[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Happy [Music] turn down. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Good afternoon. We will call the special session of Cincinnati City Council to order and the clerk will please call the role. >> Council member Crane >> here. >> Council member Jeff >> here. >> Council member Johnson >> here. >> Vice Mayor Kernney >> here. >> Council member Nolan. >> Council Council Member Owens >> here. >> Council member Parks >> here. >> Council member Walsh >> here. >> Thank you. Please stand for a moment of silence. And now the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Council members Albi and Nolan will be excused from today's session of council. However, we will have both of them on Zoom, but due to council roles, they will not be able to vote. Moving to our agenda, um I really want to thank everyone for joining us for today's special session of council and thank you especially to the clerk and your entire team for the work to organize this so quickly. Just to set the table, I've called this special session after conversations with our administration, our police leadership, our council members, and our community. Because at this moment in time, it is important that we have a public and formal discussion of our work to combat crime. Today we will hear presentations from city manager Long, Police Chief Terresa Theiji, and afterwards we will move to discuss a motion addressing a number of directed actions our city is working on and would like to enforce. A month ago, Cincinnati was facing a concerning and unacceptable rise in crime of all types and in hot spots throughout our city. Homicides had risen. Property crimes had spiked. Particularly gun thefts from cars were putting more firearms onto our streets. Too many residents becoming victims and too many residents worried about going out and spending time in our community. As you all are aware, our administration and police took immediate action at the first sign of these concerning trends. Among other things, that includes the creation of a new street crimes task force, officers who have stepped up uh to uh uh officers who have stepped up in order to provide the safety that we all deserve and need. Uh that team is following the data and proactively targeting the areas where we are seeing heightened street level crimes. It includes temporary policies restricting the availability of e- scooters and red bikes late at night and early in the morning. And it also includes a frank conversation about whether we need to bolster and enforce our youth curfew policies as a city and how that could be operationalized in an effective and fair manner. Throughout this, it has been our commitment not just to implement every tool we have to prevent crime, but also make sure our residents are frequently updated on our status. Yesterday, we gathered for our bi-weekly update to walk through the latest data. And as our chief will discuss, we are seeing real positive progress. There is no reason for celebration, however, as long as Cadians are facing these crimes. But the stabilization we have seen over the past month is all the more reason to build upon our interventions, to continue listening to our residents, and to be unrelenting in our focus on city hall's core responsibility, public safety. That is why we are here today. I'm sure I speak for the administration when I express my gratitude for this council's ongoing work up to this day on behalf of our residents. You have been here at the table at this public meeting creating a crucial step to make sure we are as clear and intentional as possible in leading our city in our most sacred duty to Cincinnatians. Before we move on to the presentations, I want to call out and thank our officers, our public safety personnel, employees in the administration, and partners who have been working tirelessly on violence intervention. Partners that include so many of you here in the audience. And I do want to recognize um an elected official, Judge Carrie Bloom from the juvenile court. Thank you so much for your support and your work as well. We have asked a lot of our officers. That is always the case, but particularly right now, and they have stepped up to the occasion. Our CDRT and SWAT are out in our busiest areas during peak hours every single weekend keeping folks safe. The street crimes task force answered the call right away to take on a seriously worrying trend and they have poured themselves into it just this week. In addition, our new walking patrols are on the ground engaging with community and helping residents and small businesses feel more secure. That is on top of the already extraordinary ask we make of our officers dayto-day. From the overtime to the coverage of our large events, particularly in the summer, to their everyday duties, our officers have met this moment with the kind of work ethic and dignity that can make every resident proud. And I genuinely want to thank them. To our police and to every person who has been dug in on this work, we appreciate you. We are right here with you every step of the way. And now I'll ask city manager Long and Chief Theiji to present on our violence interruption strategies, on our police strategies, and how we move forward as a community. City Manager Long. Oh, one second, madam madam manager. Um, we're going to grab some handheld mics. Oh, I'm sorry. The the mics are working. May you may proceed. >> Thank you. So, chair and council, good afternoon. Thank you for being here and providing this opportunity to share more to share more about our ongoing violence reduction efforts this summer. As you know, everything we do is tied back to our larger violence reduction blueprint, act for censey. Today, I'm going to talk about acti and how we use this blueprint to inform our decisions and build methods to interrupt violence that we can deploy when new issues arise. What we are trying to establish is the city of Cincinnati is not New Yorker. We create these blueprints that help then systems in place so that we can continuously keep a pulse on what is going on in our city. Acti is a product of community collaboration. This comprehensive strategy to violent prevent violence in particular gun violence is about addressing root causes through a public health approach. This datadriven work is divided in five categories which I'll speak to in a moment. Acroincense provides us with a framework to invest in a long-term solution while being flexible to add new initiatives to respond to new challenges. The five pillars are stay here. Thriving neighborhoods, reduce accessibility of firearms to youth, improved well-being, improved youth support, evidence-based policing innovations, and I'll now go into a little more detail of each. We know blight and disinvestment contribute to poverty and crime rates. Initiatives included in thriving neighborhoods are investments in communities taking pride in action to revitalize and problem solve at a grassroot level. For your with your help, we have been able to get funding through boots on the ground, safe and clean, and human service funds. We have teams who are regularly out in the community cleaning up trash, painting over graffiti, and beautifying community spaces to make sure they are safe for our residents. A critical component to this work is reducing the accessibility of firearms to kids. We do this in several ways, including by using innovative technology at our crime gun intelligence center, encouraging safe firearm storage and providing free gun locks, lobbying our state and federal partners to change policy to allow common sense legislation that will reduce gun violence. And where we can passing local laws to ensure responsible gun ownership. Acroenti also focuses on improve mental and emotional well-being. Last year, we introduced the hope and shield network, our hospital-based violence intervention program led by UC Health and Cincinnati Children's, which is an immediate touch point with gunshot victims to interrupt the cycle of violence. This work complements the work of Karen Ramsey and her team at CPD, which focuses on providing support for victims and witnesses of gun violence as well as their loved ones. The violence prevention, the violence prevention professionals and Karen Rumsy teams work hand in hand. and our Cincinnati Recreation Commission staff and CPD youth services officers are undergoing trauma informed care training to better meet the needs of the community they serve. In my mind, a key to truly seeing a long-term reduction in gun violence lies with our youth. So, we try every possible avenue to create positive experience opportunities interactions for kids in our community. We do this through programming with our parks and recreation teams. We do this by hiring kids across departments for part-time jobs that can lead to a long-term career with the city. And I personally do this by meeting with the incredible young people who are part of my youth managers advisory group. And lastly, evidence-based policing innovations are at the core of what we do and how we make public safety decisions. We are committed to problem solving as we address localized crimes in our neighborhoods. Look at Impact. We've invested more than $3 million in community-led violence prevention and reduction programs. These include programs that engage youth, provide them the work opportunities, and get them involved in the solution. We've also focused cleanup efforts this year in North OTR in the West End. So far, more than 13,000 pounds of trash have been collected. Not only that, but there have been more kids that have been coming through CF Hall City Hall through our community pathways initiative. And not only that, when they can't come to city hall, city hall is going to every individual school in our district as well to educate people on your opportunity, our youth, to let them know that there is a way up and out through working and becoming a public servant in city hall. We understand that there is times when you we have to make sure that we're meeting people where they're at, and we are committed to doing that. There's a clear positive impact on community when we're removing that amount of trash, when we're also meeting people where they're at, and we're doing what we can to make sure that we're showing up in every way that we are in our city. We continue to reinforce how important it is to lock up your guns, both at home and if you make the decision to leave the house with one. Kids are getting access to guns too easily. One new intervention we are piloting this summer is restricting the use of red bikes and rental escooters on weekends. As we were responding to increased crime in our downtown core, police told me they observe kids using this easy to access mode of transport transportation to commit property crimes. We have been we have seen a reduction in our theft from auto since implementing this measure. Too many guns are stolen from ve vehicles and we will make every effort to reduce the likelihood of this happening. The city invested $600,000 in October 2024 to build out the hope and shield network as a first response to gun victims who are treated at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in UC Health. At that time, they've expanded staff for this programming and enrolled 91 patients. You may think of this as oh 91 that is in less than a year. That is significant. 91 people are are being given the opportunity of hope. That is what we are here as public servants to do. Only one of those patients have been reinjured. We hope by providing victims of gun violence immediate assistance, not just medically, but with wraparound services for jobs, housing, and mentorship, we can reduce the chance they are victimized. So, let's talk about some of the ways we engage with our youth and provide safe opportunities for them to enrich themselves, be exposed to new paths, and build positive relationships with friends and mentors. We know Wreck Night has expanded upon its success last year by adding a sec second location and more programming every Saturday this summer for our young people. Let's take a look at some of the numbers. More than 1,500 kids have attended, representing more over 50 neighborhoods in greater Cincinnati and Kentucky area. More than 35 high schools are being represented. Our most recent data from July 12th showed 13% of these kids were new to Wreck at Night and we have seen increased attendance each weekend compared to last year. We have teams of professionals out in the community connecting with our kids and providing resources. This includes our 311 community responders and community care outreach workers led by Iris Roelly and career pathways. We know and as I mentioned earlier, we know the difference a job and income can make in the life of child. We provide opportunities for youth to be introduced to career paths they may have never imagined for themselves and support their career growth and development to build a pipeline of potential talent for city employment. I myself have actually seen only one kid who said that they too can see themselves as being a city manager. What do what is career pathways does do? It allows for our amazing public servants to get in front of these kids and let them know whether your way of out is to go to high school is to graduate from high school or to go to college. We want to keep you here. We want you to be a public servant. We want you around the table because what we understand is the only way that we can support council in making policy decisions is to have people from all diverse walks of life. And that is what we have done. Okay. We have 18 active community problem oriented policing projects in across in in areas across the city including cuff otrint hills north side and more. And I'll speak to this more in a moment but I've directed staff to explore how we would enforce the cur current curfew for unaccompanied minors. Okay. For several weeks, multiple city departments have been working together to determine how we could successfully and safely enforce a curfew for unaccompanied minors in the city. CPD is reviewing its policies and procedures to determine what adjustments may need to be made. We have a cross departmental team discussing enforcement options, including updated ordices, reaching out to partners for potential collaboration, and researching a potential centralized curfew center. All of this is being done under the legal guidance of the city solicitor. We are not ready to make a recommendation recommendation yet, but continue to make progress. I'm incredibly proud of the work of this team. We know we have more work to do. We're honest about that. Not just city staff. All of us have a role to play to reduce gun violence in our city. And if there are many people that are talking, we have plenty of opportunities for you to volunteer and plug in because the more people that we have, the better that we will be. We're seeing the numbers stabilize and we're hopeful that we'll continue, but we will not be satisfied with stabilizing stab stabilizing. Public safety is our top priority and we will continue to build upon the pillars of Acroinci to see lasting change in our communities. As I tell my team, it has to be foundational. Thank you. Chief Fiji will now share more details about CPD's intervention strategies strategies this summer. >> Thank you. City manager want me to have it up here. >> Do we have this one ready to go? intermission. >> Thank you. All right. