Akron Police not reporting use of force cases to public database

AKRON, Ohio (WOIO) - Akron’s police chief has spoken of increasing trust and accountability in light of the deadly police shooting of 25-year-old Jayland Walker.

But 19 Investigates found one place where they could improve their transparency as a department.

We found Akron Police Department is not reporting use of force cases to a publicly searchable database.

It’s now been more than six months since Ohio’s Office of Criminal Justice Services unveiled this statewide use of force database.

It’s up to police to report their use of force incidents to the database.

19 Investigates found several hundred police agencies have voluntarily reported nearly 7,000 use of force cases dating back to 2017.

But we also found many agencies are not reporting these cases, including Akron Police.

We spoke to now former OCJS Executive Director Karhlton Moore about the importance of the database a few months ago.

“For an agency to be able to share their information with the public, to create a level of transparency I think is really important, especially in today’s climate,” Moore said back in November.

We checked the database for use of force cases submitted by Akron Police for every year from 2017 to 2022, the years included in the database.

We found no cases submitted from Akron Police.

After searching Akron Police, it said “no data available.”

Meanwhile statewide, we found just over 750 use of force incidents have been reported so far this year from agencies across the state.

Cleveland, Canton, North Royalton and Berea Police are just some of the local agencies reporting their cases, along with Ohio State Highway Patrol.

It’s important to point out this database is only as good as the information local police departments are submitting.

In November, about 200 police agencies were reporting their use of force cases.

We found that has now jumped to more than 1,000 agencies across the state reporting that information.

We reached out to Akron Police to see if they plan to start reporting this information to the database.

We have not heard back.

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