By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken is stepping up his campaign to get the U.S. Justice Department to back off a policy that he said would "handcuff our police."

In a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft Monday, Luken asked the nation's highest law enforcement official to intervene before the Justice Department files an imminent lawsuit against the Cincinnati Police Department.

The issue is the reporting of "hard hands" incidents - those in which police break up a fight, twist arms or tackle a suspect.

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division wants each incident thoroughly investigated by supervisors - including on-scene interviews of witnesses and tape-recorded statements by the officers involved.

Police say that level of investigation would needlessly tie up supervisors in paperwork. And, Luken said, it could "make police reluctant to intervene early to protect the lives and property of citizens."

Justice Department officials did not return several calls seeking comment.

Luken is trying to nationalize the issue, saying the Justice Department's insistence of such a policy for Cincinnati would set a precedent for the rest of the country.

"If this is the policy of the Bush Administration, it is important that it be decided at the highest level," Luken told Ashcroft.

"Again, there is no finding in any of our agreements that our Police Department did anything wrong. Whatever policy the administration adopts here should be the standard for the rest of the country, and that needs to be decided at your level."

In separate letters to the city's congressional delegation, Luken was even more blunt. He said the Justice Department "has gone over the top" and said the proposed policy "will be a serious blow to crime-fighting across the country."

He urged Ohio's two senators and Cincinnati's two congressmen - all Republicans - to get involved in the issue.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com