Photo By Citicable/Citizen Complaint Authority, City of Cincinnati

ACLU attorney Al Gerhardstein wants the Citizen Complaint Authority to study patterns, not only individual incidents.

The number of black men dying in police custody in Cincinnati is down. That's important, according to Al Gerhardstein, one of the plaintiff's attorneys in the Collaborative Agreement on Police/Community Relations. But stopping the killings isn't all that's involved in ending inappropriate police violence, he says.

Gerhardstein addressed the board of the Citizen Complaint Authority (CCA), created as part of the Collaborative Agreement, on March 5.

"I always say, 'Plaintiff's counsel supported the deployment of Tasers in the police department, and you don't have any more dead African Americans lying on the street after a police shooting.' That's really important," he said. "Now are they using Tasers too much? The monitor says yes. If you look at the 18th monitor's report, you'll see that the monitor thinks Tasers are being used too quickly and resorted to too quickly. What's CCA doing about that?"

Too quick on the Taser?
Among the things the CCA investigates are officers' conduct when shots are fired or a death in custody occurs and after complaints about racial discrimination, unreasonable searches and other uses of force. The CCA weighs the evidence against police policies and procedures and the law.

Officers are considered innocent until proven guilty. If the facts don't support a finding against the officer, no action follows. If a complaint is found to be legitimate, the board passes this information along to the city manager and police department for possible disciplinary action.

Gerhardstein told the board that CCA does a great job with investigations and praised its reports as "excellent" because they "describe facts that are gray." For that reason, he'd like to see more of them posted on a Web site so citizens can learn from them. But more important, he wants to see the board to do more analysis.

"Your annual report says, 'We got so many search cases. We got so many excessive force cases.' Big, broad categories, but those are too broad to really be patterns," he said. "I'd encourage you to be thinking about pushing on that even more and trying to figure out: Are there areas where the citizenry can be assured that you're looking at topics that keep people steamed up?"

Based on conversations he's had, Gerhardstein said many in the community are uncomfortable with the way police have been using Tasers.

Photo By Citicable/Citizen Complaint Authority, City of Cincinnati

"I don't think the issue is really Tasers as much as the decision to use force," he said. "As I look at your cases and I listen to the community, there are so many cases where officers use force on people who are just not wanting to get cuffed or just very low level -- but real -- resistance. And you all pretty much routinely say that that force is authorized because it is under CPD policy.

"Many times when I read what you've written up, you've applied the rule correctly, but I don't think you've assessed the impact of the fact that there are multiple officers there. A single officer in that situation might be totally right to use a Taser. But then you read on, and then your report says there were two officers who were witnesses to this Tasing. And then you're wondering, 'Well, what were they doing? And did we really need to use a Taser here when you had three officers who might together have subdued this person without using force?'

"Cincinnati police will say, 'Our injuries are down because we don't lay hands on as much.' And that's true, too. This is not easy. But you have a very high incidence of Tasing in Cincinnati, much more so than in other communities. It might be worth looking at the policy. It really is a case-by-case thing, which is what you do."

'Steamed up'
Being able to make informed decision about these cases is critical, Gerhardstein acknowledged. He encouraged the board to learn more and pointed to the Ohio Police Office Training Academy as a potential resource.

The academy trains many of the officers in the Ohio State Highway Patrol and other police departments throughout the state. Its training on when to use a Taser is different from the one used by Cincinnati, Gerhardstein said.

"Compared to them, Cincinnati is very aggressive on the use-of-force continuum," he said.

He suggested the board learn more about the use-of-force continuum ­ which is a decision-making guide officers use to direct their responses to the actions of suspects.

"I am letting you know that a vast majority of police jurisdictions in Ohio put Tasers further down the use of force continuum than Cincinnati," Gerhardstein said. "That's part of why I keep hearing about use of force in the community, because in Columbus the relatives of these Cincinnati people don't get Tased as much. The Highway Patrol doesn't do it as much. And I just think it's a topic that we as a city need to continue to address. The monitor has put this on his ongoing report list."

Photo By Citicable/Citizen Complaint Authority, City of Cincinnati

Educating the public is also important. He encouraged CCA board members to talk to community groups about their work.

"It'll do two things," Gerhardstein said. "You will report, as it is accurate, that most of the time police officers are doing fine interactions with citizens. But you'll also be reporting that you're investigating it thoroughly, and those few times that you find problems you're naming it.

"I've been out in the community a lot in the last few weeks, and everybody is still steamed up about Tasers. This group has worked hard on Tasers. You have a Taser case just about every meeting, it seems. I think they should be reading all of your cases on Tasers, because I think it would help them see how hard this is."

Gerhardstein was clear about the issue the CCA ought to address first.

"I think you should be looking at the decision to use force itself," he said. ©