As Gov. Mike DeWine recently laid out his nine-point plan for police reform in Ohio he noted that most of the ideas in the package — banning chokeholds, mandating more training for officers, and equipping all police with body cameras — are not new.
We’ve been talking about these reforms for a long time, the governor said: “It’s time to do them.”
He’s right. We have had enough rhetoric and enough studies.
We have had demonstration after demonstration.
It is time for useful action.
As an ex-attorney general of the state, Mr. DeWine knows, first hand, the problems law enforcement faces.
He should make the sheriffs and police chiefs full partners in his plan.
Moreover, body cameras will not happen without state funding and neither will advanced training and screening. The governor must put state money where his mouth is.
One useful proposal is the creation of a statewide database to record use-of-force incidents.
The governor is calling for all use-of-force incidents and deadly shootings to be investigated by independent entities such as the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which is part of the attorney general’s office.
“Law enforcement agencies should not be investigating themselves,” Mr. DeWine said.
All of those incidents in which police use force would be recorded in a new statewide data-base, Mr. DeWine said. And, as with his call for independent investigation of incidents, the governor is aiming to make the database an instrument of accountability by making it available to the public.
This would also allow state authorities to be able to identify departments or officers who seem to have a problem with using force.
The governor’s plan is a good start. The emphasis should be on constructive action. And on helping police officers do their very difficult, almost impossible jobs. We must help them, not demonize them. Their jobs matter and their lives matter greatly. They put it on the line every day, for all of us. Prosecute the bad cops to the letter of the law. But help the good ones do their vital work.
First Published June 23, 2020, 4:00 a.m.