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you so much for having me here today. Um I'm going to jump right into the presentation because I know we will have a significant discussion afterwards. So I'm going to start with a little bit of information about how do we CPD monitor and address crime. We do this in a multitude of ways. We have weekly reviews and within those weekly reviews we look at the short-term data which is 28 day data set as well as long-term data. You hear me talk quite frequently about year-to-date information. We have collaborative review sessions. This is at the district level investigative and specialized units. So if you could imagine uh how a lot of our work in our specialized units can overlap with somebody else's unit in the department. So they are constantly having dialogue back and forth during those review sessions. We also continue with the problem solving initiatives as part of the collaborative agreement. And at the bottom here, you'll see if you look at our current part one crime, because this is really where the conversation uh started a little over a month or so ago. If you look at the the chart on the bottom, those colored blocks represent really the amount of crime in each of those categories. And while the first the largest block there, the purple one, is personal and other theft, that could be anything. That could be your wallet is stolen, your your um lawnmower is stolen, your bicycle, personal type thefts. And while that is the largest grouping of crime in our city, it also has the potential to affect the greatest number of people. And just having your lawnmower stolen out of your yard, as an example, now makes you a victim of a crime. and it causes a perception for you. It causes a concern for you. And so that's important for us to address. And then as you can see the other blocks, those also represent um numbers. The smallest sliver in the bottom right hand corner there, the lighter blue shade is our homicide, our gun violence homicide. So that is the least type of crime that a a member of our community would be a victim of. However, it's probably one of the most significant because it could be one of the most violent encounters. So, what do we do to address this type of information once we have it? We focus on key areas as well as solutions. Chronic hotspots. This is our datadriven approach. When we map out the crimes that we're experiencing, stolen firearms, that is a huge concern to us. The what that does, every time a firearm is stolen, that increases the possibility of it being used in a shooting and potentially a homicide. And then also youth involvement and unsafe activity. And that could be a range of types of activity. It could be crime and disorder, quality of life type issues, but significantly to us is the high-risisk criminal behavior such as being involved in a shooting, stealing of a car, and so forth. So, this is the information that uh the mayor and I and the manager presented yesterday. This is our last 28 day snapshot that we've been working off of. You can see here the total violent part one crime. We are now seeing in the last 28 days an 8.2 reduction and year-to date a 3.3% reduction. If you go down a little further, the part one property crimes 1.6% reduction. However, we see we still have work to do because the year to date is a 2.6% 6% increase. We have had discussions with you before about our tracking of our shootings. And again, I go back to the shooting is probably one of the most violent crimes anybody could be involved in. But somebody's property being stolen is just as significant. But I'm happy to report out that we are making significant progress in our shooting. Not just our shooting victims, but shooting incidents. As of today, our shooting victims are down 23.2% from last year year to date and our shooting incidents are down 19 over 19% year to date. And that again is for the incidents. So, how do we deal with this with the specific neighborhoods? Nobody knows better than the members of council and the mayor. We have 52 very very distinct neighborhoods in this city and what we do is we look at what is going on in each one of those 52 neighborhoods. The data kind of tells us where to go, what kind of response to have um so that we can provide the proper service to those neighborhoods. So these are some of the problems areas that we are having right now. burglaries, B&Es, autothefts, theft from autos, and you can see by the chart there that based on um the colorcoded graph there, what neighbors heads are experiencing what type of activity right now. And this is where each of the district commanders focus their resources. So again, we'll we'll talk about the the citywide violence update for a moment. So if you take that that red line across the chart there, that's our year to date. So 2025, this is going back to 2010. So 2025, our year to date for July is lower than it has been in 15 years. We had a really good 2018 and the end of the year 2018 I I remember specifically the end of year date data was significantly low but we are continuing to make progress in that area. Some of that is based on the partner strategies that have have driven this decline since 2010 such as the gun lock gives giveaways that we do. We do see an area where we need to to have some of our efforts concentrated and that's around the burglaries and the breaking and enterings specifically southern part of OTR CBS central business section where we also concentrate is some of our offenders. We have trained and skilled investigators who know who some of these individuals are that continually break into some of the restaurants and bars, for example. And we could map out sometimes map out when an offender has been arrested and being held accountable for those crimes. And then when they get out of out of jail, we will we know we will see a spike again because they will reaffend. So we concentrate on the offenders specifically as well. The victims will work with the businesses. We have again trained officers mostly in our neighborhood liaison units. They will go out and they will do analysis or surveys for businesses to show them where their vulnerabilities are and how they can target harden their location. What we do know is on these commercial breakins is quite often they are looking for two things cash and alcohol. So when we talk about target hardening, sometimes that survey, we'll we will advise the owners something as simple as locking up their alcohol could potentially prevent another offense on their business. So we do this through the SEPTED. SEPTED has been around for years. Crime prevention through environmental design. This we can do these at different levels. We can do them when a new business is being construct constructed and the officers who again who are trained in sept evaluations can go in and talk to them about some target hardening during construction phases. We can also do it with um already existing businesses and give them some target hardening advice there as well. We work with businesses and landlords through partnering as well as something new we've been been working on is partnering with the prosecutor's office on these repeat locations and repeat offenders. But if you look at the two locations that we're specifically talking about here, South OTR and the central business section, the Coryville Cuff, these account for 30% of our citywide burglaries and B&Es. That's why it's important for us when the data tells us a few locations or a few individuals are what driving our numbers. If we can focus on those and drive those numbers down there, it ultimately will have an overall reduction citywide for us. So, problem solving, we are committed to problem solving. We've been doing it for 20 years and we will continue to do it. But what does that mean? We have had the distinct luxury based on your passing of budgets each year to have a fund for our police visibility overtime. That is a significant resource for our district commanders to address crime and disorder in their particular districts. Again, the problem solving routine high visibility parole patrols um by our officers as well as investigations and arrest. All of that is pretty much daily functioning of our police department, but we've added a few additional layers recently. As the mayor mentioned during the kickoff, the roving of our our task force for the city, our street crimes task force, and they have done a phenomenal job in a short window of time. We also have our drone program and we will be kicking off another phase of the drone program on Friday. You'll hear more about that. The fus and camera expansion. This is pro have a great promising opportunity here for businesses and residents in our city to be a part of the solution by partnering with the police department. If you think about a business that may have significant camera systems, some state-of-the-art camera systems, they have the ability through Fus to purchase a modem that will then allow the police to have access in real time to what's going on at their business. So, let's go back. If you go back one slide, we were talking about the B&Es and burglaries. So if we have a location that's been repeatedly offended by somebody breaking in and if they have cameras that they tap into the fus technology with us, we could see what's going on at their business in real time hopefully thereby alleviating another criminal offense. We have the LPRs, automatic license plate readers. our manpower. I'm happy to say we started a class just a couple days ago on Monday. 58 brand new recruits, one of the largest classes I've seen in a while. We also have opened up the application for lateral officers. So, anybody with two years full-time law enforcement experience and for the first time anywhere in the country can now apply to be a Cincinnati police officer without having to go through the traditional recruit class. It will be a modified recruit class for laterals only. We are hoping to start that class in January. And then also the over the rind walking bike segway patrols that you've probably heard a bit about. Uh that started just this past Monday. We have officers walking Main Street Quarter, Vine Street Quarter from 400 PM to midnight engaging with the businesses, engaging with the residents. This is really to address quality of life type issues that those businesses and residents are encountering. It may be something as simple as somebody drinking an open container of alcohol which is actually prohibited. These walking patrols will engage with those individuals on those quality of life issues. And our goal is compliance. It is not enforcement. it is compliance. And then lastly on the bottom here, a few people have heard me speak to this point. Um I am still aggressively pursuing some type of parental accountability initiative. We're work working with the law department. Don't know exactly what that would look like, but that is still on the table and being discussed. >> Thank you, Chief. Thank you, city manager. Um, we'll now go into the question portion of the meeting. Just to um set the stage for the process, I'm going to ask Council Member Johnson as the chair of our public safety and governance committee to uh to lead us off. Um, and then every council member will have an opportunity to ask questions, including the council members on Zoom. And I remind you that Mr. Nolan and Miss Albby are on Zoom. uh they will be actively participating but due to um rules they are not able to vote. Uh we will go left from Mr. Johnson um around the horn and end our questions with Mr. Jeff. Mr. Johnson. >> Thank you mayor. Um just more of a statement uh versus questions. Um, I think if you were paying attention to what was presented by our city manager and police chief, there are a multitude of efforts that have been presented in an attempt to curb violence in the city of Cincinnati. Those efforts are ongoing. those efforts that appear to not be working. You've seen and heard that the city administration and the police department are willing to do to shift to make sure that everything all tools that are available to us in this city provided in the tool belt are available. I do believe this administration, this council, and this mayor have invested more money in our youth than any other council in the history of this city. We are going to continue to turn over every rock. We're going to continue to turn over to look through every page possible to make sure we get to where we need to be as a city. There is not one magic bullet that's going to change the dynamics of the unfortunate society that we're living in right now. We live in a country unfortunately that is obsessed, demented thought process with guns. We need the assistance to get to where we need to be from our state legislators and our federal partners. also. But this council, this mayor, this chief, and this administration are going to, excuse me, do everything possible so the citizens of Cincinnati feel and know that they live in a city that is safe. The community partners, Miss Rowley and others that are out there every day working diligently, it has been a collaborative effort. No one person has the I has the bullet. No one. The police department don't have the magic bullet. Legislators, the mayor, the administration doesn't have that bullet. But collectively listening and working together, we're going to get to where we need to be in this city. Citizens of Cincinnati, you've got a mayor, a council, a chief, a police department, and an administration that believes in all hands on deck. And that's where what that's what you have that's going on right now. All hands on deck. Hang with us. Hang with us. Keep working with us. Keep pushing us and challenging us to get to where we need to be. we don't duck any difficult issues. We're going to continue to work diligently to make this city what it needs to be. Thank you, mayor. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Miss Owens, >> thank you. Um, thank you, Chief. Thank you, city manager. Um, I would also echo that certainly as a council, we and administration, we've made progress. We've increased uh public safety in this past budget. Uh, we've increased human services funding. uh increasing the percentage that we have put into youth violence prevention which as a result the ability to fund more organizations in neighborhoods. Um but certainly we can all recognize we've got more work to do. This is a conversation. This is an an initiative where we have to stay consistent um and tenacious. So thank you for the work that you all have been doing. Um I've got questions for for both of you all. Um, I'm going to start with the city manager because as we think about uh, yes, gun violence and the access to uh, and how we might show up as a city, uh, certainly we have a strategy around our state and federal lobbying because we know that we can't enact gun laws alone. So, can you tell us the progress that is that have been made or more around that strategy considering that there are other legislators that have to be a part of this conversation? >> Absolutely. uh we do have an internal office that is dedicated to um lobbying efforts at the state and the federal level. But what we do also understand is and I'll let the mayor probably expand upon this. This gets a little bit more into political waters than I choose to get into. But what we do know at the administration level is that there are things that we need to allow for our police officers navigate this world safely. there is common sense gun laws that should be on the book for us to be able to enforce to be able to do our job um more effectively and there are certain people that shouldn't have guns. So, we do have a staff member when there is opportunity to try to work with other like-minded people, whether that's in the state or in the federal government that working with the mayor's office, we do try to figure out a way to get a win for Cincinnati. And we have made some local win. We've tried to make past some local things that have been challenged in the Supreme Court and have also been overturned and um that is a consistent battle for us. Mayor, do you want to expand upon that? >> Yeah, thank you, Madam Manager. Um, Miss Owens, as as you know, because you've led so much of this work, this council has been on its front foot for trying to pass creative and intentional, sensible