Mayor Shammas Malik announces police chase policy change during State of the City address
Mayor Shammas Malik announced Wednesday that Akron police officers will no longer initiate chases for vehicle equipment violations.
The policy change, shared during Malik’s State of the City address, went into effect Thursday and follows calls for reform after the fatal shooting of Jayland Walker by police in 2022. Vehicle equipment violations include things such as broken taillights or missing side mirrors. Officers will still be able to begin chases over traffic violations at their discretion.
The announcement was met with applause and cheers from an audience of more than 1,000 at the Akron Civic Theatre.
Akron NAACP President Judi Hill said while the conversation about changing the chase policy began under the previous administration, she appreciated that Malik's administration following through on implementing the changes.
"I'm glad to see that it finally came to a head," Hill said. "It's not something that should have taken as long as it did."
"In the coming months, we'll be reviewing and revising other policies, including around chemical spray and crowd control," Malik said. "We'll do that in partnership with the auditor's office, we'll do that in partnership with the Akron Police Department and we'll do this with opportunities for the public to comment as well."
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Malik said conducting the search for a new police chief has been the most difficult challenge he's faced as mayor.
He said his attempt to hold a wide search encompassing diverse internal and external candidates was stymied by "unwelcome and frustrating news" when the city law department and outside counsel told him that the city charter didn't empower him to conduct such a search.
This has been the hardest thing I’ve dealt with in this job," said Malik. "Folks I respect and look up to have asked me to pause the process while we wait to pass a charter amendment in November."
Malik has declined to pause the search process, though, because he said a permanent chief is better positioned than an acting chief to bring about changes in the department. Malik said he he is still committed, however, to putting a charter amendment before voters that would ask them to consider changing charter language to allow for a wider pool of police chief candidates.
He extended an invitation to the Black Elected Officials of Summit County — vocal critics of how the search is being conducted — to participate in a committee to lead the drafting of the amendment. The committee's full membership will be announced in several weeks.
Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com or 330-541-9413
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron Mayor Malik talks police reform during State of the City address
