Police Auditor delivers compassion with crititques

I had a nice chat today with Phillip Young, Akron's new Police Auditor. He's been on the job about 90 days now, so I thought it would be good to do a sit-down interview for the evening news (look for the story later this week).

Young's persona is much like you'd expect from a career state trooper. He's soft-spoken but direct, personal, and professional. He has excellent listening skills and the kind of genuine eye contact you'd expect from OHP.

The overall impression you walk away with is that Young hears you. He may not agree with your complaint or be able to solve your problem, but you'll have no problem communicating.

That's a big key. Young tells me that many of the complaints he reviews focus on communicating. The words an officer chose or the body language the officer gave out during their interaction with a citizen can lead to miscommunication or even hurt feelings -- and that can lead to formal complaints.

Young tells me that he reviews about 20-25 citizen complaints each week plus all use-of-force and taser reports. He reviews them for trends and procedural issues. I don't get the impression that Young's looking to pass judgement on whether the officer on the report was right or wrong, but rather he's looking to see if there's a change or modification to APD's policies and procedures that might be worth revisiting.

He also becomes the "voice of reason" for some folks who just want more explanation. For example, Young tells me that yesterday he spent more than an hour with a local father and his teen son. They'd come in to complain about an incident involving the teen and police. Long story short, after sitting and chatting with Young, the teen confessed to some additional details of which his father hadn't been aware .. and the dad was able to leave with his son knowing that the officers had been in the right. Again, it comes down to communication. Doesn't it almost always?
I don't get the impression that Young's out to make change just for the sake of making change or as some way to justify his job. He expects that by mid-summer, a plan that would add auditing the Summit County Sheriff's Office will probably be back on the table for discussion.

Young hopes to make a positive impact with an upcoming Public Service Announcement asking for citizens to call in when they see officers do something good.

He also hopes that people learn where to find him. He's on the 6th floor of the City Center Building, and his phone number is 330-375-2705 (although Young says that when people call 311 looking for him, the operators never know where to send the calls.)

Still, it will take time for Akron's finest to reach a comfort level with a new watchdog in their yard. I mean, how would you react to someone from the outside auditing your work? Probably skeptical -- at least at first.

Old news on Young

Phil Young's hiring as Akron's new Police Auditor is a big deal but it's not really a big announcement. I blogged about it nearly three months ago as did others around town, but only now is Young finally introduced to the public.

Insiders at the cop shop and city hall both tell me the hiring was delayed until the Vinson investigation had been put in the rear view mirror. While Sherri Bevan Walsh's official ruling still hasn't been finalized, the city's independent review upheld the initial investigation that the black teen killed himself and that the white officers who opened fire were justified.

Still, some are asking why Young didn't start his job anyway when his hiring was leaked in July? Why not let the guy get going and just say that he's only working on new complaints and won't come in to the Vinson case in the middle? You can find out more about Young's specific duties by reading the city's release.

I was in Southern Ohio yesterday on an upcoming feature story so I wasn't able to hear Mayor Plusquellic or Young talk about the hiring although I intend to watch a tape of their press conference when I return to the office.

As I've already shared, Young has a solid reputation and I'm told he has great communications skills. He's about as good as it gets for filling a controversial role. Still, his first test of being thrown into the fire probably isn't far away ... just call it the law of averages. Phil Trexler captured a key component to Wednesday's announcement -- that no police officers attended the press conference.

By the way, take note that the press conference to announce Young's hiring was held on a day off for the Tribe/Red Sox series. Granted, the Mayor typically holds his weekly press conference on Wednesday, but had there been a game set for Wednesday night, many believe the announcement would have been held for another day to ensure media coverage and room on the next day's front page. It was still our lead story on the Akron-Canton News yesterday, in part because we weren't going to lead with the Tribe on an off day. I could be wrong about this one, but I'm not the only one covering news downtown who believes it.

While it's the message and not the messenger that truly matters, don't for a second think the media doesn't play a part in the timing of news events.