CANTON, Ohio — A civil rights group in Canton is calling for changes within the police department following the controversial deployment of a police K-9 during a chaotic traffic stop last month. This comes as the Canton Police Department released the involved officer's personnel file on Monday.
Officer Nicholas Casto grew up in Northeast Ohio, per the documents reviewed by 3News. He's been with the Canton Police Department since April 2014 and completed his peace officer basic training at Kent State University later that year.
His background investigation during the application process included high recommendations from former employers and friends. There was no criminal record; only some speeding tickets. His file showed he had applied to the Akron Police Department a year earlier, but did not pass the physical test.
Since joining the Canton Police Department, Casto has received five certificates of commendation for good police work, including saving the life of a man who had overdosed. The most recent commendation came in November last year.
But on May 30, Police Chief John Gabbard says Casto violated department policy when he deployed his K-9 on a man face down on the ground with his hands behind his back. In reports released Monday, officers reported the same man repeatedly provoked and threatened the K-9m and that they warned him he would be arrested.
"To preserve the integrity of this department, to demonstrate my commitment to our values, and out of my responsibility to the officers and community I serve, I had no choice but to recommend to the Director of Public Safety the termination of Officer Casto's employment with the Canton Police Department," Gabbard said back on June 7.
"We want to see de-escalation, and in that video, we didn't see de-escalation," Greater Stark County Urban League President and CEO Thomas West said in a Monday interview with WKYC. "We didn't see de-escalation in the Frank Tyson video (either).
Four days after Gabbard called for Casto's firing, the Urban League sent a letter to Canton city leaders calling for a "re-imagined" police department founded on "integrity" and "respect for our community," "designed to foster trust."
"We like to believe that we are the bridge — the bridge between the community and the police department," West told us. "I think we're in the right position at the right time for us to really make some positive changes in our police department — reimagining it like a department that we all would grow to respect, a police department that has integrity."
West said such a department "would embody several key principles and practices," which can be viewed in the letter below:
According to West, the response from city leaders has been positive so far. 3News reached out for comment from the police department on Monday and is still waiting to hear back.