gun reform. Um, trying to close the girlfriend loophole. Uh, trying to make sure that, um, perpetrators of domestic violence are disqualified from owning a gun at the local level. Uh and unfortunately every time we try to um enact meaningful and reasonable in my view uh gun reform um the state legislature has preempted us and the Supreme Court has backed up the state legislature. Uh so it is a very challenging um uh political landscape for getting any kind of sensible gun reform passed at the state level which is what is sorely needed. But on that on that front, just building off of Miss Owen's question, uh, and this one's to you, uh, the chief, can you talk about the increasingly difficult task of policing given the, um, state legislaturator's decisions to doing away with concealed carry licenses, so now anyone can openly carry um, uh, arming teachers in schools. I want to be very clear, CPS has rejected that. Um but certainly that means more guns in our community and finally stand your ground. You know what what I see as a civilian observing is if everyone has a gun including our children uh it makes policing very very challenging because identifying the threat um is increasingly hard. Can can you talk about how that has impacted our ability to police since those laws were passed? >> Absolutely. Thank you, mayor. to the mayor's point. Um, when we I support the people's right to to bear arms. However, when you have parameters around that, part of that, the advantage of having those parameters is ensuring the officer's safety when they're dealing with somebody with a firearm, when they are carrying it legally. I'll give you an example. It's a kind of a simple but when we had the permit carry, part of that requirement was an individual had to go through training to be able to get a permit. There was requirements where if they encountered an officer, say for at a traffic stop, they had to tell an officer that they were a permitted firearm possession. And those things have now been taken away. So now we have people who are even sometimes legally carrying firearms with no training. And now they do not have to tell an officer that they are carrying a firearm. So now the officer's mindset shifts from being on the offense quite often before they know what they're dealing with. So, it has put the officers in a a gray area of not knowing who they're dealing with that can be carrying a firearm and cannot be carrying a firearm. Uh, I go back to the training a bit. We train our officers consistently to um handle their firearm in the most prudent manner and to ensure that if they have to use that that they hit their targets. What we're seeing now because nobody has to go through training even in a self-defense type of a situation they do not have training on using that firearm. I do not have confidence that that leads any citizen to hit their target if they are put in a position where they feel like they have to defend their life and discharge their weapon. So while that a lot of those things may seem like minor nuances to the law, it does create an environment where it makes policing much more difficult for our officers. >> Thank you, Chief. Back to you, Miss Owens. >> Thank you. And so I would say and and again this is a conversation that we could be here all day talking about all of the many issues. But just to put a fine point on that, you know, we're in an environment where the access to firearms is quite easy. You know, I liken it to it's easier to get a gun these days for young people than it is to register to vote. And so we need all hands on deck. Um so yeah, a few more questions. um as it relates to curfew, um what might the data suggest around the success of that? Uh how might that even be built out? That seems like it requires a lot of time and people at the table to be able to even implement. And so if we can just speak to um how a curfew, enacting a curfew might help curb some of these um instances that we're seeing. Um please explain. >> Absolutely. Thank you for that question. Uh we are still looking at the data. We did our first dive into what that data looks like and we broke it down by neighborhoods in our city, time of day, calls for service involving youth and disorder. So, we look at all of that, but as the ordinance is evolving the language, and I'll let the city manager speak to that, what we're seeing is we will then go back and look at additional data sets depending on what the proposed legislation will say. Um but the the first look at the data does indicate to us that there are some specific neighborhoods in our city that the the youth disorder is occurring after current curfew hours and thank you um council member regarding the buildout the way that I see this is we have several different work streams that are going on as the chief referenced there is the ordinance that is currently on the best the books which for me is um a little confusing and very difficult enforce because there are several different HPM reference. So we need to go through that ordinance and make recommendations to you all to clean that up and at that point once we clean it up make it a little bit more um streamlined. The goal would be then for for a chief to see how that is operationalized. Secondly, it is very important for us to think about the spirit of the collaborative agreement in addition to all the work for act for cincy and all that is that is is telling us to do and so with that that is a collective of police and the city manager's office working hand in hand and I want to applaud all of city manager's office the team because they have rolled their sleeves up and we are committed to doing this right and not doing anything knee-jerk but with that there is the curfew center and the conversation about if there is a there curfew center, a place to put kids that have social emotional support there, that have mental health support. Who is that partner? And what is important for me is not just have this something we stand up in the summer. That's not helpful. I think this should be year round. What I will recommend and I'm pretty solid with at this moment, I've talked to the chief, is it pretty Friday and Saturdays evenings year round is the goal for us to see how that looks. Um, and then another um thought is is also the external partners. How can the people that we're currently funding support us in this? We've had calls and that have I'm going to applaud the human services um um groups that are people that we are funding. 48 people attended a call. Many of them raised their hand that say that they would be helpful in that some that is communications whether it's external communicating the parties. how can we be a part to make sure the word is getting out and so because at the end of the day if we don't have community policing CMO and everybody working hand in hand then this could this could definitely fail what we're trying to accomplish but I think we have the right people um and when we do get to a place we're able to make a recommendation I'm going to be confident where it is. >> Thank you. And one of my questions would have been you know what community conversations have we had to date? So I would imagine we've started some of those conversations Correct. Um right now we can't communicate unless we know exactly what that is to communicate. So we've been mostly dealing with those partners that we are funding and and those human sorts of organization. We've had um chief has conversations with Judge Bloom in addition to Michael Patton from JFS. But at that point where we have more to communicate what that is, we will then do a more robust to community. >> Thank you. Certainly what I'm hearing is that we'll be very thorough about how we vet to go through this process of making sure that there are no unintended consequences at the end of the day. We are making sure that we are creating safe spaces and opportunities for young people. Um I want to um ask about uh right now perceptions are important and so the the safety um the the surveys that that Sept is it is that uh is administering I I find very uh interesting. And so if you can tell us about some of the results of some of these surveys from the businesses, what might be the needs um if there's retrofitting that needs to happen and the challenges funding just walk us through any challenges, opportunities, what are the results right now? >> Absolutely. Thank you. So we have individuals on our department who are trained to conduct a septed assessment that could be a multitude of levels depending on the business that's requesting this. I go back to the B&E with some of the restaurants and bars and a septed might have several recommendations, but one might be as like said as simple as take your alcohol bottles of alcohol off the shelf, lock them up at night. That makes it a uh less desirable location to break into. We've also discussed there um I want to research a little more. There are some opportunities for some um items such as a film that you could put on the glass for your business so that if somebody does try to break in, yes, they're going to break your glass, but they're not going to be gain be able to gain access to your establishment. Um so there is some opportunities around there. Uh, I would like to I had one of my district commanders researching that for me to even find out what's the cost of that and is there an opportunity for maybe the city or some other funding source to assist these businesses with that? I've been told it's not an expensive um item, but I I need to know a little bit more about that. >> Okay. Sounds like more information for us to gather. And uh you know I would just say openly that if if funding becomes a need for businesses and in this kind of um to to have this response to say hey these are the things that we think you should do and if money is a challenge I think we should look at ways that we don't it's not a barrier at the end of the day. And then when we're looking at these sept results what what's kind of the time frame? I know it's as soon as possible but what are what are some of the time frames to make these sorts of improvements? And I'm sure it can vary based on the the recommendation. >> Yeah, I I don't have specific answer for that question. I'm happy to to gain that and get back with you. I would have to talk to some of the officers who actually go out and do this work um to find out because like I said, there are different levels that they could provide. I believe it's a quick turnaround to the business owner. Um one of the other things I do want to mention is a resource. Again, I go back to Fucus where that we could tap into their cameras. There is a cost for a resident or a business to purchase the modem that gives us access to their camera system. Uh we are also working on grant funding to be able to provide some of those modems at no cost to the businesses. Then we would use grant money for that. And council member, to piggyback off of the comment that um chief was making, we have been having conversations along with the mayor to recommend that we give a pot of resources to get to a yes, whether that's with fuses in addition to some of the hardening. And so they are going back to do the work to look at the data and see what that could be. And so that is something that's on the table already. >> Thank you. Just a few more questions. Um, as it also relates to safety perceptions, uh, Chief Fiji, if you can tell us what the average response time is right now when people are calling because they heard shots or whether it was firecrackers or whatever it is, what's the average response time? >> Yeah. So, we track that data weekly as part of our STARS reporting. Again, I don't have the number in front of me because there's a lot of variables that would go into that. What is the type of call? um you know a high priority call is going to have a quicker response time than a low priority call. And but what we do is we share that with the district commanders. My my data analytics group shares that with the district commanders on a weekly basis and it is definitely part of the district commander responsibility to monitor that so it doesn't see an increase. The other thing when we talk about response time is we think in in policing we think response time from the time the officer gets the call to the time they go to where they're they're supposed to be going. But what we we've found is we need to take a step back and look at the citizen who is making that call response time to them is the time they made the 911 call to the police showing up. So it is a partnership between us and our emergency communication center to make sure that all of that is flowing as quickly as possible when the call comes in. How quickly does the call taker get it to the dispatcher, the dispatcher to the officer, and then the officer to arrive on scene. So we look at all those variables, but again I do not have the specific average call time in front of me because there's so many different types of calls. Is that something you can get to us? >> Absolutely. All right. >> Thank you. And just um two more questions. Data as we become a more data informed city and making decisions which is extremely important. Um you referenced uh the cuff area 30% of things happening are happening there. And so how might data also help us to inform our the way that we are showing up in communities in a proactive way rather than reactive? Are there other data points that can help to um make better decisions? For example, does that mean we activate a space uh by way of I I I don't know programming or whatever else it could be? How can we be more proactive in our approaches? >> Yes, absolutely. So, the 30% is more than just the cuff. It was other other neighborhoods that um ultimately was caused us 30% of our burglaries and B&E. So it's not just cuff at 30%. What we do though too, we report it out by neighborhood, but what we know is we do an even deeper drill down into that data. It is usually street segments. So not all of cuff is experiencing B&Es. When we look at the data in the deep dive, what we know is it is maybe particular streets within a neighborhood that are causing problems. And then we look at other trends like when school is in session, the university versus not in session. Um who are again back to who are our offenders? Are they incarcerated or are they not incarcerated at the time of these trends that we're seeing? So we look at all of that. But to your question, I think the options or the possibilities of any type of engagement are really endless. Endless. We don't want to be restricted to only what do the police come in and say that you could do to alleviate these burglaries. We are open to having conversation with anybody who thinks they can assist a resident, a renter or a landlord in protecting their property from these these burglaries. >> Thank you. That leads me to my final question. um that city manager you you also echoed the call of hey act for cincy means we're doing this together and so if you want to plug in plug in so what might be the ways that people can actually plug in >> absolutely um thank you for the question we right now with acency um we have meetings that are are actively underway um we have action teams that are kneedeep in the work that are spread throughout the city um we have if you go to our website and you look under acti there is a way for you to join and be a part of those action teams and to get involved some of our action teams we need private and and public people to join in um some of these things that we're challenging we need people to bring potentially resources whether that's in thought mind or money to the table so what I would say is look on the city's website go to act for censey and we can find a way to volunteer >> thank you so we're leaving no no individual no or organization out of this conversation. