COLUMBUS, Ohio — In the wake of the fatal police shooting of 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant by a Columbus police officer, Governor Mike DeWine announced Wednesday his support for a bill that would change how Ohio’s police officers are trained.
The bill, which is expected to be introduced by State Representative Phil Plummer in the coming days, would do the following:
- Establish a peace officer oversight board similar to oversight boards in other professions
- Establish a use-of-force database
- Establish an officer-discipline database
- Require the independent investigation of officer-involved critical incidents
- Establish an independent, sustainable funding source for law enforcement training in Ohio
“These are common-sense reforms these are reforms that police can agree that community activists can agree to and they just make common sense,“ DeWine said.
The bill would also provide money to help police departments pay for yearly mandatory training involving de-escalation tactics and implicit bias.
According to the president of Ohio’s chapter of NAACP, creating a database that will track a police officer's history is something that is needed.
“We've had some many situations in Ohio where an officer was about to be brought up on charges, he knew that then transfers to another department, and that information never stayed with him. So we believe just like a doctor or lawyer if you leave one department for another that information will follow you,” Tom Roberts said.