By Kevin Aldridge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Efforts to reform the Cincinnati Police Department and improve community relations no longer will involve the civil rights group best-known for its organization of downtown's 20-month-old boycott.

Instead, African-American ministers, business owners, teachers and even ex-convicts will take the place of the controversial Black United Front, if a new plan wins approval from a federal court judge.

Attorneys representing the plaintiff class - essentially every African-American in Cincinnati who has been or could be subjected to use of force, arrest or being stopped by city officers - introduced the creative approach Wednesday.

Their goal: Create a seven-person panel of citizens "well-grounded in the African-American community" that would help oversee police reforms and improve neighborhood crime-fighting efforts.

"We are looking for individuals that are committed to change and that come from every walk of life so the community is truly represented," said Ken Lawson, one of three lawyers representing plaintiffs. "They have to come with the same dedication that (the Black United Front) has established to make sure that the collaborative gets implemented."

"We have a real interest in making sure that the community, particularly the African-American community, is totally engaged in the collaborative process and that their concerns are appreciated and understood," said Al Gerhardstein, co-counsel for the plaintiff class.

Last week, the Black United Front pulled out of the landmark police reform accord that was agreed upon in 2002. Leaders of the civil rights group say they want to concentrate on expanding its boycott of downtown.

The group, formed in 2000, has been viewed by many as a voice for some African-Americans not involved in such mainstream organizations as the NAACP, the Baptist Ministers Conference and the Urban League.

Its withdrawal from the collaborative raised questions about who might fill that void in implementing critical community policing changes.

Lawson, along with Gerhardstein and ACLU lawyer Scott Greenwood, filed a status report to Judge Susan Dlott in U.S. District Court Wednesday that announced their intent to form the advisory panel. The lawyers said they would submit a report identifying the names of the panelists 10 days after the judge rules on the Black United Front's request to withdraw as class representative.

Dlott has given city leaders until Tuesday to reply to the group's request to pull out of the collaborative. Cincinnati City Council is expected to address the matter during a special session Friday of its Law and Public Safety committee.

Dlott had no comment Wednesday.

It is unclear whether the city would be allowed to have any input on the Black United Front's replacement. That is a decision that most parties involved in the case say will rest with Dlott, who is the guardian of the plaintiff class.

Lawson and Gerhardstein said the city has no say in whom they will choose to represent the class.

"I can't tell them who to hire as city manager or who to hire as the chief of police," Lawson said. "But I can tell them this, they will not tell us who is going to represent the community. That would be like choosing who gets to sue you."

A new way of policing

The plaintiff class in the collaborative is broadly defined as every African-American in the city who has been or will be stopped, detained, arrested or subjected to use of force by the Cincinnati Police Department or its agents.

Lawson said the group or individual chosen as class representative has two main tasks:

• Act on behalf of the class to insure that the plaintiffs, city and the FOP are meeting the terms of the agreement, which includes implementation of the use of force reforms, citizens complaint authority and community problem oriented policing program.

• Organize and encourage the community to participate in a new neighborhood policing method called Community Problem Oriented Policing. In it, the public works more closely with police officers to spot and solve neighborhood crime.

The BUF was able to withdraw from the collaborative because its was merely the representative of the class and not the class itself, Lawson said.

The city is locked into the agreement because it is a defendant in a lawsuit. It cannot pull out of the collaborative just as the entire plaintiff class could not pull out, he said.

"The city's agreement is not with the Black United Front, it is with the black community," Lawson said. "That's the difference."

E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com