This is an actual question from the 20th Anniversary Edition of Trivial Pursuit: "What Ohio city did NAACP president Kweisi Mfume call `ground zero' in race relations in 2001?"

It's in the "News" category - but it's hardly news to any of us who live here. The answer: Cincinnati.

Here's a question I hope to see in a future edition of Trivial Pursuit: How long has it been since Cincinnati's "out of control" cops have shot someone?

Answer: 12 months and counting. The last time a Cincinnati cop fired his weapon at a person was Nov. 28, 2001. As Gomer Pyle might say, "Well, sooprise, sooprise."

A flood of guns

For the past two years local protesters have spread propaganda that Cincinnati cops are murderers, rapists and racists. Boycott leaders who made excuses for rioters say the cops are "out of control.''

But for almost 13 months, those cops have not fired a shot at anyone - while homicides are on a record pace and Cincinnati has more gangstas waving guns than a month of MTV rap videos. A bulletin board at First District police headquarters shows pictures of 147 guns - laser-sight pistols, sawed-off shotguns and semi-auto Uzis. All were seized this year on just one shift in one district.

So what's going on?

Some say the cops are being more careful, less trigger-happy. If that's true, the protesters should declare victory and turn their outrage on the black men who are shooting black men over drugs almost every week.

But some say the cops are being too careful. And that could be dangerous.

FOP President Roger Webster says police are less aggressive because they're afraid of being sued or accused of racial profiling. If they see a drug deal going down, they think, "If I get out on him, I will be a racial profiler,'' he said. "They're stopping to think more before they do it. They used to just jump out.''

CPD spokesman Lt. Kurt Byrd says "de-policing" is over. The cops are doing their jobs, he says.

Show it, don't blow it

But Mr. Webster says morale is still poor because cops have no support from elected officials. "They know there's support out there from the neighborhood groups," he said. "They want to do police work.''

Last week, council heard from angry citizens whose neighborhoods are being wrecked by crime. And they voted unanimously for Jim Tarbell's resolution supporting the police.

But then a week later, they rejected a new contract for police supervisors. Given a choice between supporting cops or posturing for Issue 5, the post-riot reform to assert more political control over the CPD, the council chose posturing. Only Mr. Tarbell, Chris Monzel and Mayor Charlie Luken supported the cops' contract.

Mr. Webster predicts more "slowdowns" by angry cops.

One thing is obvious: Cincinnati's police are not "out of control."

But sooner or later, another bad guy will get shot by a cop. And then we will find out if law and order is back by popular demand - or just a trivial pursuit.

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.