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Owens. President Parks. >> Thank you, Mayor. Madame Manager and Chief, I I just want to extend my appreciation for all of your efforts. The things that you have told us today is a reflection of of how we have been working together. And I'm just really proud of the work, you know, cities as well as ours, we have uh there's crime and there's things that occur that nobody likes, nobody wants it. I I think that to hear of one teenager shooting another teenager is simply heartbreaking. It damages our community, it hurts us. Unfortunately, common sense is not common. It's too bad that our state legislators will not um use common sense in making the policies around guns. We have the numbers, the statistics of how it was before um you know, anybody could just have a gun. So I I understand how it would affect the police department. Um the other thing is I I'm very impressed with the problem solving and and what I heard was that the purpose of this of the curfew is not enforcement. You said that you want compliance, not enforcement. There it's it's a fact that there are some parents who are working late at night and their kids might be out. Look, I was a sneaky little teenager myself and and we know what they can do, but we don't um I believe what we want to tell the public is that we're not trying to arrest as many kids as we can. We want to keep them safe. We don't want them out at 3:00 where somebody might just shoot at them. And so I think that that is very important that we um educate about the perception that we intend. Um, the other thing, um, I'm really glad about the 58 recruits for the new police, um, academy and that you said that you you are searching for grant funding for the Fus camera expansion. So, that's really good news. Um when when we take a look at the citywide violence update, I you know, you said that uh 20 18 was a really good year. Why is that? I I wonder what what what made that what happened? >> Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Parks, for that question. Um, I was in a completely different role in the organization at that time. Um, but I remember monitoring the shooting numbers just like we do now. And I believe it was a concentrated effort with law enforcement on going after some of our most violent offenders. And so it's not really it's not always about the quantity of arrests that you're making when it comes to gun violence. It's the quality of the arrest. Are you getting the guns off of the right people who are we know are our shooters in our city? And we just really had some quality investigations that year that led us there. Um I think also because you're comparing data post pandemic and 2020 across this country was a very very discouraging year when it came to gun violence. Um so we are trying still to bounce back from that but 2018 was just a marking for tremendous work by the men and women from the Cincinnati Police Department. Thank you, Chief. Um, you know, in our efforts to grow our police department, you mentioned that um that you will accept an application nationwide from policemen who have experience from other places. Um, I I just want to check to ask you that we do background checks, right? like we we do not want to hire a police that you know has shot somebody. So So >> yes, that that is accurate, ma'am. Um what I said was they can apply as long as they have two years of full-time service as a law enforcement officer. But yes, we will continue to do the background checks as we do now. Uh, I don't want to hire somebody else's problem child and we still want to maintain the highest standard of members of the Cincinnati Police Department. >> Chief, so is is there like a code or you know like if somebody from Utah applies here and they have been violent, how how would you find that out? So we have our background in recruiting unit that have been doing this for years. They are veteran some of our most veteran officers most experienced in this and this all comes into play during their background investigation which also leads then to polygraph. So we'll know we'll ask the right questions and we'll know if they're being truthful with us or not. >> Um city manager you told us about uh will you explain to us what happens when there is um a shooting victim and we interact with them at the hospital. >> I think it's just incredible that uh we have engaged 91 people um in this. So, so explain to us um how how does that happen? What happens? >> Absolutely. First, I want to applaud um before we had the hope and shield network, we also had Karen Ramsey that was based out of a s uh the sensei police department and her team who we you all with your support have allowed us to grow her team as well. Um, and with that, with the Hope and Shield Network, when a person is been shot or experiencing gun violence, there's two things. The VPPs, which are the victims, oh my gosh, I wrote this down. Sorry, it's a very victims. Can I say that back there? Violence pro violence prevention professionals. Sorry. with the VPPs. Um, they engage Karen Ramsey depending on the hour. VPPS work regular day hours and then Karen Rumsy's work pretty much 24/7. They're on call. So there will be times when the CPD will give heads up to Karen Rumsey team. She will activate if it's during the evening time. She will go to the hospital or wherever the victim is. There are some times where the victim may have left or whatnot, but she will complete whatever her uh conversation is with that victim. She will then be right uh communicating regularly with the VPPs who will then also be informed of what her touch point was or there may be cases where they may leave right the gunshot victim may leave and she say I didn't get to reach them um and so I need you to follow up and so what happens then when the BPPs activate they will have a slew of conversations they're trained professionals who will basically find a way to build that relationship and also find to get them a wraparound to services and support. But in the same area, you also have Karen Runsey teams who are also following around following them as well. So if there's holes, if there's housings, if there's something that's needed, then she fills in those gaps. So what we essentially have is two teams that are working a coordinated effort. One that is the city of Cincinnati. This is our program. So the city of Cincinnati has to be the first contact, but at the end of the day, they are working in support with each other to extend her office even more than what you have already funded. And that's what we're doing to provide that holistic wraparound care. >> That's wonderful. And so in addition to the wraparound services, um we also have other programs that you might refer them to. For instance, the building and inspection, >> building futures, >> um to become a lifeguard. you know, the fact that um you know, I remember for years people really complained about the pools not being open. Has anybody patted us on our back about having them open and and paying the teenagers? We're we're helping to build their resume. Uh to the chair, the council member, you may think that's people may minimize that, but honestly, when there was an article posted about how we opened up all our pools, I'm a part of this large cities executive forum and they were like, Cheryl, we need you to bring it as a topic as how you were able to get lifeguards trained to open pools because that is something that is happening across the country. So, the fact that we were able to accomplish that was a huge win. And also when we talk about the upward mobility and giving people that are of our community opportunities, when we talk about the building um building academy through our bu uh through our building inspections, we had the complaint of people showing up that didn't look like the the the the community that they were actually enforcing. And so to find a way to give people the opportunity, give certifications, give them education so they now have careers is huge and significant. So the work that we're doing which is in the spirit of Acroency in addition to the support of this council is we are creating foundational opportunities for people. If you walk through the door, we have something for you. It's just a matter of getting people making sure that we're giving people and making them feel comfortable to walk through that door. >> City manager, thank you for your leadership. That is good good leadership. Um, you know, when we confront someone who has been affected by gun violence in instead of embarrassing them or not giving them the help that they need, we have the ability to turn their life around and offer them a lifechanging career. So I I I really um thank you for your leadership in that. The the other thing is um with the youth support wreck at night and and all of the other programs, it's just really awesome. You said that there are 35 high schools involved and there is a 13% increase over last year. that is very significant. So, um just just thank you and we have more work to do and we're here for it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, President Parks, Vice Mayor Kernney. >> Thank you, city manager Long and uh Chief Fiji for both reports. I want to give a shout out to Karen Rumsy as well. I think her team is really phenomenal. Uh and we probably need to expand it. we need to look at that because they are out there all the time. They are just amazing. Um so, you know, on the on the agenda of course is is the motion for the curfews and so I wanted to talk a little bit about that. Um can you tell us more about um the process we're thinking about and let me just say, you know, I like the idea that it's not about arresting our young people, it's about keeping them safe, uh not criminalizing them. And so I love that that's, you know, that's our starting point. So how how are we thinking this is going to work? >> I can talk specifically to kind of what we're building out and but I I we also have to create a product that Fiji can then figure out, Chief Fiji can then operationalize. But in my ideal world, um, we would have a safe pa place officer picks up child. There's a child that potentially could be have other, uh, things that involves potentially 2020, right? They could have other things that would not go to this curfew center potentially. Um, depending on if they have warrants or something like that, but then there's the child who's just out and about. We then take them to this curfew center. The goal for me would be that they understand, you know, what why they are there. Um they have professionals that are there to um not only build into the kid why they're there, but also why we are trying to contact the parents or the or the person that is responsible for this child. The goal and Judge Bloom has been amazing, but do how do we find a way to work with her team to figure out a way to get this child home? That is the goal. We all know when I was raised what did they say nothing good happens after 11 o'clock whether that was what my grandmother used to tell me. So in the same place our goal is to get these kids in safe places. That is what the overall goal is for the curfew. The operationalize it working with our law team. We have to make sure it's legal and it's making sure that we're looking at all the rights of everyone involved. But it's just a way to get a restart, to get in a safe space, and to get this child to where they're supposed to be. >> I love that. So, it it sounds like uh curfew centers might be our rec centers maybe in in in the different neighborhood. No, not the rec centers. >> I because we're utilizing our rec centers as being a place for kids to have fun, to be, you know, we have wreck at night. We're trying to grow them. I don't want you to conflate that to mix that up to where you have a rec center and then the curfew center would be a different partner that I'm envisioning, >> but not 2020. >> Correct. >> So, okay. Um, and you know, so I I think um just thinking about this, I think it's an opportunity for us because, you know, our kids who are out late at night might have other needs and need uh other resources. It seems to me that this might be a way of uh expanding youth to work. for example, you know, when they come in, we can talk to them about, you know, do you need an after-school job? Do you need tutoring? Do you have mentors? You know, how's the situation at home? And what's stopped a lot of those conversations is that the parents haven't been around. And so, the fact that the parents or the responsible adult has to come and and pick up the child, I think gives us an opportunity to really um do some of the some of the work with with young people we've been talking about. to the council member. I agree. Um that's why I really want us to look at a picture of not just standing up during the summer to do it year round. We have to be able to have a a opportunity to really gauge what is going on and it have it in a consistent way. Um and so that is why I don't want to just say okay we're standing this up just for a temporary one you know one thing. I would like it to be year round so we can get those informations, those stories and figure out a way how city hall can plug in utilizing act for cincy and all of our partners to figure out how we can get these kids in the right direction. >> I love that because year round I mean that's really how we change lives, get everybody on the on the right path and that's really that's really the the goal. That's that's um what what we're hoping to do. So I understand just looking at the motion and I'm sorry I didn't see it before it came on today. I'm you know I'm supportive of it. Um, so that one part says that um, we're going to look at the ages, the times, and locations. I just want to caution us though not to just do curfew enforcement in certain areas of the city. I mean, this, you know, we've been doing the curfew thing like off and on for quite some time. And you know over the years there complaints that it's only enforced and this isn't this current administration. So I'm I'm going back in in history but there were complaints that some neighborhood it wasn't enforced in some neighborhoods. It was only enforced in others and um the public was not happy about that. So I think if we do it we're going to have to do it um you know consistently fairly across all neighborhoods. It will be a data informed um um that we will be looking at. Um obviously this is a tool for police officers to have um and so we will make sure that whatever we recommend is in the in the spirit of making sure that it's being fair. Okay. I love that. Um so yeah, so I that was that was my my main concern about it. Um, I love the fact that we will have this opportunity to help the children, the the young people who are in violation and their families access resources. It gives us a chance to put our eyes on them and talk to them uh and and actually help them moving forward. So, um, I I'm definitely in support. So, so thank you for that. