Residents question police chief finalist, express distrust in Malik during Tuesday forum
Preventing future police shootings and repairing community trust in the police department and mayor were the main topics of discussion at the second of two police chief finalist forums Tuesday evening at East CLC.
Of the more than 60 community members who attended, many questioned Deputy Chief Brian Harding and Akron Mayor Shammas Malik on how the next chief would improve the Akron Police Department's standing in the Black community and how he would have handled the shooting death of Jayland Walker had he been chief when it happened.
"Everybody in our community deserves to feel safe" Harding said.
On Thursday, Malik and his advisory team announced that Harding, the acting chief, was the lone finalist for the job. Community members could attend two meet and greet town halls to question Harding after that announcement.
The last forum was Saturday. Brant Lee, a University of Akron law professor, moderated both forums.
More: 'I am very aware of the mistrust,' Akron police chief nominee Brian Harding says at forum
NAACP president: "What are you going to do different?"
Akron NAACP President Judi Hill and many other community members wanted to know how the police department will change in terms of policy, community engagement and mental health and de-escalation training under the new chief.
"What can be expected from you?" Hill said. "When you look at champions for this community...you're missing the key people that we're here to represent."
Harding often answered these questions with suggestions like fostering an open dialogue with residents, being a "customer service-driven" department and implementing new policies and procedures.
"It cannot just be our community engagement team or a handful of officers whose role it is to engage, it needs to be the culture of the agency," Harding said.
Part of that open dialogue and trust building would come from "reverse" ride-alongs, which Harding clarified is when officers ride in cars with residents instead of vice versa. Another option is to have "park, walk and talks," giving officers time to park and exit their cruisers to chat with community members.
Harding also fielded questions about how he is handling or would handle recent situations that have brought the department under fire, such as the shooting death of Jayland Walker in 2022 and the shooting of 15-year-old Tavion Koonce-Williams April 1.
When asked if he would've fired the officers that shot and killed Walker, Harding replied, "I think that's already been solved, and I shouldn't even be weighing in on that case."
Later on, another community member pointed out that improvements were promised to the community after Walker's death, and she asked Harding and Malik what failed to allow the shooting of Tavion to take place.
More: 'It has to stop': Mom of 15-year-old shot by Akron police officer demands change
"We cannot prevent every critical incident, every officer-involved shooting," Malik said. "But we have to do every single thing possible that we can to reduce the likelihood of anything like that ever happening in this community. I take that very seriously."
Residents criticize Malik for search process
Attendees spoke directly to Malik about how his handling of the police chief hiring process has made them lose trust in him as Akron's mayor and hope in his administration.
Community members have called on Malik to pause the process and allow hiring from outside the department. Malik has said the city can't hire from outside because of a state law prohibiting external candidates from filling vacancies above entry-level positions in city safety forces.
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"If your yardstick for whether I can be trusted is whether I'm going to pause this process, then you have your answer, right?" Malik said. "What I can tell you is that every day I wake up trying to implement the things that I promised, that I told you that I would do."
At the town hall forum Saturday, Malik said he and his advisory team had recently decided on Harding as the finalist after interviewing Harding and the other applicant, Deputy Chief Jesse Leeser.
The forums were initially designed to give both Harding and Leeser an opportunity to field questions from the public, but Malik said it would have been irresponsible to put both on stage once he had made up his mind that Harding was the better fit for the job.
Although Harding is a finalist, Malik emphasized at the time that the city has yet to offer him the job — and the hiring process is ongoing.
Residents showed concerns at both forums that none of the possible candidates were Black and leadership roles in APD do not represent the community.
On Saturday, Malik said three candidates applied. One was Capt. Michael Miller, who is Black. State law prevented Miller from being considered, Malik said, because Miller has been captain for less than a year. Even with Leeser no longer in the running, Malik said state law prevents Miller from being considered.
Addressing the Signal 44 newsletter
Similar to his opening remarks at the Saturday forum, Harding addressed Signal 44, an underground newsletter that circulated in the police department dating back to at least 1997. It was the subject of an internal affairs review in 1998.
Although Harding knew of the newsletter at the time, he did not report it. He said when he was interviewed as part of the internal investigation, he was asked if he was offended by what was written about him. At the time, he said he believed the section about him was funny, but the newsletter itself was not.
"That newsletter was divisive then and it's still divisive today," Harding said. "There's no place for racism in our society. There's no place for racism in the Akron Police Department and if that's there, there needs to be consequences."
Reach reporter Tawney Beans at tbeans@gannett.com or on Twitter @Tawney Beans.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron police chief finalist Brian Harding addresses concerns at forum
