DeWine inks voluntary new police standards to set apart ‘the best of the best’

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Gov. Mike DeWine put his name on an executive order today setting 31 new voluntary policing standards for Ohio’s 900-plus law enforcement agencies.

“Simply put, agencies that voluntarily work to attain accreditation in Ohio would be recognized as being among ‘the best of the best,'” he said, backed by law enforcement officers from 10 agencies.

The standards were developed by a state police advisory board set up by then-Gov. John Kasich about a decade ago amid police unrest. They cover issues such as body cameras, bias-free policing, police chases, and community engagement.

Board Chair Karen Huey, an assistant state public safety director, says the goal is to standardize professional police conduct across the state.

These are the basic fundamentals that we think every law enforcement agency should maintain,” she said.

Chief Justin Paez says his Dublin Police Department already has a separate accreditation, often considered the gold standard for law enforcement, but he is eager for his agency to achieve the new standards as well.

“The important thing is, we want to earn it. This is a new program. We’ll take our time to learn through this process, see how that relates to our current practices. And as we talk often in our community with our city leadership our chief’s advisory committee, it’s always about us identifying best practices – not staying in past practices,” he told WSYX.

Regular community engagement programs like this gives us the opportunity to push ourselves forward and identify the best practices — which is what our residents deserve.”

Stark County Sheriff George T. Maier also is on board.

“I think there are a lot of great things that will come out of this. Number one, it’s a message to the public that we hear you. You want to know and understand what the police agency in your community is doing,” he said during the press conference.

It also will help us continue to build trust and legitimacy with those we serve — because if not for the people we serve, we can all just go home.”

DeWine said that while the new standards are voluntary, he’s counting on public pressure to get reluctant departments to get on board.

I think any police department that is not, over the next several years, engaged in this — their public has the right to say ‘why not?'”

DeWine and others say the new standards can help establish trust between police and the people whom they serve.

To gain certification in the new mass protest standard, for example, the standards say agencies must “develop a policy that protects public and officer safety while also upholding the constitutional rights of expression, assembly, and freedom of the press. The policy should restrict the fewest freedoms possible; limit the use of force, coercion, and intrusiveness; target only harmful behaviors and conditions; and deploy predictable and unbiased tactics.”

Law enforcement agencies seeking certification or recertification in the more rigorous expectations “must now prohibit the use of chokeholds or other vascular neck restraints in all circumstances except when officers are justified in using deadly force to defend themselves or others from serious physical injury or death.”

Contact Darrel Rowland by email at drowland@sbgtv.com. Follow him on X: @darreldrowland.