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor, Mr. Kmer. >> Thank you, Chief. Thank you, city manager. Thank you to all the officers out there. We uh do appreciate and acknowledge your work. I was very excited obviously to hear about the walking patrols. Obviously a lot of enthusiasm from the neighborhoods. Uh very important. Are there other walking patrols or visibility patrols in the other districts right now? Whether that's a bike, a trike, a Segway. >> Thank you for the question, council member. So you heard me talk a bit about this pot of money for police visibility overtime that is discretionary for the district commanders. So if they are seeing a problem in their neighborhood, they absolutely have the ability to use their PVO funds for walking patrols if they determine that that is the best solution to the problem that they are currently encountering. This one in otr was a bit different because of the um significant amount of concerns from the residents and the businesses in specifically Main Street and Vine Street area and I have seen I've personally experienced and been a part of the development in otr. I was the district one captain when 3CDC first started some of those endeavors in the southern part of uh over the rhyme. So I have seen the investment that people have put their hardearned money into these businesses and these homes and so when you I start hearing from them uh and the volume of the concerns that they had this was a different course of action for me to take but it is not an uncommon course of action from my predecessors have taken this and it is a temporary fix. Um, it is designed for interaction, face-to-face conversations, interactions with the individuals, whether they are a business owner, a resident, or whether they are one of the individuals that are causing the concern to the businesses and residents. Um, it's very similar to the curfew, these walking patrols. If they see some type of quality of life violation, they are going to ask for compliance. That is always our end goal is compliance. Um we have a a continuum that we like to follow. Ask, tell, demand, and only if all of that fails do you take enforcement action. So this is again a way for us to hopefully gain compliance in those areas. >> Just seems critically important as far as deterring crime as you said, certainly the perception among citizens. though that anything that we can do to make that standard operating procedure so it happens all year round so it's funded so we're not using the overtime I just think that'd be critically important you know on the major corridors like Hamilton Glenway and Warsaw Reading Road to the extent that that becomes normal I think it's very important >> I agree >> thank you one of the things I al I do hear too from from citizens is this perception that the police officers are discouraged from enforcing certain laws Um, you know, we were talking about the curfew today, which is this is a great conversation. Expired tags is another one. I mean, is that the perception among the officers that that that they feel like they're discouraged from enforcing certain laws? >> So, I have a couple of times heard this and what I will categorize as rhetoric as well. I will tell you from the moment I've sat in the chair the as the police chief during both the interim capacity and as the permanent police chief that couldn't be further from the truth. I encourage enforcement if all else for compliance fails. I will back our officers. Many people have heard me say many times, as long as they are following their training, our policies, and our procedures, I will back and support whatever decision they make. They have a lot of discretion, a lot of discretion as a law enforcement officer, and they need that discretion. I shouldn't be watching over their shoulder every single minute for every decision they are making. So if there is a belief that they are encouraged to not enforce something that is not accurate that is not accurate. They do have to work within the confines of some of the resources that they have. Um and sometimes that I it's up to me to remove those confines when they occur so that they can go out and enforce what they deem necessary. >> Mr. Mr. Kramerding, if I could uh interrupt briefly, >> please. >> Uh just building on Mr. Kramerding's question, I I too have heard um this somewhat vague uh concern that we have somehow handcuffed police officers from doing their job. Uh so I just want to ask a direct question. Have I or any of the elected officials here directed you or asked you to tell police officers not to enforce certain laws? Absolutely not. >> Thank you, Mr. Kramer. >> Thank Thank you, mayor, and thank you, Chief. I mean, that was very clear and I think that was necessary. So, thank you both. >> Finally, we you talked about CUF and Uptown and and that being spot. Will you talk about the partnership between UC police and and what that looks like? Is there a role that that UC police uh could be playing a greater role because, you know, there's, I don't know, 40,000 students up there. uh that's going to take a lot of policing. You talked about bars. A lot of these are servicing students. What does that partnership look like and and could that be changed in any way to improve that partnership? >> Yes, thank you council member for that question. So again, I'm going to go back a little bit in time. The landscape up there around the university has changed drastically. Um record enrollment, um record housing needs, things like that. We have had anou. We we had anouou with UCPD many many years ago and there were certain parameters w in which UCPD could work off campus. Then in I believe it was 2015 we had an incident uh where a UC officer shot and killed an individual in our city. That thatou was then stalled. Um, it has since been reinccorporated. We do currently have anou with UCPD. Um, I often hear people who who think we don't. We do. And again, those parameters on what UCPD can do off-ampus with a partnership with you with Cincinnati Police is outlined in thatou. It does not allow them to do like proactive traffic enforcement, but they absolutely can address when they see a crime occurring, particularly a violent crime, they can take police action. It establishes uh kind of the outline for who's in charge when an incident occurs. UC supervision, Cincinnati supervision, um in my opinion, is very well written. It allows us to work collaboratively up in that area. In addition to theou, the university for several years now has employed an offduty detail. So they hire Cincinnati police officers to patrol the perimeter around the campus to ensure the safety again of their students, their staff and residents up there. And they invest a significant amount of money in that. And so I think we're at a good place with with UCPD. Um, and theou is is part of that reason. >> If there was a a drunken disorderly, for example, or something like that, a quality of life call around UC at a private residence or bar, are is CPD the first one in or UCPD? >> That would depend on who is closest to the location, but UCPD absolutely has the ability to respond to that location. And you got to got to remember too during all of this, we have radio communication with them. So if UCPD is responding to such a call like that, uh they m we are made aware of it so that we can also go and assist. It just seems like a lot of resources for me just for one more followup. I mean are are they are they doing that? I mean if you see PD is closer and they've got the manpower. Are they the first ones on the scene and you feel comfortable with that partnership? >> Absolutely. Absolutely. and I've had conversations. Obviously, the the safety director and chief of police at UC is former Chief Elliot Isaac. I have an amazing rapport with him and uh yes, we absolutely have a good partnership to accomplish that. >> Thank you both. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you, Mr. Kramering. Mr. Walsh. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh Chief, city manager, thank you for coming in today to to talk with us. Um I want to get started talking about the lateral police class. Um it's something I I advocated pretty hard for during the budget process. I'm glad we were able to get it set aside here. Um, looking at the stars most recent stars report on July 14th, it actually looks like our travel time is down year to date, but our hold time is actually up for police officers, which I'm not surprised by given that we are probably 100 something officers underneath of what our complement is currently. As we're looking at doing this lateral class chief, how many officers do you think we could get from around the country right now if we gave you unlimited card blanch to just go hire them? Could we fill our full complement with a lateral at this stage? >> So that that number is kind of unknown. Uh I know to from talking to my background in recruiting staff that as soon as the lateral application port hole was open, we had 15 immediate applications. Uh so as long as that that number continues to grow, I believe it's going to be open for a two-eek period. Um those are the people that are coming to us and we also are trying to reach out to them. There is a lot of advantages to coming to CPD. not just our training um you know the the quality of training that our officers get but the exposure to a multitude of assignments they could have in our department but also one of the things that we stressed especially to laterals is we have a solid pension system we have a drop program there's a lot of opportunities here that I think would be very appealing to officers from other law enforcement agencies. >> So, it is possible that a large part of our deficit with police department could be made up through lateral classes if we if we decide to get aggressive as a council. >> Again, this is the first time that we are trying uh outofstate laterals. We've had instate laterals before. Didn't really reap the benefit that we would have liked, but I think this is a completely different opportunity in front of us now. And yes, that is my hopes that the lateral will help us close a staffing deficit. >> So I believe in the budget process we were aiming for 30 new officers through the lateral class. I would like to challenge both of you as you're moving forward to really take a look at how many good candidates we get and how far that number can be because um trying to close this deficit I think is very important especially in light of you know the last time that we did a compliment adjustment I believe was 2003 2004 time frame and the costs for services have gone up over 20% across the board. Um so I think this is just one area that I want to uh highlight on the front end here but not to belabor that point. Um, I also want to challenge you guys on some areas that, you know, in terms of policing and crime, I think we we cannot gloss over the fact that this is not solely on your shoulders, chief. Um, there are so many systems in place out there that have to work right and function right for this to succeed. And if any one of them break down, it's easy to look at you as the police chief and say it's your fault, but it is not. Um, so one, I'd like to challenge you, you and the city manager to be more vocal about the areas that we as a community and a society need to continue to push and and continue to have our eyes on and make sure that we are doing right. Um, a couple things that I've noticed, Council Member Cameron talked about the UC police. Um, I think that's an area that is worth exploring more if there's opportunities for overlap, especially in light of our deficit. Um, as you talked about theou, are there ways that we could expand this to be successful here? Um my understanding is that they're now trained with uh CPD officers. So making sure that we have the quality there, but then looking at other things like, you know, the possibility that probation officers are going to be closed around the county uh and be downsized into the into just one location is an area that may have unintended consequences for future, you know, crime prevention efforts that we're going to have out here. So I just want to encourage you guys to speak up and continue to make sure these things are on the forefront so that we are addressing them collectively as a community because it is not solely on on your shoulders here. And then that leads into kind my third point that I want to dive in on. Uh you know we're talking about data but we also have just the the qualitative or not the qualitative you know people how people are feeling and perceiving right now and there's a very real feeling that crime is on the rise in the city of Cincinnati. And so while I appreciate the police officers now doing, you know, walking on the on the streets and over the rine, I think council member Karine talked about this, you know, your map calls out other areas, cuff, east Price Hill, really needing some more attention and these communities feeling like police officers are there. It is a criticism out there um that I think we need to be able to address and help people feel comfortable with. Um I think we also have to look at you know as we are starting to talk about policies is the fact that there are a number of just quality of life issues that seem to drag on and on and on and on and those of us who are working in the system are used to kind of the bureaucratic slow drag of things. But for citizens that are calling in about noise complaints time after time after time, weekend after weekend after weekend, and they're not feeling a response, um even if there are things happening behind the scenes, it leads to this perception. It continues to lead to this feeling that uh we are not being responsive enough. And so I would really like to challenge you guys. And the mayor asked the question directly as to whether this council has challenged and this mayor have told you not to do things. But there are probably policies that were put into effect years ago before any of us even sat in these seats that may have unintended consequences to this day. Whether that is around quality of life issues, whether that is around the ability to appropriately police. These are questions I would like you guys to take a deep dive in on and come back to us and tell us where have your hands been tied intentionally, unintentionally, had unintended consequences. is, you know, we talk about this in development all the time. The best of intentions can sometime lead to unintended consequences. How do we untie your hands? Because Chief, you said earlier, um, things that you were talking about something else, but you said it makes policing that much harder for officers. And there are things that I know that we have done, then we being the collective, we as a community, not this council, not this mayor, that probably have made policing harder. And how can we address it? And I'm not an expert on this. