Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene answers questions from a panel of community members Tuesday night at New Bethel Baptist Church on Youngstown’s South Side. Seated around him were other police chiefs and an Ohio State Highway Patrol commander from Mahoning and Trumbull counties. In front of Greene is Youngstown police Chief Robin Lees. Staff photo / Ed Runyan

YOUNGSTOWN — A town hall that drew about 200 people and 11 police chiefs put top area law-enforcement officers on the spot on questions about excessive use of force, racial profiling, body cameras and a binding citizens review board.

The two-hour program at New Bethel Baptist Church allowed several members of the community calling themselves the Next Step Committee to find out where the chiefs stand on those issues.

For instance, on body cameras, Youngstown police Chief Robin Lees said his department does not have them, and the reason is cost.

He pointed to the cost the Austintown Police Department recently incurred — about $90,000 to buy them — and said Youngstown has four times as many officers, so the cost would be four times the amount spent in Austintown.

“Do I want body cameras? Absolutely,” Lees said.

Add to that the “legacy costs” of storing the videos and the software that is needed, Lees said.

And when you have body cameras, the public has a right to ask for copies, which adds to the workload of police department employees to view them for private information, such as images of juveniles, before providing them.

Austintown police Chief Bob Gavalier said his department received a $30,000 grant to help pay the $90,000 cost to buy cameras last year.

The cost over 10 years is about $344,000, including storage costs.

“They are really expensive, but we did find out with body cameras after we’ve been using them is — we had a lot of officer pushback at first, you know Big Brother is watching us — but after 10 officers were exonerated from complaints and stuff, all of a sudden we love these things now.”

Gavalier said his department’s policy is that anytime an officer has an interaction with the public, his body camera has to be on.

“Since we’ve had the camera system, we have had one officer written up for a violation and 10 officers who were exonerated,” Gavalier said.

Lees said he and Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown support body cameras.

“I’m thinking the state is going to come through and or the federal government” to fund cameras for more departments such as his.

Boardman police Chief Todd Werth said his department does not have body cameras or cruiser cameras for the same reason as Youngstown — cost.

The dialogue is part of the community’s response to the death of George Floyd, 46, who is black, on Memorial Day, when former white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, 44, knelt on his neck to restrain him.

Another of the four main topics the Next Step Committee quizzed the chiefs about was racial profiling, which produced some comments from Next Step committee member Keith Logan.

“I want to tell you what racial profiling does,” he said. “I want to tell you about the toll taken on a person from racial profiling — the emotional damage, the physical harm, the financial turmoil, the economic strain. These are the things the victims of racial profiling must go through. They have an unnerving experience.”

It prompted Canfield police Chief Chuck Colucci to remark, “I think that racial profiling exists. I think the racism is real.”

He said, “It’s up to us to make sure we hold each other accountable. One of the things since 1996 is all of our traffic stops are recorded.”

“And our officers must walk up to that car and identify themselves” and explain the reason the person was stopped. “We will give them the legal reason we stopped them. It’s recorded. It’s on tape.”

Another topic was use of force, including chokeholds, but most of the chiefs said chokeholds are barred by their departments.

Lees said choke holds are “not something we do,” while Greene said said choke holds “have never been a tactic” of his departmentment.

Gavalier said of choke holds: “It’s also in our policy not to use that. We don’t use choke holds at all.”

Toby Meloro, Liberty police chief, said choke holds are a violation of Liberty Police Department policy. “In 29 years, I don’t think we’ve had one complaint where a chokehold has been used.”

Another forum is planned July 28.

erunyan@tribtoday.com