Akron community activists are concerned the police department’s new crowd control policy isn’t strong enough — and could lead to future police violence against protesters.
Members of several groups, including the Akron NAACP and Freedom BLOC, sent a letter to city officials outlining several concerns with the draft policy.
“Our collective agrees that what has been drafted simply does not measure up to the desperate need for accountability and transparency in police activities at protests and assemblies,” community members wrote in a letter sent to city officials Aug. 8. “The initial draft does not address the historic police violence and unwarranted aggression toward protesters, their children, bystanders, and members of the media at assemblies.”
The new procedures are required under a city settlement with protesters who were tear gassed by police in 2023 while protesting a grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officers who fatally shot Jayland Walker.
The agreement, reached between the City of Akron and the Akron Bail Fund in 2024, states the new policy “will limit police use of force, including less lethal weapons, and other adverse action, against people who are engaged in First Amendment protected activity."
“The draft that we saw did not do that,” said Fran Wilson, Akron Bail Fund co-founder. “It, indeed, elevated their ability to use certain uses of force.”
Wilson, who is also a candidate for city council, is part of the collective of local organizations that submitted the letter.
Rev. Ray Greene Jr., executive director of Freedom BLOC, echoed Wilson’s concerns.
“I’m very, very disappointed in the fact that the city does not care to listen to its residents, and … also to the courts,” Greene Jr. said. “We should be able to express our displeasure with the way democracy is going, and be safe at the same time, and our police department doesn’t feel the same way. Our city doesn’t feel the same way.”
A spokesperson for the city declined to comment on the groups' letter but said officials plan to review all public comments and work toward a final policy.
Wilson and Greene Jr. want the policy to put stronger restrictions on the use of the K-9 unit, tear gas and chemical agents at protests, they said.
“Some of the areas that this lawsuit literally came about because of — there are little to no restrictions on these uses of force,” Wilson said.
The draft states chemical defense spray, more commonly known as pepper spray, “may be used against specific individuals engaged in unlawful conduct or actively resisting arrest or as necessary in a defensive capacity when appropriate.”
“[Tear gas] may be deployed when there is an imminent threat of physical harm to a person or significant destruction of property,” the draft policy states, “when lesser force options are either not available or would likely be ineffective.”
The community leaders who wrote the letter suggest the use of tear gas and pepper spray be “prohibited” altogether.
Police should instead use de-escalation techniques, Greene Jr. said, adding that officers resort to force too quickly.
Greene Jr. and other leaders are not suggesting that people commit crimes or violence during protests, he added. They're asking for more restrictions on police uses of force, he said.
“Cite them, arrest them, whatever — and you still don’t have to use uses of force,” Greene Jr. said. “If you treat people like human beings, then you don’t have to use force.”
Community members also want the policy to prohibit mass arrests and detentions, Wilson added.
“It is not effective, it has desperate impact on dozens and dozens of peoples lives … and it is costly for the city,” Wilson said.
There are also “loopholes” in the policy and vague language that could allow for more police uses of force, Wilson noted.
Greene Jr. wants the policy to explicitly prohibit drones and other surveillance methods at protests, he added.
Akron hired Spencer Fomby of Law Enforcement Tactical Consultants, an agency that specializes in police practices and public order, to create the policy. Fomby held a community forum in February to hear residents’ suggestions for the procedures, and the draft policy was released in June.
The city is accepting public feedback on the draft policy through Friday, Aug. 15, 2025.