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on this, but I'm going to rely on the experts, much like we rely on the the experts in development to tell us where we're tying hands unintentionally, for you to come back and the city manager to come back and tell us how we can help expedite these uh various policy issues out there. And one that I will very clearly say is that during COVID, uh, it was stated publicly by the city of Cincinnati, none of us were on council, none of us were in any of these offices that we were not going to be doing traffic enforcement and that and we weren't going to do it for COVID reasons. But that policy has appeared to to continue on in some way or shape or form since then that I've heard many many people bring that up to me about how people know that we won't do traffic enforcement. So whether it's true or not true, it's something that we need to correct because these are issues that are out there. Um when I see someone driving one way down the wrong oneway street and nothing happens because a police officer sitting there, it continues to allow people to think this. And so is there something that we as a council need to do to address that, please tell us because you're not you're you're doing everything right, but sometimes you're being blocked by us just not knowing that we have your hands tied fully. And so I really really want to stress this. I want this to be like front and center is like we are your partners in this, but we can't help you where we don't know where to help you. Um, and I I think it's important that as we're diving on data that the data is really important to this story, but we also have to really worry about perceptions because people need to feel safe to come down to Cincinnati. They need to feel safe in East Price Hill. They need to feel safe all around the city. Um, and we're taking the right steps, but this summer has shown that there's more we can do and I think there's more this council should be doing to help you with that. >> Yeah. Thank you, Chief. Um so chair um to council member I just want to uh just speak to some of the points made. Um the facility study that we have underway is going is is challenged with looking at the compliment and whether we have enough officers that is underway that is actually chief has been working very closely with that. Um I don't have a date right now but I could give you a followup on what that that will speak to how many officers we should have. Um secondly the goal for us is to make sure we always have quality officers. officers that are policing in the way in the spirit of the collaborative agreement and making sure that we are also in an environment where everybody has guns that our officers are being safe. And so you all have been very supportive in providing us the funding of anything that we've requested. You have been very supportive in making sure that our wages are the best that they can be and they are very competitive. Um and there are quality of life issues from our building inspection team and things that we do look at. But what I would also challenge is we do not want to start moving to get bodies in seats. We want to make sure that our residents are being policed by the best of the best and that does take time and even with a lateral class they will have to step up to the standard of what CPD is demanding and what our residents deserve. Um so I just want to make sure that I I say that because it's important to again being very um yes there is a lot of things going on. I've personally experienced it myself, so I understand. But in the same sense, we want to make sure that we're just not hiring just to be hiring. We're hiring the right people that give our residents the respect that they deserve. Thank you, >> Mayor. >> Yeah, Miss Owens, please. >> Just because of a followup, because of something critical that you did mention in the context of the conversation we're having having is the spirit of the collaborative agreement, making sure we've got the right people in place. And so as we're talking about UC and our partnership andou there in a lateral class, how are we ensuring that uh these law enforcement officers are coming in with with understanding the importance of that? >> Yes, thank you for the question, Council Member Owens. Part of our current traditional recruit class is educating them on the collaborative agreement and that it will also be part of the curriculum for a lateral recruit class. they will understand the significance of the collaborative agreement um where where we came from to where we are as well as the significance of problem solving. >> Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Mr. Walsh. Um we'll now go to Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Johnson. Please. >> Just quickly, thank you, Mr. Jeff. Just very quickly, um, the manager made it clear this city and these amazing people that work and play here deserve the best of the best. Um, we do have an issue with putting police officers in uniform, but we will never lower the standard, the demand that it takes to be a Cincinnati police officer. We will never change the collaborative effort of the spirit of collaboration with our community being involved in how we police. And we will never get away from accountability when it comes to putting that badge on. Uh being an expert in policing, our citizens deserve the best. Yes, we need more officers here in this city, but the best deserve the best. When you want to be a Cincinnati police officer, you do have to raise your game. The chief can testify our qualifications in the city are higher than what the state demands. And I'm happy to say that's how we live in this city because our citizens deserve the best. So, we will never uh cut short what our citizens deserve. Thank you, Madam Manager. Thank you, chief. And we will never Everybody is not qualified to wear a Cincinnati police badge because they were qualified somewhere else. That's those are just the facts. So, our citizens deserve the best. Our our police officers deserve the best to police with the best. And that standard will never be lowered. I pray it's never lowered because Cincinnati stands out. all training I've done across the country. When I'm saying from Cincinnati, when I said I was from Cincinnati, there was a there was a level. There was a bar that was set where they never worried about Cincinnati officers meeting and exceeding national standards. Thank you, Madame Chief. Thank you, Madam Manager. >> Thank you. We will now move to um Mr. Jeff. But just um to give our Zoom participants a heads up, after Mr. Jeff asked this question. I will then go to our Zoom uh participants and I ask the clerk's office once Mr. Jeff is finished to take down the slide deck and um show our two council members um remotely. And I'm now giving them the opportunity to um make sure that they're camera ready. Mr. Jeff, >> I think Miss Alb's in the airport, so I'm not sure how camera ready she is, but thank you uh to both of you. Thank you uh very much. Uh I'm not going to repeat what's been said. Uh, I do want to emphasize though for people who say we're not investing in police, if you look at how many officers we've authorized since we've started on council versus the previous same period, more than twice as many. So, we are investing in police and we're going to invest in police. And furthermore, we just authorized the highest raise in 40 years for police officers. Why? Because we need to retain them. We need to recruit good officers, etc. So, uh, that myth I think has to be debunked because it's simply not the case. Um, the second thing, thank you for all of your efforts also in terms of not only getting more officers but making them deploying them more effectively and more efficiently. I do think drones, for example, is a great opportunity for that. And you've talked about it before, uh, Chief Theiji, on how to leverage drones to avoid unnecessary runs, you know, because you can get intelligence as a first responder and maybe avoid even having to go out if the issue is already resolved. I think you've talked about that. So, I think there's a huge opportunity uh there, which is amazing. And the task force, I think, fantastic early results on that. um you know, so how can we continue to um you know, to push on those? Um a couple questions. Um the goal of compliance, not enforcement, which u Scotty and I were, Councilman Johnson and I were talking about. Um at what point does that become enforcement? So you kind of talked about the ask, tell, demand, enforce. So, a scenario, you know, a beat, somebody's on the beat on Main Street or whatever and somebody's playing live music or do doing something. Then they say presumably, "Hey, can you turn it down or turn it off or whatever, they go away, they come back, it's still there." How many times at some point it becomes enforcement, I would imagine, like you're not going back 20 times and and they're they're not complying. So, what what is that threshold and how do we think about um what that what that is? >> Yes. Thank you. Uh each scenario for that is different depending on what the officer is dealing with. We'll just use the the example you gave loud noise. We will ask them in a cordial conversation, come on, your neighbors are complaining. Could you please turn the turn the music down? And if they flat out ignore that request, then we will tell them, "Turn the music down. Turn it down. Your neighbors are complaining." And if they continue to ignore an officer's telling them, now they're not requesting, now they're telling them, and then they have to come back a third time with a little more um um demand to tell them to turn turn the music down. Sometimes these scenarios are just blatant defiance of an officer's ask and then telling to turn the music down. And that's when an officer's discretion kicks in. I have done everything I can to get compliance. It's obvious compliance is not going to occur here. So I am going to convert to enforcement efforts now. And so that could be through anything as simple as loud noise. It could also be something as significant as possession of a firearm. Possession telling somebody to stop. We believe you're in a possession. are going to ask you to stop. We're going to tell you to stop. We are going to demand that you stop. And when you defy all of those levels of our interaction with you, we are going to enforce the law. >> And that just in talking to I mean, not that my colleague here is the the the historian, but he kind of is. um that that from what he said that sounds very consistent with how we have handled it historically that we do that kind of the maybe the third time as enforcement or or whatnot but we do ask you know for compliance on especially on those issues more quality of life issues in particular I'm talking about obviously not somebody shooting a gun or something that's very different >> yeah I would like to clarify though that is in kind of a perfect scenario if everything goes the way we train There are instances where the officer's reaction to whatever the person's action is does not allow for all three of those steps to occur. their reaction, the officer's action, because the person might take a very overt response to the officer asking them that the officer does not have time to do those three steps that they have to immediately reverse to enfor enforcement efforts and based on their discretion and what they're dealing with. That's okay. >> Makes sense. Um c just shifting gears to theft from auto especially downtown and over the rine because that has been obviously a huge issue. I was out meeting with a bunch of residents here in the downtown over the rine area and um as we all know what has often happened is people come into town uh for a Bengals game or for the Red's game or for a concert or something and they'll leave their gun and and um as a result I mean uh this has been a huge challenge. So two parts to that. What is I I I saw which is fantastic. The overall theft from motto across the city is down. How is it looking in downtown over the Rine uh in particular? Uh and then specifically what kind of things I know um there have been a lot of solutions thrown out. Some residents have said how do we give out gunlocks? How do we um you know, should we look at parking lots and changing rules around parking lots where you've forced them to have fences so people can't get in and out as easily um you know between lots to to steal things? Like there are a lot of environmental other environmental and other solutions. But if you could talk first to the data and then second what kind of solutions are we looking at between you and the manager on this specific issue? >> Absolutely. So, so yes, our theft from autos have been declining over the last several weeks. Attributed that to a lot of different things. The street crimes task force, that was an area they were advised to focus on. Uh I think sometimes it's in the messaging as well. Maybe just some people who thought about coming downtown to break into a car realize now that we have task force officers out and we have drones out. maybe they've uh kind of secondguessed that decision to come down and break into cars and that's good. That's a that's a positive outcome in my opinion. So, we're doing that and we continue to push the gun locks. We have gunlocks available to all of our districts, but we could hand out a thousand gunlocks. I can't make anybody use it as it's intended. Uh so, that's where education education needs to come in. We'll give them the locks. will tell them the significance of using it. Um, I could not imagine being a a legal gun owner, having my firearm stolen out of my car and then used in the commission of a violent crime. That is something a gun owner will have to live with for the rest of their life because they didn't properly store their firearm. So, that's part of the educational piece that we can offer to them. Um, as for the the decline is specific in the central business section, I know the numbers are down, but I I do not have this their specific stats in front of me right now. I have the citywide and to the council member regarding the things that we're looking into. Um, there we had already been um working on a parking lot licensing program that was technically on the books but was not necessarily operationalized. Um that has been something that has been underway. What that will do is right now the license um the surface parking lots are essentially you can man it however you choose to. We don't have anybody enforcing it. So some may have people that are there, some people may have no attendants that are there. Some may have landscaping, some may not have landscaping. They're all over the board. um with the licensing program, you will actually be voting on those positions coming up um in the ne the meeting in August. We are hiring people or um that will be manning the parking lots, making sure that there is a license that they have to pay associated with all service parking lots. In addition to that, we are looking at what is currently on the books from a safety standpoint and how do we need to um improve them to make it so that there are certain requirements as well added to that. Um what we have witnessed, what I've personally witnessed is there may be one parking lot that has one person who is manning it that might be in Cincinnati but has to drive up to Dayton for a parking lot a for to man a parking lot and that is not responsible. Right? So, for me, I've also seen, and they're not all the same. There are some parking and surface parking lot owners who do a great job, but there are also others that um may have some predatory practices or may have people victimizing them in a sense to where um I've had we've had issues that Cincinnati Police Department's brought to attention where people have putting scan cards on people's um cars and they essentially think that they're paying, but they're not. It's a scam. So, we have to beef that up. that is um something that is in the progress and then tied to Chief Theiji um one of her captains has came up with the idea with rate parking lots. So depending on how well your parking lot is from a safety perspective, from a um from a landscaping like perspective, from a nuisance perspect, are we getting a lot of issues with that? We will have a rate of a recommendation potentially that it says you should park here or you're an you're not an A, so you need to do you there's some work that you need to be done. Those are things that are underway. Um we're not there yet, but the goal for me would be to hopefully have something stood up um by this fall. >> And on timing, because you just mentioned timing for the curfew, I know there's a lot of details to work out, but do we have a target for when we want to target enforcing the curfew? >> Uh can you was that the hours of it? I'm sorry, I didn't understand. I >> I think you're asking for when it would be presented to council. Um, our conversation just before we came in here was uh hopefully to have something to you when you come back in session in August. >> Okay. No, no, thank you. Thank you. Um, uh, that's hugely helpful. I did have a question on community responders. Can you I mean, there's been a lot of discussion of community responders. Can you just talk to and I guess it's more for the manager like how are we thinking about community responders? what kind of scenarios they're used in, what kind of scenarios they're not used in, >> um, you know, how do we deploy them, how do we train them, and maybe this is a topic for August when we come back um, as well, but would love to have you expound on it. >> Yes, I can go very high level and then we can also have director Bill Vidra potentially present to you all um, as well. But my theory is and it's the same spirit of you all. Thank you for the resources to do ARC. There are certain things in my mind that