Ohio’s largest police union says it’s launching a plan to recruit political candidates to challenge local and state officials who it says don’t adequately stand up for police.
The Protect Ohio Police campaign is a response to several recent incidents in which Ohio police have been shot or killed, Ohio Fraternal Order of Police President Jay McDonald told reporters in Columbus Thursday.
The FOP is a regular presence in state politics, lobbying for legislative changes and endorsing candidates for local and state office. But the union doesn’t typically try to recruit candidates.
“Our members are not only saddened by the violence against our members. We’re angry. We’re beyond angry,” McDonald said. “We are ready for people to stand up and do the right thing. And if they won’t do it, we will find people who will; people from our membership, people from the general public, who support the good work that the men and women of law enforcement do.”
McDonald said the union’s candidates could involve primary elections – which would be necessary to theoretically unseat elected officials in Ohio’s cities, which generally are controlled by Democrats.
Organizers of the Thursday news conference said they would consider recruiting retired police officers. The new campaign also will lobby local and state leaders for tougher penalties for assaulting police officers and higher bail for people accused of violent crimes. It also plans to publicly criticize public officials for what it sees as anti-police bias. This approach is more in line with the FOP’s typical focus as a lobbying organization.
The police incidents
Thursday’s news conference referenced three recent incidents in which police were shot or killed:
- Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Henderson, who police said was run over and killed on May 1 by the father of a man fatally shot by Cincinnati police the day before while police attempted to investigate a stolen vehicle
- Morrow County Sheriff’s Deputy Daniel Sherrer, who police said was shot and killed on May 26 by a man while investigating a domestic disturbance at a home
- Two officers with Mifflin Township in Franklin County who police said were shot on May 28 while performing a traffic stop
Akron FOP leader speaks amid contract tensions with City Hall
Joining McDonald in speaking on Thursday was Brian Lucey, the police union leader in Akron.
Lucey criticized Akron leaders, including Mayor Shammas Malik, for not condemning more quickly the comments of a woman who spoke out against police at a May 19 City Council meeting. The woman referenced the killing of Henderson, the Hamilton County sheriff’s deputy, as an example of “eye-for-an-eye justice.”
Lucey complained that such rhetoric fuels conflicts between the public and police. Lucey said the comments preceded a May 25 incident during which Akron police exchanged gunfire with a 45-year-old man. Nobody was hurt.
Lucey said Malik didn’t offer a response to the woman’s comments until his State of the City address on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after the council meeting.
“Within a week of that happening, we had officers get shot at. And then everyone wants to come up and support the police,” Lucey said. “It’s time to put actions behind your words.”
A spokesperson for Malik said the mayor condemned Henderson’s killing on social media and at a May 7 memorial service, and also issued a press release condemning violence against police officers following the May 25 gunfire exchange in Akron.
Akron City Hall and the Akron police union are in the midst of contract negotiations. Malik recently rejected an independent fact-finder’s suggestion that the city award police officers a 5% raise in 2025, and 4.5% raises in 2026 and 2027, saying the spending would financially devastate the city.
The police retort that the city’s stance is bad for morale and harms recruitment.
Ken Kober, the leader of the Cincinnati police union, also spoke Thursday.
But McDonald, the Ohio FOP president, avoided naming specific cities where the police union might eventually try to recruit challengers, and he downplayed the significance of Lucey and Kober speaking.
“I have more than 200 local lodges. We don’t have time today to have 200 speakers,” McDonald said.
