Check out the Oversight Board website for all of their information and information about their upcoming meetings akronohio.gov/government/boa…

Board vice chair Donzella Anuszkiewicz started the meeting at 6:00 PM with board members Robert Gippin, Shawn Peoples, Ericka Burney-Hawkins, Cati Castle, Brandyn Costa and Crystal Jones present Board chair Kemp Boyd and board member Beverly Richards were absent

The previous meeting minutes passed unanimously A community member said her son is "being abused" in jail because of bad decisions from the Akron Police Department (APD) Anuszkiewicz said a 14 year old shooter killed 4 kids in a Georgia School Shooting nytimes.com/live/2024/09/0…

Deputy auditor Keysha Myers said she is ready to "get busy" Auditor Anthony Finnell said there are not a lot of cases at this time because they are still training Myers and are prioritizing a request for proposal for case management software . signalakron.org/new-deputy-pol…

He said he is working with APD's blue team software which helps him send and receive case information with the APD replacing shared Google Drive folders He said the software will allow him to assign files to different staffers to review iapro.com/pages/blueteam

He said the program will give him notifications when new files are uploaded He said he plans to hire Akron High School interns to assist with data input into Blue Team Anuszkiewicz asked how the student interns will be vetted and trained to keep data confidential

Finnell said they will rely on school counselors recommending students and students will be subject to internal training and policies including a ban on cellphone use

Jones asked if it's the role of the auditor to answer questions in complaints about how the public should interact with the police Finnell said he will not respond to questions until an APD investigation into a complaint is complete

Jones asked what the auditor can do if a party disagrees with the auditor's report Finnell said he is unable to reissue an investigation or report Gippin said the review committee can meet with the auditor and can give a report recommendation disagreeing with the auditor

Anuszkiewicz said the public has questions about how to interact with the police at their homes and said they need to integrate those questions into future community engagement Costa said he advises against the board advising the public of their legal rights

Finnell said there are other "know your rights" organizations that the board can work with Gippin said under the current rules they can only review complaints after the fact and said they need to make the entire public aware of that

He said the independent legal counsel for the board will be independent from the board but controlled by the City of Akron Law Department. He said he will meet with the law department about it

Burney-Hawkins said she informed a vendor that there isn't funding for a $20,000 survey of African American males ages 17-55 about their fear of police Costa said there is "definitely" money in the budget Gippin said they need to discuss this in committee

Finnell said they need to discuss the purpose of the survey in committee. He said there isn't staff to implement the findings of the survey and "there won't be for a while" He said they need to prioritize IT needs over a survey

Burney-Hawkins asked if somebody would take her place as chair of the public engagement committee because she does not have time to host committee meetings Anuszkiewicz said they will discuss it when board chair Boyd returns

Finnell said he met with the mayor's administration to build next year's budget Anuszkiewicz asked if they know what will be in the budget Finnell said they will prioritize the new database

Gippin asked if they have developed an evaluation process for the yearly review Finnell said he has not and he is going to work with the board to determine how evaluations will work going forward

Anuszkiewicz asked if that auditor's office is fully staffed, except for the statistician Finnell said he wants to revisit the executive assistant position in October

Anuszkiewicz said they need to change how they do community engagement so they can do something more meaningful Costa said they need to support the chair of the community engagement committee. He said they need to build a community engagement structure for staff

Finnell said they need to rely on the staff less because the staff is already doing all they can for community engagement Anuszkiewicz said they need to restructure community engagement because they now have auditor

Gippin said they shouldn't add to the work of auditors but board members need to be out in the community Finnell said they need to discuss moving meetings to once a month to save on staffing costs and have more substantial discussions

The meeting ended at 7:23 pm. The next Citizens Police Oversight Board meeting will be September 18 at 6 pm at Akron City Hall (166 S. High Street). For more coverage check out Akron.Documenters.Org

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