All but about $151,000 of the $5.42 million recently allocated for public safety in Cincinnati has been spent. This funding was in addition to the police department's roughly $188 million annual budget. City Council approved the funding in September following a summer of high-profile incidents and debates about violent crime here and across the country.
Interim Police Chief Adam Hennie and Interim Assistant City Manager John Brazina updated a Council committee Monday on the status of the funding. Hennie says the $1.2 million for police visibility overtime was especially helpful, as well as several buckets of funding for technology like repairing and installing cameras.
"Not only are we very close to having our 24-hour crime center operational, but here coming into March, we'll have 90% of the city covered by drones," Hennie said.
A little over half of the total was allocated to the Cincinnati Police Department, with the largest piece going toward officer visibility overtime. CPD spent about $900,000 on the Street Crimes Task Force in 24 neighborhoods, and about $170,000 to the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office for patrols on Court Street.
The funding originally passed on a split vote, with three Council members opposing the plan. They said it didn't include enough funding to address the root causes of violent crime.
Scotty Johnson was one of those in opposition. He said Monday that Council passed the funding as a "knee-jerk reaction" to political rhetoric about crime.
"I salute the men and women of the Cincinnati Police Department for being able to navigate the political waters that, unfortunately, occurred as a result of complete nonsense that was politically motivated from the federal level all the way down to us," Johnson said.
Curfew centers
The city spent a total $374,772 on a new curfew center, which opened in mid-August on Friday and Saturday nights. The city-wide curfew is 11 p.m., after which anyone under age 18 cannot be out in public without supervision by someone at least 21 years old.
There are two districts in the city with an earlier curfew of 9 p.m.: one Downtown and in parts of Over-the-Rhine, and one along Short Vine in Corryville, near the University of Cincinnati campus.
"The new curfews ... [were] crucial in changing the crime trends that we had late last summer going in the fall," Interim Chief Hennie told the committee. "And I'm very optimistic that that's going to help us when we come to you with our summer plan."
CPD officers who interacted with a young person violating curfew could take the child home, or to a curfew center at Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses in the West End. Staff would then make further attempts to contact the child's family. If an adult couldn't be reached, the teen could be taken to Lighthouse Youth and Family Service's Mecum House for voluntary overnight care.
The city contract with Seven Hills totaled $182,000; Brazina says four young people were taken there. The city contract with Lighthouse totaled $192,772; Brazina said no youth were taken to Lighthouse.
Ryan James, the newest City Council member, said that number gave him "sticker shock." Council member Mark Jeffreys says the city should consider a more cost-effective enforcement plan.
"To spend [nearly] $400,000 on four kids — it's the equivalent of $100,000 per kid," Jeffreys said. "I think we need to think about what the model is next year."
Cameras
Hennie told Council the department has a list of 99 CPD cameras, out of about 400, that were not working. Of those, they determined 10 were no longer needed because of overlap with other cameras or changes in line-of-sight. That leaves 89 cameras to repair or replace.
Hennie reported there are now 25 cameras operating in the West End; 27 of 32 in the Central Business District are operational; 9 out of 10 in Evanston are operational; and 6 out of 7 in Avondale are now working.
"We're using covert officers, we're using our civilian staff, we're utilizing all resources on deck once we realized how critical this issue was," Hennie said, adding the winter storm and cold weather has delayed completing the work.
Council member Evan Nolan thanked Hennie for the update.
"I very much appreciate you prioritizing and escalating this issue. To tackle this with a 30-day plan gives us confidence that it's being taken seriously," Nolan said. "The weather would not have been as much of an issue if we had done this four months ago when the money was allocated, but here we are."
The plan included several line items for street lighting, cameras and other technology:
- $1.2 million to the Department of Transportation and Engineering for cameras and street lighting
- $150,000 to CPD for cameras in the West End
- $360,000 to CPD for license plate readers
- $100,000 to CPD for FUSUS expansion (this is the network of cameras that private property owners can join)
- $100,000 to CPD for a mobile camera trailer
- $81,300 to 3CDC for outreach workers and to integrate 19 cameras into FUSUS
- $180,000 for lighting, cameras, fencing and signage at Findlay Market
- $40,000 for the Crime Gun Intelligence Center drones
- $100,000 to CPD for drone expansion
See the full spending breakdown in the document below:
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