Akron City Council passed an ordinance this week that increases penalties for anyone who menaces a public employee performing their duties from a fourth- to a first-degree misdemeanor.
"Every worker that could be put into a situation where their life or their well-being could be affected doing their jobs should have extra protection," said Ward 6 Councilman Brad McKitrick, who sponsored the ordinance.
McKitrick is a retired firefighter of 33 years for the city and served as vice president of his labor union.
"I'm big on supporting workers," he said. "Anything we can try to do to implement more protection is a great thing."
State and federal laws offer protections for other employment, including police, fire and postal, but McKitrick said he was concerned about city and utility employees in dangerous positions carrying out their duties, citing stories of workers who were threatened, robbed or assaulted.
"These people are performing their work, oftentimes alone, and they’re kind of vulnerable because they might be on a trash truck or up on a pole and don’t always have a way to protect themselves," he said.
The ordinance was inspired by a similar bill, which offered protections to utility workers, that passed through the Ohio House in 2017-2018 session that never made it past the state Senate. McKitrick worked with the city's law department to expand on language in that bill to include all public employees, such as the city's housing inspectors.
McKitrick said he hopes the...
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