SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — The battle between Shaker Heights leadership and a community group seeking reform of the city's police department appears to have reached a resolution satisfying both sides.
City Council this week passed a "Framework for Maintaining a Safe and Just Shaker Heights" that the political action committee Shaker Citizens for Fair Ticketing calls "the biggest police and safety reform legislation in the state of Ohio." As part of the agreement, the PAC will remove its proposed charter amendments from the November ballot.
In March, Shaker Citizens for Fair Ticketing begin collecting signatures for its proposed ballot initiative, which proposed expanding crisis intervention training, establishing a citizens police oversight board, and creating a new "Non-Violent Community Administration Department" that would take duties like ticket distribution and responding to non-violent crimes away from the normal police department. In making its case, the PAC cited evidence showing Shaker Heights officers issue 71% of their traffic tickets to Black drivers even though only 36% of the city's population is Black.
Per Shaker Heights City Council, the group obtained enough signatures to get the issue on the ballot, but instead officials began negotiating with the activists to come up with a compromise. The results of those negotiations were approved by legislators on Monday, and call for:
- A community-wide listening project, designed and facilitated by an independent third-party facilitator and/or consultant, to have a community-wide discussion on policing policies and practices.
- A commitment by the city to continue working towards an expansion of its Mental Health Response Program.
- The creation of a community advisory group to advise the mayor (in their elected role and as safety director), the police chief, the chief administrative officer, and City Council.
- The posting online of public records of the Shaker Heights Police Department to make access easier for the public, including data by demographic and other metrics.
According to Shaker Citizens for Fair Ticketing, the police department has committed to, among other things, halting "non-safety related traffic stops" as well as patrolling neighborhoods "based on yearly surveys" so that majority Black neighborhoods "will no longer be unfairly targeted." The city's crisis intervention team will also expand to 24 hours a day.
The PAC and the city released a joint statement on the deal which read, in part:
"The City acknowledges that profiling and bias in policing exists throughout our nation, and that this national problem has disproportionately negatively impacted people of color. Shaker Heights is committed to its efforts to combat this problem by continuing to work toward safe, equitable, transparent, and accountable policing, to avoid biased or discriminatory policing, and to strive to achieve a just City for all persons who live, work and visit the City."
Mayor David E. Weiss and Police Chief Wayne Hudson also recorded a video message where they acknowledged "a variety of significant concerns" with Shaker Citizens for Fair Ticketing's initial charter amendments, but expressed enthusiasm to move forward under the terms of the new agreement.
"We are committed to combatting [profiling and bias in policing] by continuing to work toward safe, equitable, transparent, and accountable policing, avoid[ing] biased or discriminatory policing, and striv[ing] to achieve a just City for all persons who live, work and visit Shaker Heights," Hudson, the city's first Black police chief, said. "It's an ongoing commitment."
Weiss added details regarding the listening project will be announced "in the months ahead." You can read the full legislation below:
