New Ohio police training guidelines expected today — but where’s the money?

[EDITOR'S NOTE: At about 9 a.m. Thursday morning, Gov. Mike DeWine canceled today's state briefing. Mahoning Matters will keep readers posted as to when the governor addresses police training.]

As protests continue to rage across the country in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Gov. Mike DeWine has added his voice to the chorus of leaders calling for additional police training.

But based on his most recent state budgets, it's unclear if necessary funding will follow.

DeWine on Tuesday suggested his recommendations — which he plans to reveal during today's coronavirus briefing — would increase access to police training, enhance transparency and accountability for officers who cross the line and bolster recruitment of minority officers.

The initiatives didn't sound new to Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene.

Greene said Tuesday his office upgraded cultural sensitivity training measures, distributed body cameras, stepped up minority hires and more — all on the recommendation of the Ohio Collaborative, a Gov. John Kasich-era initiative formed in 2015, following racial unrest in Ferguson, Mo. which stemmed from the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr., an African American, by white Ferguson officer Darren Wilson.

"Since Ferguson ... we've done everything in our power to try to create a great atmosphere that's unbiased," Greene said. "One [bad actor] just brings the whole United States back years."

Though Greene noted his department was, at first, reimbursed for the enhanced training measures, it was later pulled.

As the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported in February, state funding for training went from $2.1 million in 2015 to $8.9 million in 2018.

Starting in fiscal year 2019 — DeWine's first executive budget — the state stopped reimbursing local police departments for state-mandated training, which, as a result, are now merely optional.

"I believe it was 20 hours that was mandated," said Boardman police chief Todd Werth. "It was all some good stuff. It talked about race relations. It was about community policing. It was about some of these issues. [The state] dictated, 'This is what you're going to do.' They also reimbursed you at the end of the year when you showed your officers did this training."

Thirteen of Mahoning County's 22 jurisdictions have been certified by the collaborative at least on use-of-force standards, according to the collaborative's most recent March report. Only six have certifications in the full spectrum of training, including the last group, which is on bias-free policing.

The other nine hold no certifications at all, including Campbell Police Department, which employs 30 officers; Struthers Police Department, 21; and Poland Township, 18.

Local police chiefs confirmed the state stopped reimbursing state-mandated training two years ago. So it's been up to local departments to pay for training, as national calls for additional sensitivity training have grown louder with each new incident of officer-involved violence.

"For every hour somebody's training, whether they're doing online or not, that's an hour you have to replace them with somebody else, and you're paying that person overtime," Werth said.

Dan Tierney, the governor's spokesman, told the Plain Dealer earlier in February training funding would be addressed in the state's next biennium budget. But that sentiment pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic and new budget realities.

"The vast majority of our law enforcement men and women do a phenomenal job," DeWine said Tuesday. "We have to support them. We have to give them the training. We have to give them the help they need."

A four-hour training session for the Boardman police force costs Werth $8,000 just in overtime, so he's had to be selective about which training sessions Boardman police complete.

In today's world, there are a lot of options. With mass shootings on the rise, chiefs want their officers to have active shooter training and tactical emergency medical response training, which was credited for saving lives in the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh. Most shootings occur at night, so officers need to be trained in shooting in low light. Some calls involve folks with mental illness; there's training for responding appropriately.

The effect of the coronavirus on local governments' budgets hasn't helped.

Werth had to slash his department's spending by 2 percent, he said.

"Guess what's one of the first things that gets cut?" Werth asked. "Your training budget."

Werth said he could reduce the size of the force from 60 to 40 and be able to pay for all necessary training, but there wouldn't be enough officers to patrol the township.

For smaller townships, like Poland and Liberty, state budget cuts have been less of an issue.

Poland Township Police Chief Brian Goodin, who has a roster of 18, confirmed he no longer receives state reimbursement, but "Our training budget's pretty much always been the same."

Recently, he's focused on physical training sessions rather than online classes for his officers.

Liberty Police Department has an annual budget that allows for $10,000 to go toward training the 18 police officers in the department. Additionally, officers will do free training programs when they are available.

Liberty Police Chief Toby Meloro said he believes the department does training very well, especially within the last couple of years.

"We're stressing de-escalation," Meloro said. "We're stressing the concept of community policing."

All officers receive Critical Incident Training (CIT) to learn how to work in situations with people with mental issues.

Liberty officers are currently going through training online with Illinois-based police training firm Calibre Press, which costs $200. Meloro said a lot of training schools are not offering courses due to coronavirus so a lot of training has moved online.

Through the program, police officers watch videos and speak to other police officers. The training focuses on not making surprising comments, recognizing de-escalation is not a tactic, understanding how overcharged emotions can obstruct rational thinking and how to use active listening rather than reacting immediately to a situation.

Meloro said officers are planning on going back to in-person training at the earliest of the end of July, but the department has not been told if the training will happen due to the pandemic.

The department's budget was not greatly affected by coronavirus, but resources had to be used in different ways to help the general public, such as assigning officers to help senior citizens so they would not have to go to stores.

This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 3:52 AM with the headline "New Ohio police training guidelines expected today — but where’s the money?."