DAYTON — The Dayton Police Department and the city are desperately trying to move past a video of a traffic stop that showed two officers yanking Clifford Owensby, a man who is paraplegic, out of his vehicle. An internal report found officers did not violate departmental policy, but protests are still being heard.
Joseph Abrams, of Dayton, called the report “unacceptable.” Abrams lashed out at city commissioners Wednesday morning, hours after new Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal unveiled the Internal Professional Standards Bureau’s investigation of the traffic stop.
Dayton NAACP President Derrick Foward said he believes the policy is wrong if what the officers did is not a violation of department rules and regulations.
“He did violate ADA rules, because he did not provide reasonable accommodations,” Foward said.
Afzal was not leading the department when the incident took place on Sept. 30, 2021. He said officers do have the right to ask a driver to come out of the vehicle, but emphasized that no one wants to see what took place during the controversial traffic stop.
Afzal ordered a review to see if the department police should change. Additionally, he said an outside, third party review of the investigation determined officers did not go against department policy.
News Center 7 filed a public records request to learn details of the third party review, but was told the city did not consider it a public record.
City leaders said the Owensby case hurts mutual trust.
“We want to make sure we remove as many of these situations as possible so people feel more comfortable when they’re interacting with police,” Jeff Mims, Dayton Mayor, told News Center 7′s Mike Campbell.
But some community members say the think the officers and some city leaders need to be gone before trust can be restored.
Abrams said the city needs “all kinds of new personnel.”
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