Policing and Racial Justice: Federal, Ohio and Local Laws: Ohio

Qualified immunity protects a government official from lawsuits alleging that the official violated a plaintiff's rights, only allowing suits where officials violated a “clearly established” statutory or constitutional right. When determining whether or not a right was “clearly established,” courts consider whether a hypothetical reasonable official would have known that the defendant’s conduct violated the plaintiff’s rights.

NBC News 10/13/23

The US Supreme Court case which established qualified immunity.

8/25/20

Police disciplinary records are public under Ohio Code § 149.43.

US Supreme Court reaffirms qualified immunity for police officers. 10/18/21

Allows (but does not require) Ohio law enforcement to charge people up to $75/hr, and up to $750 total, for the retrieval, redacting, uploading, producing, etc. of video records. Of course, this includes body cam & dash cam videos.

Effective 4/12/21. The law heightens penalties for protests near oil and gas pipelines and other infrastructure by expanding the definitions of "criminal trespass" and "criminal mischief."

6/17/20
1. Establishing a psychological screening process for would-be police officers that would disqualify candidates with racial bias.
2. Offering conflict deescalation training, including a focus on use of force and implicit bias, for any officer in the state.
3. Asking the Ohio General Assembly to identify a funding stream that will support in-depth training for all officers every year.
4. Reclassifying chokeholds as deadly force.
5. Ensuring that all use-of-force incidents and deadly shootings are investigated by independent entities such as the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
6. Keeping a statewide database of police use-of-force incidents and allowing the public to view it.

Under the Ohio Attorney General.

USA Today 7/4/22

NPR 12/14/23

Ohio Student Association (OSA) is a statewide organization led by young people in Ohio, working together in an intergenerational movement for racial, social, economic and educational justice.

From the National Equity Atlas. See how your state and city are doing.

We are dedicated to stopping the school to prison pipeline and focus specifically on holding institutions accountable to equitable distribution of resources and services to Black people in Dayton and around the State of Ohio.

Victims who suffered deprivation of any rights can file a Section 1983 claim in state court. However, the ability to recover monetary damages is drastically reduced. The state official cannot be sued for official conduct for money damages.

The City of East Cleveland must pay more than $30 million for unlawfully arresting a man, beating him, and confining him in a storage closet for four days

Ohio Capital Journal 7/18/22

Ohio Capital Journal 11/10/22

Virginia Court of Appeals says that anti-racism policy does not violated white students' rights.

Ohio Capitol Journal 7/15/21

NBC News 10/28/21

Addressed to US Dept of Education and signed by Dave Yost, Ohio Attorney General, as well as several other state's attorneys general on 5/19/21

Cincinnati Enquirer 6/22/22