AKRON, Ohio — As Jayland Walker’s family, the Akron community, and police work toward peace following the deadly shooting last week, Spectrum News is digging into data behind the department.
Police Scorecard is a nationwide public evaluation of policing in the United States. The organization compiles data from various federal and state databases and police records.
It gives each department an overall score based on four categories: police funding, police violence, police accountability, and approach to law enforcement. Akron’s overall score is 42 out of 100.
One data point in Akron that stood out was the “Deadly Force by Armed Status.”
According to Police Scorecard, 38% of people killed by Akron police were unarmed, and 50% did not have a gun. More unarmed people are killed per arrest in Akron than 87% of U.S. Police Departments.
Police Scorecard looked at Akron’s population and the demographics of the department to determine “Police Violence by Race”, and found the city has fewer racial disparities in deadly force than 60% of U.S. Departments.
Police Scorecard reports 29% of the population living in Akron are Black and 17% of police officers are Black. According to the website, 42% of people arrested in Akron were Black and 38% of people killed by police were Black.
It’s important to factor in the populations of each city when comparing data, but Spectrum News checked into scores in Toledo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Canton and Columbus as well.
Police Scorecard looked at the number of people killed by police from 2013-21.
The website reports eight people were killed by Akron police in that time frame – and that’s a higher rate than 58% of U.S. Police Departments. But when you look around the state in other cities with greater populations, the numbers are higher.
In Toledo, according to Police Scorecard, ten people were killed by police from 2013-21. In Cleveland, 13 people were killed by police in that time frame and 12 people were killed by the Cincinnati police according to the website. Police Scorecard said in the last eight years, 48 people were killed by Columbus police.
The population in Columbus is more than double Cleveland and Cincinnati’s population and more than four times greater than Akron’s, Police Scorecard reports.
For overall scores around Ohio on Police Scorecard, Cincinnati scores the highest among the group we looked at, coming in at 50%. Canton police scored 44%, Columbus 38%, and Cleveland’s score is 33%.
Cities with higher scores use less force and are more likely to hold officers accountable, according to Police Scorecard.
