Thursday, October 25, 2001
Feds recommend police revisions
Division rife with problems, report says
By Dan Horn, Robert Anglen and Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Federal investigators announced Wednesday that the Cincinnati Police Division is riddled with problems, from the way police use physical force to the way they respond to citizen complaints.
The findings by the U.S. Department of Justice are based on the most expansive review ever of the city's 198-year-old police division.
The review began nearly six months ago after a fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man triggered riots and unrest in Cincinnati.
Although the investigation is not complete, federal officials released their preliminary findings on Wednesday.
They recommended significant — and potentially expensive — changes that would affect every officer on the force and almost every citizen who comes into contact with police.
The problems identified by investigators are as minor as sloppy paperwork and as serious as officers pointing guns at people for no good reason.
Police Chief Tom Streicher defended the 1,000-officer division and its policies. He said the division already is working to fix its problems.
Keith Fangman, president of the police union, warned that implementing the recommendations would require millions of dollars and a dramatic increase in the number of officers. He said some of the federal investigators' criticism stems from their “misunderstandings” about the division.
Others, however, said the findings accurately depict the division's problems.
“I've always maintained that police cannot police themselves,” said Cecil Thomas, a 27-year police veteran and the director of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission. “Clearly that is what this report says.”
Among the findings in the 23-page report:
• Police need to do more to ensure that force is used or threatened only when necessary. Investigators said police may spray chemical irritant on suspects too often, sometimes emptying an entire canister on one person. They also were concerned about police drawing their guns when it is not appropriate.
• Supervisors cannot adequately track bad behavior by officers because records are disorganized and scattered in many files. The division needs an automated system that includes a disciplinary history on every officer.
• The division should change the way it handles citizen complaints about officers. The current policy is flawed because citizens are asked to meet face-to-face with the officer and a supervisor. Some citizens are intimidated by the process; others are told to come back later to file their complaint.
• Police seem to regard some complaints about improper use of force as “a minor matter.” And sometimes officers are punished with only an oral reprimand for serious violations such as unlawful searches and excessive use of force.
• The city needs a new, independent organization to investigate all serious allegations of police misconduct.
The findings come at a time when the police division is under close scrutiny in the community and at the courthouse.
Two officers are on trial this week for their role in the arrest of Roger Owensby Jr., who died in custody Nov. 7 after a struggle with police. One officer is charged with involuntary manslaughter and the other is charged with misdemeanor assault.
Another officer, Stephen Roach, was cleared of wrongdoing last month in the shooting of Timothy Thomas, whose death sparked the April riots.
Chief: No surprises
Chief Streicher said he had not yet read all of the federal findings, but he did not expect any surprises.
“We work with this stuff every day,” the chief said.
But some city officials said the findings of federal investigators seem to validate years of criticism.
“These things have been said by citizens for years,” City Councilwoman Minette Cooper said. “But they were supposedly making it up.”
The findings are the result of a federal investigation into the “patterns and practices” of the police division. The investigation was launched in May after Mayor Charlie Luken asked the Justice Department to examine the division.
Similar investigations in other cities, from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles, have led to court-ordered reforms of police departments.
But the tone of the recommendations released Wednesday suggests the Justice Department is taking a less-confrontational approach to Cincinnati.
Legal action against the city is still possible, but city and federal officials both emphasized their desire to “work together.”
“The department's goal has been to work with the city to identify policing practices that can be improved,” said Dan Nelson, spokesman for the Justice Department.
He would not say how long the investigation would continue.
Some disagreement
Regardless of the outcome, City Manager John Shirey said the city will take the recommendations seriously.
“We will do our best to meet every recommendation,” he said.
But many City Council members, who ultimately will decide whether to act on the recommendations, say they do not agree with all of the findings.
“I don't assume that everything they said is gospel,” Mayor Charlie Luken said. “Overall, it looked like they made constructive suggestions that we should take very seriously. Others, I didn't think much of.”
Some council members said they will hold public hearings to get the police division's side.
“There shouldn't be a rush to judgment,” said Councilman John Cranley, chairman of council's Law & Public Safety Committee.
Federal investigators, however, indicated that the changes they recommend are necessary to make the division more efficient, more professional and more responsive to the community it serves.
Some of the most important recommendations address the use of physical force by officers. The investigators said division rules do not clearly define when and how officers should use force, when they should use chemical irritants or when they should unholster their guns.
“This ambiguity may lead officers to believe they are justified in using force in situations in which it would be unreasonable,” the investigators state in their report.
The use of force by officers has been a major issue in Cincinnati, especially among African-Americans. The Rev. Damon Lynch III, an outspoken critic of police policies, declined comment Wednesday.
But other community leaders said the federal report shows that their concerns may have been justified.
“One could infer from the report that Cincinnati police are getting away with the unnecessary use of force,” said Norma Holt Davis, president of the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP.
Fielding complaints
Another problem identified in the report is the citizen complaint process, which investigators say discourages people from filing complaints.
They found that supervisors often fail to record the complaints in writing, and that complaints often are disregarded if citizens decline a face-to-face meeting with the officer involved.
“This practice interferes with the effective monitoring and resolution of citizen complaints,” the report states.
To investigate the most serious complaints, investigators said, the city needs an independent agency with no direct ties to the police.
The existing independent agency, the Office of Municipal Investigations, “has never had sufficient staff to carry out its mission,” the investigators concluded.
Some of the recommendations will cost money, of course. And it is not immediately clear how much will be made available to address the Justice Department's concerns.
More recommendations are expected before the investigation is complete.
Enquirer reporter Kevin Aldridge contributed to this report.
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