Akron FOP president says union is willing to talk police reform

A representative from Akron's Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 said that the union is willing to engage in conversations about police reform.

Speaking at Monday evening's Akron City Council meeting, Brian Lucey, president of the Akron FOP Lodge 7, said, "We are more than willing to meet with anyone, anytime and be a part of those discussions."

Lucey was responding to comments made by Ward 8 Councilman James Hardy at last week's council meeting, when Hardy suggested putting a pause on talks about a new police headquarters until police reform can be achieved.

Ward 4 Councilwoman Jan Davis said she would like council to open a dialogue about the state of policing in Akron.

Hardy supported Davis' statement, said that until the city can have meaningful conversations about police reform, he would be voting "no" on any funding for a new police department. He encouraged his council colleagues to consider doing likewise.

Hardy told the Beacon Journal that the conversation needs to involve all stakeholders — community members, police and elected officials. He also said that as a member of Mayor Dan Horrigan's administration, he twice advocated to study a solution for the aging police department headquarters. The study was unable to proceed both times due to financial reasons.

"I'm acutely aware of the facility needs for APD," he said via text message.

During Monday night's meeting, Lucey accused Hardy of being in favor of "defunding the police."

"Irresponsible statements like that will not attract new candidates to apply here," Lucey said, "nor will it help with retention. Thank you for making recruiting future Akron police officers that much more difficult."

Hardy responded that he'd gone door to door campaigning for Issue 4, a 0.25 percent income levy in support of Akron's fire and police personnel, and that he'd voted for the largest increase to the police department's budget in 30 years.

Hardy said the reform he's talking about is a new standard for police-community relations.

"We need to rethink the whole thing," Hardy said, "and council can and should support that."

In his conversations with police and community members over the past week, Hardy said he's found that there's an appetite for more constructive conversation than the "us-versus-them" rhetoric that Akron is currently locked into.

Hardy said that he and Davis have been having conversations about how to facilitate those conversations.

Davis said that she is not anti-police, though there are "bad apples" who should be removed from the department.

Any conversations need to happen with the participation of the people living in Akron's underserved neighborhoods, Davis said.

"I pledge to work with the new union president and anyone else," she said. "Let's start having these conversations. We have to because this has gone on long enough, and when does it end? Let's start being proactive. and I just encourage all of my council members to get on board with this. It's something new, it's something that can be done. They're improving in other cities, so let's just try and take a different approach. It's time."

Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com or 330-541-9413

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron police union addresses calls for police reform