By Jim Fuggett

With so many police officers skeptical about the city's ability to fight crime, should we hire more cops or reform the department's leadership?

When Walter Reinhaus walks the streets of Over-the-Rhine, he sees a once-proud neighborhood under siege from crime.

He can point out the spots where two homicides occurred within four hours of each other on a particularly nasty Friday in late June. Both victims were younger than 22 years old. Walk a little further, and Reinhaus, president of the Over-the-Rhine Community Council, can identify street corners that are known spots for drug dealing.

Despite the recent publicity surrounding a springtime crime sweep in Over-the-Rhine by Cincinnati Police, resulting in 1,050 arrests in six weeks, Reinhaus says the overall situation hasn't improved much.

"Extraordinary as those steps may be, it doesn't result in moving the neighborhood in the right direction," Reinhaus says. "The violence just continues to get worse."

Deteriorating conditions have prompted Reinhaus to propose having the community council ask city officials to declare a state of emergency in Over-the-Rhine. Reinhaus introduced his proposal during a community council meeting last month, and the neighborhood group could vote on the request within the next few weeks after more discussion.

If city council approves the designation, Reinhaus hopes it could qualify Over-the-Rhine to receive extra funding and other assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Other cities across the nation have considered seeking the designation for their own troubled neighborhoods, and it remains unclear if federal help would follow. The mayor of Jackson, Miss., declared a state of emergency June 22 due to rising crime caused mostly by juveniles and instituted stricter curfews. Last summer officials in Richmond, Calif., a poor suburb north of San Francisco, narrowly rejected declaring a state of emergency in the Iron Triangle neighborhood but allocated $2 million to fight crime after eight people were killed in the area during a two-week period.

Although not an official state of emergency, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin recently asked the Louisiana National Guard to send troops to his city to patrol areas ravaged by hurricane Katrina, freeing local police to handle a recent surge in violence.

FEMA should be willing to offer help to Over-the-Rhine, because the effects of daily shootings and homicides can be just as devastating as the damage caused by floods and tornadoes, Reinhaus says.

"In Over-the-Rhine, we have possibly the same sort of statistics but it happens more slowly, day by day," he says. "If nothing else, it would bring a greater awareness to the problem. This is just too big a problem for us to solve with the resources we have at the table now."

'Going through the motions'
The debate in Over-the-Rhine comes shortly after Cincinnati officials finally released a study on police deployment and morale issues. Conducted by nationally renowned police expert John Linder, the study cost more than $100,000, paid by the Cincinnati Business Committee (CBC) and other business groups. The funding tactic kept the study from qualifying as a public document under Ohio open records laws. As a result, even though Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr., some city council members and others were briefed about its contents, it wasn't available publicly until June 20, after council members released copies of a PowerPoint presentation outlining its findings.

As part of the study, Linder interviewed 63 officers in seven focus groups. Additionally, 1,029 surveys were distributed to officers, with 635 completed.

The results show that nearly 82 percent of police who responded don't believe Cincinnati will be any safer two years from now, and almost 72 percent don't believe the city will be any safer five years from now. The study's findings state there is a "widespread reluctance today to engage in pro-active crime fighting because officers feel not supported by city government, citizens, media and (their) bosses."

Such reticence among officers occurs as Cincinnati is on pace to break its modern record for homicides. As of June 26, the city had recorded 42 homicides. That compares to 79 homicides last year; the all-time high was 81 homicides in 1971.

"It's pretty pessimistic," says City Councilman David Crowley, referring to police attitudes revealed by the study. "It's discouraging that they're feeling so negative or so unenthusiastic about the future. To do any job, you have to have some hope for the future and that things will improve. You really wonder how well you do your job or if you're just going through the motions."

Some police might feel unsupported but the reality is different, Crowley and other officials say. In recent years, council has approved higher-than-budgeted raises for officers in union contracts, hired 75 more officers to bolster their ranks, bought Tasers, allocated extra overtime money, and exempted the department from budget cuts.

Calls to the local Fraternal Order of Police for comments about the study went unreturned.

City Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz wants the study's findings and methodology discussed in greater detail at a hearing when council returns from summer break.

"The attitudes in the report are bothersome," she says. "The report is not very descriptive of what they asked them or how they asked them. I'd like to see Linder come in and explain it."

'Need to hire five'
City council has five new members since the surveys were done.

"It's probably changed a little bit since they did the report," Ghiz says. "There's a new council that's more supportive."

In fact, Ghiz is part of a council majority that cites another of the study's findings to push for adding 100 officers to street patrol during the next few years. Some officers might be shifted from desk duty, but council concedes most probably would have to be hired, at a cost of up to $8 million annually.

The study says the police Department, which has 1,028 sworn officers, would need 355 more officers to achieve optimum effectiveness and efficiency. With improved technology, however, the department needs just 194 more officers to achieve the goal. The technology includes computer software that allows more sophisticated crime mapping and analysis.

"It's not about police not doing their jobs," Ghiz says. "They need more bodies. They're exhausted."

Crowley, who opposes hiring more officers, says the department should reconfigure its resources. He cites a statistic that only 48 percent of the department's 1,028 officers are available to respond to calls, with the remainder on other types of duties. Crowley wants to increase the amount to 60 percent, which he says is equivalent to having 95 more officers on patrol.

"More than half aren't available to respond," Crowley says. "Let's get more of them out on the streets. We don't need to hire 100, we need to hire five."

Regardless, Crowley says basing a major budget policy on a study that hasn't been fully reviewed by council is imprudent.

"It seems very bizarre to me that we're pushing ahead on this based on a private report for a private client done by a private consultant that hasn't been fully vetted," he says.

It remains unclear if city council has even seen the full report. Copies provided to council members by the CBC consist of printouts of PowerPoint presentations and responses to surveys. CityBeat's calls to the CBC went unreturned. ©