Unable to get the state Legislature to move on a proposal for a near ban on chokeholds by law enforcement officers, Gov. Mike DeWine got a state advisory board to approve it for police agencies that want to get the board’s certification.

The Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board on Friday adopted DeWine’s policy for the use of deadly force that prohibits chokeholds and similar maneuvers unless officers are justified in using them to defend themselves or others from serious physical injury or death.

But the governor’s request for a near ban statewide would still require approval by the General Assembly, said Dan Tierney, DeWine’s spokesman.

“This is a step in the right direction,” Tierney said. “We still need legislative action for it to be law. We’d like all agencies to do it voluntarily.”

Tierney said he wasn’t aware of the General Assembly moving forward with DeWine’s recommendations.

REFUSAL

Republicans have a super majority in the House and Senate, and DeWine is also a Republican. But Republican legislators have refused to consider DeWine’s sweeping changes to law enforcement policies, introduced in June, or his gun reform plan, proposed in October 2019, two months after a mass shooting in Dayton.

The law enforcement changes requested by DeWine included having the General Assembly provide a funding source for local police agencies to purchase body cameras, the creation of an oversight and accountability board that would develop a code of conduct, a permanent funding source for deescalating and implicit bias training, and for legislators to create a standard definition of use of force and mandate all agencies report when it occurs.

The law enforcement policies were introduced less than two weeks after the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American, when Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes and the resulting protests and rallies. Chauvin and three other officers were fired and arrested.

Six months after DeWine introduced the proposals, legislators haven’t moved on any of them.

In a Friday statement, DeWine said, “We must rebuild trust between the public and law enforcement and these changes to build on Ohio’s work to improve community-police relations. Law enforcement agencies that are certified in the Ohio Collaborative’s standards show commitment to following and oftentimes exceeding Ohio’s best practices for serving and protecting our diverse communities.”‘

CERTIFICATION

Law enforcement agencies seeking certification or recertification by the collaborative must prohibit chokeholds and other vascular neck restraints in all cases, except those involving the potential for serious physical injury or death to officers or others.

The collaborative was formed in 2015 to create uniform minimum standards for law enforcement on the use of force as well as hiring and recruiting.

There are 471 law enforcement agencies in the state that voluntarily comply with the standards and 113 more are in the process of certification. Those agencies employ 94 percent of all of the state’s law enforcement officers, an increase of 15 percent since June, according to DeWine’s office.

In Mahoning County, collaborative members are the sheriff’s department and police departments in Austintown, Beaver, Boardman, Canfield, Craig Beach, Goshen, Jackson, Sebring, Springfield and Youngstown as well as Mill Creek MetroParks and Youngstown State University.

In Trumbull County, the collaborative police departments are in Bazetta, Howland, Hubbard (city and township), Liberty, McDonald, Niles, Vienna, Warren Township, Weathersfield and West Farmington.