“On September 30, 2019, the city of Oakwood received a five page report entitled “Who Gets Stopped in Oakwood? The Racial Divide”. The report was prepared by Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc. (“ABLE”). The authors are Ellis Jacobs, Senior Attorney with ABLE, and Dr. Martha Hurley, Ph.D., University of Dayton Professor and Director of Criminal Justice Studies. The report is attached as Exhibit A. Exhibit B attached hereto is a statement read aloud and into the record by Mayor William Duncan at the October 7, 2019 Oakwood City Council meeting. As mentioned in the October 7, 2019 statement, the city of Oakwood takes all matters related to the delivery of public safety services very seriously. The city committed to completing a thorough review of the report and to prepare a written response. This document is that response.

The city of Oakwood has a long history of placing strong emphasis on traffic enforcement. This has been the case for decades and will continue. It is a cornerstone of our Public Safety Department’s policing philosophy and plays a key role in reducing crime, OVI, and other traffic offenses that often directly or indirectly contribute to unsafe situations, and vehicle and/or pedestrian accidents. The result is a community where all citizens are comfortable in their homes and on city streets, and in particular where parents are confident that their children are in a safe environment.

The entire city of Oakwood consists of approximately two square miles with nearly all of the land area devoted to residential living. Exhibit C attached hereto is a map of Oakwood that shows in yellow highlight the residential land and blue highlight the commercial. Oakwood is essentially one big residential neighborhood. State Route 48 (Far Hills Avenue) bisects Oakwood. It is a 4-lane highway serving as a major and primary thoroughfare between downtown Dayton and the southern Montgomery County suburbs. In 2016, about 13,400 vehicles per day travelled through Oakwood along Far Hills Avenue. The count was about 15,300 per day in 2019. (Source: Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission)

There are four public schools in Oakwood, one elementary on the west side of Far Hills Avenue and an elementary, junior high and high school on the east side. Oakwood is a walking community in every respect. Given the small geographic size of the community and short distances to each of the four schools, Oakwood does not operate a school busing system. Hundreds of Oakwood students in grades 1-12 cross Far Hills Avenue daily as they travel to and from school, play in and around our community, go home for lunch, and socialize with friends. The unique characteristics of our community demand regular and focused attention on traffic enforcement.

From a data analysis perspective, the ABLE report is seriously flawed in several ways, rendering it inconclusive at best or invalid at worst. The primary flaws are:

An important tool used by the Oakwood Public Safety Department, and by police departments throughout Ohio and nationwide, is license plate checks, whether officer initiated or via automatic license plate readers. This tool is used to locate persons with active warrants for arrest and stolen vehicles. It also identifies unlicensed and suspended drivers. The ABLE report expresses concerns about the use of license plate checks as a policing tool, despite the fact that it has been upheld as a valid, lawful tool by