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Citizens Police Oversight Board asks for higher stipends and funds for case reviews

Akron City Council (Finance Committee) · March 18, 2026

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Summary

Kent Boyd, chair of the Citizens Police Oversight Board, and the independent police auditor asked council for an $838,000 budget to cover operations, data tools and outside experts; Boyd requested increasing member compensation (current $100/month) to $500 per meeting to retain volunteer members and meet workload demands.

Kent Boyd, chair of the Akron Citizens Police Oversight Board (CPOB), and the independent police auditor presented the board's budget request and work plan to the council's finance committee.

Boyd said the board reviewed roughly 310 cases in 2025 and concurred with APD findings in about 90.7% of those reviews; the board issued recommendations in about 6.2% of cases. The board's proposed budget is about $838,000, an increase from the city's recommended level largely driven by one-time and operational costs for case management, data services and subject-matter experts.

"We would like to see [the stipend] increase to 500 per per meeting per month simply because it has to be a sustainability to our board," Boyd said, arguing the voluntary role now requires substantial time for committee work and case review. He said the stipend change is not reflected in the packet the council has but the administration is open to amending the numbers.

Independent police auditor Mr. Fennell said the budget includes funds to bring on independent subject-matter experts to assist with labor-intensive officer-involved-shooting reviews, complete a case-management/database implementation, and fund data-analytics services that will later be turned over to the office for internal maintenance.

Councilmembers expressed support for the board's work but noted fiscal constraints and asked for additional detail on the service-contract line items and the planned procurement process for outside experts. The administration said it would work with counsel to reflect the stipend change and ensure procurement follows city rules.