while we have very trained police officers, there are other things that they should be focusing on. And how do we find a way to allow for them to have this the space to be able to have ARC show up for mental health situations to support them. Um, and then potentially maybe there's an an auto accident that may not have a somebody that is hurt, but we just need somebody to witness the exchange of information. Maybe there's a way of they can get an eye on something like for right now 311 at Wreck at Night. We have 311 community responders who are all very excited to go to the rec centers and to watch to to be supportive to the recreation staff in light of potentially not having the um giving breast to the officers if the details weren't picked up. So the way that I see it is we have very professional officers who do a great job and there are certain things that civilians cannot do that only they can do and there are certain things that we can that gaps in our service that we have that neither one is responsible for but we can use our 311 community responders to work on. That is always the goal. And at the end of the day, the 31 community responders and the same thing with the ARC, they know that they have to call our police officers when it comes to situations to support it as well. DJ, do you want to expand upon any of that or did I clarify that? >> No, I think you got it. >> Yes. >> Thank you. No, and I think I think the objective all of us are the same. It's like how do we get more people and I think you've heard it here. I mean, the the reaction also to foot patrol getting we hear it in all the neighborhoods. Can we get cops on the beat? And we can't because we don't have enough officers often. But these the tools that enable free up officers, whether it's drones or other things that enable them to do more on the beat, um you know, I think and enforcing some of the more quality of life issues, I think is what we are hearing also from folks is like all right, we want to enforce that. We want to make sure that people understand that um you know that these are these are rules that need to need to be followed. And so I appreciate all of your effort on that. >> Well, and and just one more thing and to the council member, I've honestly spoke to a lot of officers who actually ask for 311 community responders. They ask for community cares initiative. They ask for ARC to come. So there is a a large population who is very happy about what we are building in and what we're utilizing in intervention that I have spoken to. >> That's fantastic. The last thing I would say, um, I did a amazing thank you, um, ride along a week ago or whatever. And I have to compliment the officer. Maybe he was doing it because I was also there, but you know, some kid tossed down some trash in front of a Taco Bell and he rolled down the window. He's like, "Come on, no, no, no, no. Pick it up, put it away." Which I'm like, "Okay, that that's the type of compliance I think we want." I mean, I would do that as a parent. If my kids threw some trash down, you would do the same thing. I mean, he did it in a very polite way, respectful way, but and the kid, you know, did so. Uh, just thank you for your attention to those little quote unquote not too little quality of life issues. >> Thank you, Mr. Jeff. And now to our members on Zoom. >> Mayor, sorry, ask a follow-up question. Owens please. >> Thank you. Um I just want to go back to uh kind of going upstream when we think about the larger approach around advocacy and what strategy in terms of lobbying um what that means. And so in the context of of gun laws because it when we're going back to the conversation around parking lots, it seems to me that the this transient nature of gun laws or this the the variety of gun laws as you cross jurisdictions or come from another jurisdiction that doesn't have the same laws presents challenges. And so I don't know if there's something else that you can say. I just think, you know, here in Cincinnati, we've passed safe storage and having your firearm in the car, you have to lock it up. But maybe someone came from another area that that is not the common law. And so if we can just speak to if there's a larger strategy again around this regional approach and what safety means for all of us as we advocate. >> Yes. Thank you, uh, Council Member Owens for that question. It gives me an opportunity to let council know. So, I I've had conversations with our state representative, Cindy Abrams, who happens to have been a Cincinnati police officer. She's very uh public safety oriented, very supportive of law enforcement. And I had this conversation with her about why at the state level would they be opposed to some of the legislation that we tried to enact. And she discussed specifically that that for gun owners to leave one jurisdiction or one city limit and enter another city limit, for them to be educated on all the different legislation that could occur then within the state of Ohio would become extremely difficult um for them to have that knowledge. And so that's why they take it from a position at the state level. And that is also why about a year ago I I offered to the city manager uh to be a voice from law enforcement because I think sometimes when I can have conversations with people at the state house um on how maybe proposed legislation would have unintended consequences to law enforcement. I think they need to hear that from a law enforcement professional. And I've kind of kept my eye to see who goes to and and testifies at some of these committees. Um I've done it a couple of times now. I want them to hear from me as a police chief in the state to help them navigate what would good legislation that helps law enforcement look like as opposed to legislation that they think has a good intention but may have some unintended consequences. So, I I've she's been very very receptive to conversations with me and uh I've offered up any time to talk to the state legislators from a law enforcement perspective. And those are good steps which also ties to the federal level when we think about advocacy because the more that we can be consistent across state lines as it relates to safety, the better for all of us. >> Thank you, Miss Owens. Moving now to our Zoom members. We'll start with you, Miss Albby. Hi everyone. Sorry again I couldn't be in person and uh I appreciate the robust discussion. Um it gave me time to get from the airport through baggage claim and to my final destination. Um and I also wanted to just start by uh reiterating some of the talking points we've talked about already. Legislation and need for stronger gun laws at the state and federal level. Absolutely. >> Sorry. And can you hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you. Okay, great. Um, and then also there's been conversation today around our holistic strategy uh with act for citizeny and kind of the yes and approach around gun violence and violence uh prevention. Uh so I there's a couple things in the motion we haven't necessarily uh hit on quite yet. Um, council member Jeff just beat me to it and uh outlining the kind of parking license program and ga and grading system to add a little extra context there since um as action team lead for secure storage was part of an early conversation there. Some of those standards would include you know better requirements around lighting uh security landscaping uh there is a whole kind of national best practices of what it looks like to have a safe parking facility. So looking to how we can incorporate that and then pair that with the CPD uh evaluation which is exciting. Um another thing we haven't quite talked about today um which is included in this motion is around the permitting at the banks. So, city manager, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the success we've seen with that 21 and over permit at the banks and if it were to be expanded, does that mean those uh private business owners are taking on additional uh responsibilities or what that would look like? >> To the chair, to the council member, thank you for the question. Um, we have seen great success with the um banks and the 21 and up the light the permitting process that has happened. The expansion is going to um that is really up to the bank's working group. We've have a conversation with them to see what are the costs associated with that because in addition to expansion there would need to be additional security. As you know where it's located right now there's a very defined egress where they can control when people are coming in near those stairways that are uh tied to the bank. So an expansion we would have to control where the crowds are coming. So they're trying to figure out a way to make that happen. Um, so we are waiting to hear back further information from them about what the economics could be for that in addition to how they could recommend that being feasible. Um, so right now we're just in a wait and see. >> Okay. And currently, uh, remind me, is it the companies themselves or the businesses down there themselves are, um, taking care of those costs today? So if an expansion could maybe include, you know, the city chipping in. Is that the question? >> Correct. Correct. Because right now um it is currently being this a permit, a special permit that is actually um the bank steering committee is the one that uh put out this permit for those business owners. So if there was an additional expansion, they may be asking for us to come for resources to help with the security, the additional staffing that may be needed. So we're just waiting to see what their thoughts are from that. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, so another thing that we haven't hit on today, but um and it's not in the the motion as it stands now, but you know, we we've extended the red bike kind of um limited hours. Uh you mentioned it, city manager, in your presentation. Uh what have we seen so far with that red bike uh limited hours? Have we seen progress with the kind of data points we were trying to achieve with that? From what we have heard from Cincinnati Police Department um and being a cooperative partner to what are the tools that they need um to do their job successfully, this has been a very good investment for them. Um they are seeing um that this is an improvement. Chief, do you want to um expand upon that? >> No, I I think the the manager covers that. you know these these types of tools that are out there and when I say tools I'm thinking like way outside the box you know wreck ignite is a tool for the officers that is not a traditional tool so when any of these tools that uh can show a benefit to an officer's efforts on the street is well worth the investment >> but to pick to expand upon that the goal for us now is to make sure that we're working very closely with the exec director their brand bike to when we do um incorporate the or scale back the restrictions that they have the proper tools on the bikes that are needed so that we can make sure that they're um they're they're safe in addition to um not causing an additional nuisances to what the job that the police officer is trying to accomplish and that is our commitment. He has been a great partner in that and we're looking forward to those enhancements. >> Yeah. And if I if I could add the one of the things that we've gotten asked about the red bikes is what is the data showing? Uh we are extremely data driven. We've been touting that for several years now. We talk about the data all the time. We've talked about it here today. But there are some things the data just doesn't capture for us. And that's where I have to listen to the officers, the boots on the ground doing the work. And if they tell me they're seeing something that is helping their efforts or hindering their efforts, I need to take them at their word and look at that through their eyes um as they're trying to accomplish what we've set them out to do. >> Yeah, appreciate that. And uh city manager, just to clarify, when you say proper tools, are we talking about geof fencing, being able to limit the the bread bikes being taken into places they shouldn't be taken? Correct. Um I'm talking about geo fencing. Um I'm talking about is there something that right now the scooters have the geo fencing capability. They have those data which has allowed us to be able to maneuver differently with the scooters. So I've asked um the executive director to give me all the things that we could potentially consider and then we should look at what is the cost because obviously city is one of many partners um on the board. So this could be a financial ask that is needed. um that we're going to need not just the city but additional support from other people, but we have a fleet of bikes that definitely need to have those upgrades and um I'm happy to work with them to figure out how do we make this happen. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate that update. Um I want to dig into the the curfew since that's a big part of the motion. Um but first I want to start with some of the data. Um, so Chief, we know that, you know, when we look at the data, property crime is is really where we're seeing this this increase, although we got it down a little bit in the most recent. Um, but when you presented the uh, V&E burglary um, stats we were just looking at, it said on the slide that the offenders were older and transient. So, are we seeing um, what's the youth involvement that we're seeing in these property crimes? >> Yes, thank you. So the where the offenders are older and transient is more for our burglaries and B&Es. Um what we see is quite a few of them have mental health issues, dependency issues, things like that and breaking into a business is their way of supporting their needs uh at that time. And so that really is kind of outside the conversation of curfew uh because those are the mostly the offenders for burglaries and B&Es. >> Okay. Yeah. So I guess what I'm trying to get at is so what are the crimes we are you you mentioned um that there's indication that youth disorder is occurring after curfew hours. What what's that disorder? What what are those crimes? what are we solving for uh when we talk about enforcing this curfew for kids? >> Yeah. So, this kind of goes back to uh listening to the officers that are out there doing the work. So a good example of this is when our CDRT and SWAT are out at Friday and Saturday nights uh at the banks, Main Street entertainment area, uh the Fountain Square District area that they it is youth that are may not be some are but not all of them committing a violent crime or a nonviolent crime or just simply disorder um that affect the quality of life for the businesses and the residents in those areas. And so that's the numbers that we're we're gauging on is calls for service that involve youth and disorder in the the statement made by the complaintants. That's where we draw the data from. >> Okay. And do we have a sense um I saw it wasn't in the presentation. Do you have a sense of what how many there are? help like when we think about these calls coming in after hours, is it majority calls because the kids involved or majority adult related? I'm just trying to get a sense here of the the kids involvement in in these issues. Um specifically that after hours period. >> Yes. So we we've collected uh our first round of data on that and and we've broken it down by neighborhoods. That is something we are looking at as we work with the administration to design a revision to the curfew ordinance. Um, however, what we we after our call yesterday, what we see is we need to collect additional data sets to be able to make a really educated decision on the ordinance that will be proposed. Um, but what we are seeing is different neighborhoods are encountering a different percentage of juvenile disorder after current curfew hours. >> Yeah, that's helpful. I think as you work through