Audit will create 'New CPD'

Written by
Carrie Whitaker

Recommendations in the top-to-bottom independent audit of the Cincinnati Police Department will essentially create a “New CPD,” says Police Chief James Craig, who with support of City Manager Milton Dohoney, asked for an audit after taking over the department in August.

The 144-page report by Massachusetts-based Strategic Policy Partnership released Monday morning recommends sweeping changes, including eventual redistricting of the city’s street-level policing and serious improvement in its investigative and intelligence efforts and record-keeping.

It also suggests the department rely on more civilian positions and beef up its efforts policing city neighborhoods. Compared to national standards, auditors determined the department top-heavy with supervisors and managers and lean on civilians and officers on the street.

The “major reform,” as it is called in the audit, requires a change in work environment, too.

“In many ways, the mantra was ‘do what I say’ with limited collaboration in decision-making from the top down,” the audit reads. “This style produced results, some nationally notable. But over many years, it created a sense within the department that criticism and collaboration were not postures that were accepted.”

Chief Craig says the auditors often heard in their interviews with employees that managers ran the department by “fear and intimidation” instead of bolstering team work.

“This is not a criticism of my predecessor,” Craig said. “But nothing is more valuable than our employees.”

On a good note, auditors found the quality of police officers in the Queen City “most impressive” with a “strong commitment to Cincinnati and its future.”

“Since the riots that occurred some years ago, the department has worked hard to build trust with the Cincinnati community experiencing substantial success,” the audit reads.

The Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team – known as SOFAST – which works alongside U.S. Marshals, was one of the best-run units the auditors had ever come across in their world across the globe, Craig said.

Auditors also praised the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence, saying the unit needs more resources and could be a model for the nation.

“It is imperative that all levels of city government, agencies throughout the community and the community itself reengage with the CIRV process,” the audit reads, “with commitment to showing the small percentage of persons in Cincinnati who engage in violence that such activity will not be tolerated.”

Auditors were critical, however, of a number of current department initiatives, particularly communication between units, sections and bureaus, shoddy record keeping and the lack of efficient systems that would aid officers in their work.

For example, auditors found that CPD’s case management system has “no provision for monitoring case status or flagging delinquent cases,” and doesn’t link to case-related records,

“Officers, no matter the assignment, cannot check a name and through one source gather important investigative information,” the report reads. A random sampling of reports found the quality “very good to poor.”

Auditors suggest swift hiring of a civilian information technology professional to create usable, computerized record keeping systems and plan for the department’s future.

As The Enquirer reported Friday, the changes come with many organizational shifts, including putting 50 officers back on the street from specialized units and collapsing some of the drug units. It also recommends shifts for some units, like putting the training and policy units under the same bureau and putting the Fiscal Section in the office of the Police Chief for closer monitoring.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120...eakingnews