Civil rights legal professional says he was racially profiled by Ohio police; metropolis investigating incident

WESTERVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) – A Black civil rights attorney believes his skin color may have been a factor in an interaction with Westerville police over the weekend.

It happened when the man was taking trash to a dumpster and while he has no problem with the first encounter he said what happened later was problematic.

A city spokesman said the incident was being investigated.

The man said that in his opinion the situation is resolved, but he wants to take steps to avoid a similar situation in the future.

Emmanuel Olawale was outside his law firm in Westerville around noon on Saturday, throwing rubbish in the dumpster outside the office when Westerville police showed up.

When the officers asked what was going on, he explained what he was doing and gave them a business card. His name is in the name of the company.

Olawale said he also gave officers his driver’s license so they can see the matching names.

According to Olawale, the officers initially seemed okay, but then wanted to get his driver’s license anyway.

“I’m being held while they have my ID,” he said. “I can not go.”

At that point, he asked the officer why they needed to get his driver’s license.

“Obviously I have proven to you that I am a lawyer and that I work here,” Olawale told the police. “Why do you have to have my ID? Then the first officer said, ‘Well, we need to check your ID because we need to document who we are here with.’ I say, ‘No, you don’t have to do that. I am a lawyer and I know my rights. ‘”

The officers eventually returned his driver’s license without driving him.

“I think when they first found out if there was illegal dumping, I think it was justified,” said Olawale. “Because, you know, you never know, maybe let’s just see what’s going on here. That is justified. But after this identification and interaction, everything else crosses the line. “

Olawale believes he was racially profiled after officials said they would get his driver’s license.

“I think that was racial profiling,” he said. “To them, a black’s word doesn’t really matter whether they’re a lawyer or not. Instead of us just having this interaction and then walking away, but because I was black, they had to re-verify.”

According to the Westerville Division of Police website, officers take diversity training courses. Olawale wants to see more.

“And if that could happen to me, I’m a civil rights activist, how much more of a person, a non-lawyer out there on the street, what chance do you have?”

When NBC 4 first reached out to the city about this story, we were told shortly after that it was being investigated.

A Westerville City spokesman made the following statement:

“We were contacted at 2:59 pm about your story. As we discussed less than three hours later, the incident is already being investigated. This includes a thorough investigation by the police chief’s office, including interviews with officers and verification and download of the body-worn camera. Since we did not have adequate time to prepare this information for your story, all information will be made available to the public and media on our website when it is complete. “

Declaration by the City of Westerville