushed for the more aggressive, more permanent police oversight in Issue 10, while elected and political officials associated with Horrigan fought to defeat it.

“With this historic win for community safety, Akron is standing up for police accountability, and this is only the beginning,” Esther Ngemba, a spokeswoman for Freedom BLOC, said in a statement Tuesday night celebrating the vote. “You will continue to see us on the doors in every ward to find great candidates for the civilian oversight board. We will seek individuals to build a team of strong, diverse community leaders who will work with the administration to ensure we write the best legislation to ensure safety in our community.”

What Issue 10 means for policing in Akron

The ballot initiative establishes a civilian oversight board with powers beyond what the mayor is already implementing and a police auditor who answers directly to the board and not the mayor.

Horrigan said the 60 applicants who have already applied to be on the Citizen Oversight Board that passed by City Council in September will be kept on file as the city decides the steps needed to implement the will of the voters.

Voters in the minority objected to any additional scrutiny of the police or said the civilian review board the mayor is implementing, along with the current police auditor, is enough. But residents who view the shooting of Walker on June 27 as the latest in a series of unchecked police actions said it's time for more oversight.

"Even if you could argue that it was deserved, in some manner, because the law was broken, it's overkill," Terrelle Harris-Malone said of the eight Akron officers who fired about 60 times at Walker.

Walker's legacy is Harris-Malone's vote. Before joining the movement to protest Walker's killing in July, the 18-year-old Buchtel high school graduate never gave much thought to voting, though his mother spoke often to him of the civic duty.

Issue 10:Akron PACs on either side of police reform in Issue 10 make last-minute appeals to voters

Now, with something on the ballot he could get behind, he's telling all his friends how much it matters.

"Because I was one of the ones that said: 'Yeah, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.'

"It matters, regardless of what you want to vote on; just get out there and vote," he told a reporter while wearing a "Vote for Issue 10" sign around his neck Tuesday and talking to voters entering the Forest Hill Community Learning Center in North Hill.

Issue 10 would codify police auditor's office

Beyond creating a nine-member civilian oversight board with two-thirds appointed by City Council, Issue 10 writes the Office of the Independent Auditor into the city charter, a move that gives the full-time position the power to audit police activity and policies, permanent access to records and, if the police union contract or U.S. Constitution don't conflict, the ability to investigate police behavior and possibly subpoena witnesses.

Support local journalism:6 reasons why you should subscribe to the Akron Beacon Journal

Unlike the mayor's plan for a civilian oversight board, the civilian board created by Issue 10 does not need council or mayoral approval to hire the next police auditor. Advocates say giving the civilian review board, which unlike the mayor's plan will be mostly appointed by council, sole discretion in picking an auditor would remove politics from police oversight and allow future auditors to disagree with future elected officials without fear of losing their jobs.

Phil Young is the only person to hold the police auditor’s position since it was filled in 2007. He quickly lost his first assistant and, with that position unfilled for most of the next 15 years, has struggled on a part-time schedule to review the nearly 200 use-of-force incidents and 40-plus citizen complaints filed against officers each year.

He's repeatedly said he needs more help.

After wrestling with police reform following the murder of George Floyd by an officer in Minneapolis, Akron City Council agreed with Young in January 2021. In the operating budget last year, Horrigan upped Young's workweek to 40 hours and gave him an assistant — a position Young said will finally be filled on Monday with the "first person I’ve had since I can remember."

Issue 10 goes further by proposing a full-time deputy in addition to the full-time assistant.

What voters said at the polls

On top of a nine-member civilian review board, the idea of having three administrative staff policing the police was too much for April Newman, 40, who voted at Buchtel high school with her 9-year-old daughter, Annie, in tow. 

"I felt like it was a little excessive," said the self-described conservative Christian who voted against Issue 10. "I don't have a problem with there being an independent auditor, but I felt like three individuals might have been a little excessive."

Some Akronites objected categorically to external oversight of the police department.

Mathew Goodin, 27, said he opposed Issue 10 as he left his polling location at the Robert J. Otterman Ellet Community Center in Akron.

“I don’t see the point," he said. "And why would we police the police?”

Desmond Watkins, 19, voted yes on Issue 10. 

“I really feel like police need to be held accountable, especially because of the Jayland Walker situation,” said Watkins. “It’s just heartbreaking that had to happen in my city.” 

Watkins said he was a Buchtel graduate, just like Walker.

Reporter Betty Lin-Fisher contributed to this report. Reach Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3792.