“We, the officers, are cooperating with the investigation completely. Union says officers should not have given written statementsĪt the end of August after the Beacon Journal requested a copy of the grievance from the city, Cozart said in an interview that state investigators are essentially stealing work from the Akron Police Department’s persons unit, which typically reviews fatal officer-involved shootings alongside the Office of Professional Standards and Accountability, also known as internal affairs. Mylett, who did not respond to a request for comment on this story, has said he is consulting the police union on a standard procedure for investigating critical incidents moving forward. The results of the state probe, which could take months based on recent BCI cases across Ohio, will be turned over to local prosecutors or a grand jury to decide whether charges are warranted against the officers involved. The use of deadly force, unlike other recent incidents involving one or two officers and far fewer gunshots, prompted the chief to adopt what he called the national “best practice” of calling in an outside agency to establish independent accountability and build community trust in the integrity of the investigative process. Police shot Walker 46 times, according to an autopsy report. Since Walker's death, Mylett has asked BCI to investigate two more officer-involved shootings, each of them non-fatal. The other recent deaths were investigated internally, and the officers involved were returned to active duty within weeks. Walker is at least the 23 rd person killed by Akron police since 2000 and the third since Mayor Dan Horrigan selected Mylett as the new chief last year, according to a database of fatal police encounters maintained by the Beacon Journal. That incident, however, involved a Stow officer who shot and killed a homeless man outside the Haven of Rest in 2017. In the past 22 years of available records, the Beacon Journal could find only one time in which an Akron police chief requested a state investigation after an officer-involved shooting in the city. That arbitrator's final decision would be binding for both sides, according to the collective bargaining agreement between the city and police union. If the union and chief fail to reach an agreement, an arbitrator would be called in to resolve the dispute. Mylett immediately denied the grievance, which could have been reviewed by two levels of supervisors before reaching the chief's desk. In a letter dated June 27 and released by the city this week through a public records request, the FOP complained that “investigations of officer involved shootings within the City of Akron is the bargaining unit work of the Akron Police Department specifically, the APD Detective Bureau.” 7 filed a grievance saying the chief had violated the police union contract by allowing state investigators to steal work from local officers in the union. Immediately after Mylett's decision, the Akron Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. Until then, only fellow Akron officers investigated fatal encounters with Akron police. Within hours of Walker's death, Mylett asked Ohio Attorney General David Yost for an external review by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. On June 27, the day eight officers shot and killed Jayland Walker, Police Chief Steve Mylett broke with a longstanding practice in Akron where past chiefs have reviewed fatal police shootings internally instead of calling in state investigators, which is increasingly the norm across Ohio. The Akron police union is demanding that the chief “immediately cease using BCI to investigate officer involved shootings” because the outsourcing takes work away from local officers.
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