Colerain's Police Chief says his department doesn't have enough officers to respond to calls for service at peak times.
Chief Ed Cordie said the department's force of 58 officers serving Colerain Township's almost 60,000 residents is below the national average.
"The data points tell us we are woefully, woefully understaffed," he said. "The reason you don't see officers, the reason you feel like traffic laws aren't being enforced, is that we need more staff."
More than 40 township residents attended a townhall meeting Tuesday night, submitting questions via cards. Concerns included traffic enforcement, ways the department could use technology to free up officers for other work, how many officers the department actually needs, efforts to improve the relationship between residents and officers, and more. Attendees also asked why they see officers simply sitting in parking lots.
Some residents asked whether it would be better to just contract out with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office for policing. Cordie said that would only be marginally cheaper and might not provide the same level of service.
Colerain Township voters declined a $6 million levy to bolster the department's budget last March. Voters rejected a similar levy previously. Currently, the department's budget is about $12 million from the township's $45 million property tax proceeds. That was set by the last levy the community passed in 2014. The department also gets state and federal grants for things like safety equipment.
"The department as a whole hasn't seen a substantive increase in its budget in about 11 years," Township Administrator Jeff Weckbach said. "While we've done things to extend the life of this levy, there's just not enough money in the bucket to extend services where they're at."
Violent crime is down significantly in Colerain Township from 2003 and 2013 levels, but Cordie said that doesn't mean police are less busy.
"We get an unbelievable number of calls for fake bomb and mass shooting threats," he said. "One thing we're dealing with that's new to us is auto theft. We're in quadruple digits when it comes to increases in auto thefts. We're still steady with the number of calls we've been getting."
Colerain Police became a standalone department in 2014. Prior to that, the department played a support role to the Hamilton County Sheriffs Department.
"Now we have our own criminal investigations, our own records department, quite a few things we didn't have before that," Cordie said.
Exactly how many officers are necessary depends on who you ask. A University of Cincinnati study suggested 82 officers for the department.
"I would love to get us there and see what that feels like," Cordie said. "That's going to take time."
Cordie said the department is trying to use technology to be more efficient. It is adding 22 cameras from a company called Flock Safety. up and down Colerain Avenue. The system reads license plate numbers and can help with hit-skip, stolen vehicle, missing child and other investigations. Those are coming online Wednesday. The system costs about $3,000 a year per camera.
Township Administrator Weckbach said the township's future budget will require changes.
"At this point in time, nothing is being cut," Weckbach said. "We've already made some significant cutbacks. But looking at budget year 2026 ... there's going to be discussion about what's going to have to be cut and how we're going to feel that pain."
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