The Urban League of Southwestern Ohio, the Cincinnati NAACP and other groups will hold two public forums soon about a recent report finding stark racial disparities in Cincinnati police stops.
The report from the police reform advocacy group Campaign Zero released earlier this month analyzed CPD contact card data. The analysis suggested big differences in stops by CPD and their outcomes based on a person's race. One finding: Black people made up 80% of pedestrian and 66% of motorist stops performed by CPD last year, in a city that is only 40% Black.
The Urban League/NAACP forums will take place:
- June 30 at the Truth and Destiny Covenant Center in Mt. Airy
- July 14 at the Urban League's headquarters in Avondale
The Urban League's Holloman Center for Social Justice Executive Director Treva Reid says it's important for people to share thoughts and questions about the report's findings, even as the city disputes some of Campaign Zero's methodology and works to commission its own third-party analysis of the contact card data.
"The community wants to be engaged and at the forefront of the discussions and the decisions and the outcomes, so that we can see a different experience than this report and other reports that the city may bring will speak to," Reid says.
Cincinnati NAACP President David Whitehead says he believes many CPD officers do good, ethical work. But he says the forums and other follow up are necessary so people understand what comes next.
"If I'm perceiving that I'm unfairly treated, and then there's data that comes in that supports that, what can we do to level that field so that's not the perception or the reality," he asks. "The question I want to know is what is the next step, since there's already this framework from the Collaborative Agreement about what should be done when there's a problem."
What are contact cards?
Contact cards are brief forms officers are required to fill out when they stop someone. They contain fields about a person's race, location when stopped, age, gender and the reason for and outcome of the stop.
Both Whitehead and Reid say the city and CPD have been good partners in seeking to make policing more effective and equitable. But they also have questions about how the city has used the data the contact cards collect up to this point.
"I wonder how frequently this data is being reviewed with the analysis they have the ability to do, with the data that is their own data?" Reid says. "Who is at the table for those discussions? What are the next steps they've been building on internally? Or have these contact cards not been at the forefront?"
Cincinnati publishes public dashboards that visualize a few years of contact card data at a time: one for traffic stops and one for pedestrian stops. But those dashboard don't allow a comprehensive look at the data the way Campaign Zero's report claims to.
CPD’s use of contact cards started with the Collaborative Agreement nearly 25 years ago. A federal lawsuit, filed by the Black United Front and ACLU of Ohio, accused CPD of racially biased policing. In the six years leading up to the lawsuit, Cincinnati police officers had killed more than a dozen Black men. In 2001, after the lawsuit was filed, Timothy Thomas became the 15th Black man killed by CPD, sparking months of civil unrest.
The Collaborative Agreement was a settlement to the lawsuit, and the city committed to five goals, including to "ensure fair, equitable, and courteous treatment for all." The city has not been legally obligated to follow the agreement since 2008, but officials have consistently voiced continued commitment to its goals and to community problem-oriented policing.
What is the city doing?
City Manager Sheryl Long has expressed frustration that the city wasn't engaged sooner about Campaign Zero's report. In an interview shortly before its release, she said she fully supports the women and men of the Cincinnati Police Department but takes the allegations of racial disparities in policing seriously.
The city released a request for proposals on June 12seeking a third-party analysis of its contact card data. That RFP closes June 22. The city wants its chosen vendor to have preliminary findings by the end of August.
Long says the Citizen Complaint Authority (CCA) will also lead a problem-solving process that will include the community, led by CCA Director John Kennedy, Jr. and Collaborative Agreement Consultant Iris Roley. The CCA is another product of the Collaborative Agreement, which Long said the city remains fully committed to.
WVXU's Becca Costello contributed to this report.
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