these other data sets, you know, I'd be curious um what type of disorder, right? What type of crimes are we talking about? Uh where is it happening when it come when we're talking about kids specifically? And I'd also be curious if there's a comparison of youth disorder during the day versus at night. Is there truly a spike at night? Um maybe you know that even just anecdotally. Um but I think that would be really helpful data as we think about this curfew. Yeah, we we will look at all of that data. We will make that uh recommendation to the law department as they're they're doing this language. Um there's also opportunities if for people if they have if they're wondering why we are looking at certain data sets, there's a lot of information they can get from Cincy Insights that will educate them on the different sets that we're looking at. >> Yeah, absolutely. Um, city manager, you mentioned that the the curfew kind of process isn't quite fully baked yet. Um, and you all aren't ready to make a recommendation today. We've talked about the safe space. Um, get the kid to that uh curfew center, kind of talk with them, try to contact the parents, but what would happen after that if we can't get a hold of the parents? What happens? So to the council member um we are currently engaging on working out the ecosystem of how the curfews work. So I want to right now I'm speaking in speculation because we haven't put pen to paper yet paper yet and the goal would be have a cooked recommended process to you all and hopefully um by when you all join us in August but in my ideal world and also very high level but I don't want to promise Judge Bloom as well. Um, but the goal would be for us to have this place for the kids to be able to uh the police officer to drop off. The police officer would have to we would have to have a police officer in the location as well and it would be to get in contact with the parents to figure out a way to work with community to get in contact with the parents and then we have to talk about what happens next. Those would be external partners outside of the city of Cincinnati because those are where the lines of which we don't do that level of work. We can only so that would probably be potentially engaging our partners whether that be lighthouse whether that be um which we've had very high level conversations with um but nothing um concrete. So as we present this to you all back in August we will have questions um to answers to this. This is a working process that my team is committed to having consistent meetings on and we will make sure we address those. >> Yeah, I think this is truly the crux of it. So the first line in this motion says, you know, enforce the curfew and yet to me it's this question of what happens next? Do we take these kids to 2020? Are they then charged? Do they end up with something on their record? If a parent still is not there, is JFS called? Um, I did call Judge Bloom yesterday to understand kind of how things work today in her world. And um, and I hear she left chambers. Um, so my apologies, but I I believe what I understood from her is if for whatever reason there's a kid at 2020 um, who's not being booked, who's not being kept overnight, uh, and the parents not there, that she has an obligation to call JFS. So I I think these are the questions for us as lawmakers uh to understand when we talk about you know unintended consequences. What is that full ecosystem uh of this curfew um you know after we get past that that curfew center process? Um so maybe even I don't know if the solicitor's office could even talk through like legally are we is this like a charge for kids um that ends up on their record. What does that look like from a legal perspective? the law department is involved when we are um as we are talking about the bones of the legislation um and they will they are definitely asking those questions as we are figuring out what the final product will be. So, uh, we will note this and make sure that when we present back to you all in August that we can have these, um, the answers to these questions and it's for you all to determine, we will give you our recommendations and it's for you all to determine whether you are supportive of it or not. >> Yeah, appreciate that. Uh, another question question for me, you know, um, I think we saw really great success at the transit centers with Iris Rolley and her team engaging as those violence interruptors. Uh what has the min what is the administration thinking in terms of um how can we maybe employ that model ahead of the curfew time um so we actually get kids home uh safely before we even have to have that interaction with officers >> to the council member we have been deploying Iris Roly and her team they have been actively out there along with police officers on the weekend so they have um we have been in constant communication they have been a part of the process of where they have recognized some of the kids and have done the encouragement, but at the end at the end of the day, we will be having them as partners when the goal is to hopefully escalate the warning that police officers have to do when the curfew time is approaching. Um, they will and have been consistently alongside us. So, that will be something that we will talk about further. >> Yeah, I appreciate it. And I and I know you said this process is still ongoing and I'm hitting you with a lot of detailed questions, but I I appreciate that. I think my my last question I'll finish on just in terms of the curfew is as we look at peer cities, is there a peer city that's enforcing a curfew and doing it well and what is the success measure or what's the best practices we see uh in other cities that are have taken this on? >> Yes, council member. Thank you again for that question. uh gives me an opportunity to let you all know that we we are not making we being police and the city administration are not making this decision in a silo. I have reached out to some of my counterparts in other cities. Uh specifically Tulsa, Oklahoma has enacted uh some revisions to their curfew. I talked to the chief there. they modeled theirs off of Oklahoma City, uh, which had successes. And I've also, uh, read daily different articles from law enforcement, um, magazines and such. And there are other cities. Indianapolis just enacted a revision to their curfew. And so because we as a country are seeing challenges with our youth now has caused law enforcement executives across the country to tackle this topic. And I'm all about stealing a good idea that works in another city and trying to implement it here. So uh yes, I have been in in a lot of conversations with other cities and what they're doing around the topic of curfew. >> Oh, fantastic. I I'll look up those cities. I I was trying to do some research leading up to this conversation, but thank you. I appreciate that. I think uh Chief, to your point about this being a national topic, I think um you know, working with youth youth is so important. That's why programs like Reckite, Skate Night, and all the organizations we support are so fundamental and why youth support is a critical piece of our act for Cincy plan. So, uh thank you to to the entire team. Again, apologies I couldn't be there, but looking forward to our next August sess session. >> Thank you, Miss Albby. and our final um council member, Mr. Nolan. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh thank you, city manager and chief Diji for sharing your updates and answering all our questions. I know that many of my colleagues on council and I have been meeting with you and others in the administration and discussing the ways to support programs that we see working to curb violence in our community. Uh I I recognize the value of today using our platform to publicize the work that is currently being done and that we have planned for the future. Uh in particular, I I want to call out Chief Fiji's comments about collaborating with our partners in the criminal justice system. I have personally met with uh the county prosecutor's office leadership across multiple police districts um including doing an overnight ride along in district one a couple weeks ago um with leadership at the FOP with our city solicitor's office with multiple judges public defenders uh several residents and business owners in OTR in downtown church leaders and and many other leaders in our community and many of the concerns concerns we're hearing are about recurring offenders and seem to stem from steps in the criminal justice process being handled uh the way they always have been. Uh those processes are not working today and need to change. I strongly believe there are opportunities to make improvements in this process and I will be using my position to convene the parties necessary to make those improvements. Um my requests of the city manager and Chief Fiji are to continue participating in those opportunities to make improvements in the criminal justice system and to do that with the goal of collaborating to produce results. Um my my only question is has already been answered uh regarding the implementation of the curfew and I appreciate my colleagues uh getting deep into the details on that uh today. I know when I was a teenager, just like prom parks, I wanted to hang out with my friends and I often wanted to hang out late and I do not like criminalizing those activities alone. Um, and I do not like overburdening our police force and criminal justice system with activities that are generally not considered criminal. Um, but if if these actions are are needed on a short-term basis to stem the current trends in violence, uh, and these actions are producing good results, then I I will be supportive. Um, I I would note that to the concern Representative Cindy Abrams had about um, adults having to figure out the different gun laws between municipal jurisdictions, it doesn't seem to be a concern across state jurisdictions. And um now you know we are we are asking our our teenagers to understand the different curfews that might exist between different municipal jurisdictions. But um hopefully that that is not a long-term issue. Um finally I want to call out uh how housing and development factor into these issues. Um when housing is lacking and unaffordable our community members have fewer places to go u fewer places to call home. uh fewer places to gather with their friends. And we routinely see and and hear from other community members how vacant buildings and vacant properties provide spaces for criminal activity. So alongside all the uh efforts that we discussed today and are being approved in the motion, uh we need to continue to push for for more housing and revitalization of vacant properties. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Nolan. Um, Madame Manager, Madame Chief, after nearly two and a half hours of testifying, uh, I want to say thank you for not just your efforts to combat crime through this comprehensive approach, but also your commitment to transparency. Um, the bi-weekly uh, press conferences where we stand in front of the media and answer any and all questions. uh this opportunity for the nine council members to ask you questions um is is a real testament to your commitment not only to make us safe but to make sure that the community understands what we're doing and that we're responsive to their concerns and the most recent evidence of that is the walking patrols chief that you have instituted and so we are grateful for your leadership and um we will remain committed to this kind of transparency and accessibility to our community. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Please grab a drink of water or >> We'll move to our agenda. We only have one item. Item one is a motion from myself, President Parks, Council Member Kramering, Council Member Jeff, Council Member Johnson, Council Member Owens, and Council Member Walsh. That the city administration take the following actions to address public safety and reduce crime particularly in the downtown and otr areas. Any comments on the motion, >> Mr. Mr. Chair? >> Yeah, Vice Mayor. >> Um, and I I I heard this actually echoed by by several council members. I think it's really important that um if we um enforce curfews as we're voting to do and we'll and part two of that says to um that the city manager will come before us with a with a plan for that. Um, a lot of us have said we just want to make sure we're not criminalizing our young people. And my understanding that is not the intent. We are not trying to criminalize young people. Um, so that's the first thing. And the second thing is to make sure we use that opportunity to help these young people and their families have the resources they need. So, thank you for that. >> Of course, I um I share that concern. Uh and that is why um very publicly I have talked to the community about the challenges with enforcement of the curfew and why we are taking this very deliberate and transparent approach to educate the community about the challenges uh of enforcing the curfew and the extraordinary steps we are taking not to criminalize our children but rather to ensure that um we can preserve public safety. Um, you know, it's it's I know it's not lost in this council that far too many victims of gun violence are children and far too many perpetrators of gun violence or children as well. And the curfew is certainly not a solution to that, but it is a tool in our toolbox that given where we at where we are at as a community that we have to take seriously and have to take steps to enforce. And I do believe this approach as identified in the motion is a responsible way to do that. Keep in mind as the manager said um item two is a uh is a review and um a amendment to the current ordinance uh for the curfew and that will require council's vote in the August meeting. And number three is, as the city manager um exhaustively described, the work behind the scenes with all of our partners, including um Judge uh Judge Bloom at the juvenile court, including JFS, and including all of the partners that we fund uh specifically to do this kind of work, and that is ongoing as well. So, just want to assure council members that by voting to support enforcement of the curfew. Um, that does not mean that uh the administration and police will not come back in August and further detail um the plan and be able to answer the very specific questions that you had today. >> Further questions or Oh, um Mr. Johnson, one second. I think the city manager wanted to respond to that. Mayor, I just wanted to make a clarification in reference to the ordinance. We do not want to adjust the opening hours of the parks, just the um what time it closes. So, I just want to clarify. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Johnson. >> Thank you, Mayor. Just very quickly, um this is also a safety issue for our young people. Uh if there are not they are not out in the late hours, then therefore they do not become victims of crime. So that this is also it's it's tough to work out. We're going to get it to the best that we can in this city where it's not criminalized, but we also have to be uh on top of the fact that we are providing a safety net keeping young people off the streets at at the bewitching hours, so to speak, so they're not victims of crime. Thank you, mayor. >> Yeah. To just put it simply, this motion is trying to save kids. Period. and the curfew is a important tool in trying to do that. Other comments or questions. Okay. Roll call on adoption of the motion please. >> Council member Kane, >> yes. >> Council member Jeff, >> yes. >> Council member Johnson, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Kernney, >> yes. >> Council member Owens, >> yes. >> Council member Parks, >> yes. >> Council member Walsh, >> yes. >> Thank you. Items two through three are as indicated. This special session of council, having met its intended purpose, is adjourned.