Harris Promises Police Reform

Greg Harris is saying something you won't hear from many, if any, other candidates for Cincinnati City Council: The Cincinnati Police Department needs reform.

Harris' critique goes beyond the reforms established in the past five years by the Collaborative Agreement and the city’s memorandum of agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. Those reforms largely focused on use of force, racial profiling and other issues directly related to civil rights.

What Harris has in mind is something rarely heard, namely that the leadership of the police department is ineffectual and has caused serious problems in morale. Indeed, as Harris points out, city council seems to go out of its way to avoid serious oversight of the police department.

“As seen in last fall’s painful budget deliberations, council debated reducing spending on social services and closing health and recreation centers — without examining public safety spending that consumes two-thirds of our overall budget,” he said in a statement issued today.

Harris cited a 2006 report commissioned by the Cincinnati Business Committee that hired expert John Linder to examine the culture and effectiveness of the Cincinnati Police Department.

“The study has since been buried,” Harris said.

Because the funding was private it didn’t qualify as a public document subject to Ohio’s Open Records Law.

But a PowerPoint summary of the report says the police leadership has a “systemically defensive posture hamstring operations, effecting all basic systems,” according to Harris.

“There are major disconnects between police officers and police leadership when it comes to priorities,” he said. “For example, 93.7 percent of officers say arresting violent criminals should be a priority, but only 48.5 percent believe it’s a priority of CPD leadership.”

Harris also cited “major mistrust of police supervisors by rank and file police officers. Few officers (28.1 percent) believe that discipline in the CPD is fair and uniform, and most police officers — 64 percent — say their supervisors are more concerned with being obeyed than understood.”

“Cincinnati cops in the trenches are disempowered by their leadership,” Harris said. “Nearly all police officers — 92.2 percent — believe they do not have any say in what CPD as an organization does, and nearly a third say that they would leave the department if they had the opportunity. … The disconnection between cops in the trenches and their leadership has not been examined by city council. To the contrary, council has enabled the status quo by hiring 75 more officers and then 60 new officers over the last couple years without investigating problems with CPD leadership.”

If elected to council, Harris said, he would:

• investigate the breakdown of trust between officers and supervisors,

• link police funding to performance benchmarks, including technological innovations and

• pursue a performance audit of CPD that shows where existing resources are spent and how they can be reallocated to get more police on the streets.

“City council’s priorities should not be driven by political expediency,” Harris said. “A blank check from City Council to the Cincinnati Police Department does not equate to effective crime fighting. Smart, innovative systemic change is needed to enhance public safety for the long term.”

— Gregory Flannery
(Photo: Votegregharris.com)

Comments

[SW]

Well, Harris may have hurt himself politically by taking on this issue, but I applaud him for having the balls to do it.

That the CPD is antiquated is well known, but Council has never had the courage to say this.

[whhhattt?]

I'm quite amazed at these numbers. I knew there were some problems within the dept. and relations with the community, but never would've guessed CPD was so messy within. These issues need to be discussed and I applaud Harris for bringing this out from under the private eyes at city hall.

[BOB]

I've often thought that the CPD had a crime management approach rather than crime eradication approach. We saw a radical shift in that when the Sheriff announced the County was going to start patrols in OTR. They couldn't get the Vortex unit out on the street fast enough. I guess what we can learn from this is, competition is good.

[David Gallaher]

Did anyone else see the recent column by Walter Williams in which he advocated vigilantism?
Walter is correct, as he usually is.
Anyone who thinks police reform will come about other than by vigilantism is blowing smoke for votes.

By the way, I object to the phrase, "effective crime fighting."
Fighting never accomplishes anything good much less accomplishes anything good effectively.
As a "root causer," allow me to identify fighting as the prime cause of crime, whether citizens fight each other or police fight crime or politicians fight for votes.

[Racer X]

Harris is absolutely right, and he just got my vote. Tom Streicher's fiefdom has long needed reform. It began with de-policing after the Tim Thomas incident and continues on today with a "play not to lose" approach.

That said, there are many fine and brave law enforcement personnel on the force. This is a leadership issue.

[Blythe]

"... there are many fine and brave law enforcement personnel on the force. This is a leadership issue."

Couldn't agree more. I think this is what Harris is trying to show--cops in the trenches are disenchanted with their supervisors/leadership. Yet Council continues to ignore deep flaws with CPD's leadership for political reasons.

[Radarman]

It would be intriguing to see Harris re-open the issue of required city residence for the police. As it stands, we have an occupying army of Elder graduates from Green and Delhi Townships and points west most of whom are openly contemptuous of the residents of the city who pay their salaries. They have no stake other than that paycheck in the city's success as a healthy place to live.

[Not the Mamma Cass!]

OMG! What a bunch of campaign operative roboposters the preceding reveal themselves to be.

[Fight the Power!]

Harris will get my vote!

This is the kind of bold leadership we've needed for a long time.

What kind of idiot wouldn't want to improve police morale and perfomance? Why does everyone kiss the ass of Si Leis and CPD? They work for us and we are their bosses!

[SW]

I don't know about "roboposters." I think folks are genuinely excited by someone who cuts through all the bullshit.

[SW]

You got to love the Cincinnati Enquirer. Harris comes out with a hard-hitting statement on police reform, and they ignore it. Yet they write on the front page of today's local section about Nick Lache doing a fundraiser for Justin Jeffre. What substance!

Thank God for the alternative media!

[Not the Mamma Cass!]

The statements are too glitteringly general to be "authentic."

Harris is taking an interesting tack if in part to win the FOP's endorsement. Typically they too want only to be obeyed and not necessarily understood, but clearly he's better positioned to speak intelligently to law & order issues than Thomas or Crowley.

Lt. Col. Combs heads the IT Bureau pretty much created once she got promoted, so it would be interesting to hear her take on that part of Harris's proposal.

[SW]

How in the world could Harris be angling to get the FOP endorsement?! If anything, they'll vilify him like they did DeWine when he stood up for Issue 5. In a perfect world, the FOP would be investigating the low morale and disregard its rank and file members have against their supervisors. But it just so happens that FOP leadership is comprised of these very supervisors. The union is not doing what it was designed to do: protect its members. It's a fixed bloated system that rewards those who comply.

[Not the Mamma Cass!]

well, let's see: addressing union members complaints sounds pretty fucking supportive to me, so supervisory membership or no, the endorsement committee would be hard pressed to oppose someone who sounds like he's championing the rank and files' cause.