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Citizen Complaint Authority Asks To Be Fully Funded

Citicable
CCA Board Chair Mark Childers at a special meeting to ask for funding.

In a special meeting of the Citizen Complaint Authority (CCA) Monday, newly elected Chairman Mark Childers read a letter the board is submitting to the Cincinnati city manager, the mayor and council asking for full funding.

The CCA, charged with investigating allegations of misconduct by police, was established in 2003 under the Collaborative Agreement. The CCA is requesting $200,000 in the 2021 city budget to hire a new director, more investigators and support staff. Childers says five full-time investigators are needed.

"The Citizen Complaint Authority is currently understaffed and has been for some time," he says. "Due to a lack of a full compliment of investigators, CCA cannot complete all investigations within 90 days and is currently over 100 cases in arrears."

Childers says this request is doable. The $200,000, "makes it 1/20th of 1% of the city budget now ($500 million). If the budget comes in at $300 million those numbers will change some but it will still be a fraction," he says.

During its meeting, the CCA did acknowledge George Floyd, who was killed May 25 by Minneapolis police and his public viewing, which took place Monday in Houston. 

CCA board member Desire Bennett had a question for the City Solicitor's Office.

"If any of the board members are requested to sign a petition to defund the police, which is not necessarily getting rid, abolishing the police, but reallocating funds to prioritize funds like housing, health and education and other vital programs, is there a conflict of interest in us signing such a petition as a board member of CCA?"

The Solicitor's Office said it would get back to the board with the answer.

The next CCA meeting is scheduled for Aug. 3 at 5 p.m. in Cincinnati City Council Chambers.

Ann Thompson has decades of journalism experience in the Greater Cincinnati market and brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting.