By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati's use-of-force agreement for police remains a model for the rest of the country, despite a "course correction" that strained the agreement last month, Attorney General John Ashcroft told the House Judiciary Committee Thursday.

Ashcroft said the dispute between the U.S. Justice Department and Cincinnati police over reporting of so-called "hard hands incidents" has been amicably resolved. "I think the effort in Cincinnati needed a little fine tuning, a little course correction," he said.

Since signing the use-of-force agreement with Cincinnati in April 2002, Ashcroft has trumpeted it as one of the Justice Department's proudest achievements in civil rights.

His comments Thursday were his first since the city and the Civil Rights Division got into a battle over the requirement that police fully investigate minor uses of force. The Justice Department dropped that requirement.

"We had a little glitch in the system, and we got everybody back together and worked it out again," Ashcroft said. "And when we can work together to respect the rights of American citizens and to make sure we have the right approach to law enforcement and the use of force, that's what we consider a win-win situation."

Ashcroft said the Bush administration will continue to enforce the Civil Rights Act, even as it takes a more cooperative approach with police and community leaders.

"We think that the right relationship between police and citizens is very important. We take very seriously any abuses, obviously, and we think that the approach taken in Cincinnati should be a model for this reason," he said.

Ashcroft's remarks came in response to a question from Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, who pressured the Justice Department to work out its differences with Cincinnati last month.

"We have had some difficult times in the city in the last couple of years, and whereas we absolutely have to protect the civil rights of every person in our community, at the same time we do not want to handcuff the police department, to make it tougher for them to do their job," Chabot said.

Mayor Charlie Luken called Ashcroft's words encouraging.

"I'm glad he referred to us as a model and not a guinea pig," Luken said. "I agree with Mr. Ashcroft that we are righted and working together, and I think he was personally involved in getting us there."

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com