Cincinnati Police

The Cincinnati Police  investigation of an officer-involved shooting in East Price Hill continues. Detectives are trying to trace where Christian Jackson got the shotgun he allegedly pointed at officers. They are also enhancing the police video shot at the scene.

At a Monday afternoon news conference police detailed the chronology of events leading up to the shooting on Fairbanks Avenue, near Warsaw, after midnight.

Chronology of events:

The Cincinnati Police Department is celebrating the completion of its first recruit class in more than six years.  

56 officers and one firefighter who took the 26-week training courses received their commissions Friday during a ceremony in Downtown Cincinnati at The Masonic Center.  They will now spend the next 13 weeks with training officers.  

The class valedictorian was James Hutchings, who is currently a Cincinnati Firefighter.  He went thru police training to be a sworn officer inside the fire department.  Hutchings had this advice to his fellow graduates.

 Cincinnati's first police recruit class in several years is on track to graduate at the end of next month. That graduation is set for February 27.

56 members are in the 26-week training program. Around 2,500 people took the test to be a city police officer.

Cradle Cincinnati is announcing a couple new partnerships in an effort to prevent sleep-related infant deaths.  It is called the “Cribs for Kids” program.  

One of those involves the United Way's 211 line.  It connects people with community resources.  

Hamilton County Commissioner and Cradle Cincinnati co-chairman Todd Portune said it will help get baby cribs to parents who need them.

Despite back-to-back shooting incidents downtown this week, shootings and violent crime remain down in Cincinnati compared to last year.

Chief Jeffrey Blackwell says police are stepping up patrols throughout the summer anyway to make sure people feel, and are, safe downtown.

"We're going to have a comprehensive incident command-based plan as we move forward to address every weekend event that we have from now through Labor Day and beyond even through Oktoberfest," says Blackwell.

Cincinnati has 19 new police officers. The department's first class of lateral transfer recruits in more than six years was sworn in today. The officers all came from other Ohio agencies but still had to go through the city's training process. Chief Jeffrey Blackwell calls today's graduation exciting.

The new officers will hit the ground running with their first duty assignment working the Cincinnati Reds game on Saturday. They'll be paired with field training officers on Sunday and begin working in their assigned districts.

Two special services are planned Monday to remember fallen local police officers. The first one begins at Fountain Square at 11:00 am. There family and friends of current and past officers will gather. They will then march to the police memorial across from District One Police Headquarters.

Fraternal Order of Police President Kathy Harrell says this is the same day another police class is starting. These are officers transferring from other parts of Ohio to Cincinnati. There are 23 of them and the class will last ten weeks.

Cincinnati Police said they've arrested 15 people and taken 11 weapons off the streets so far as part of an ongoing investigation of gang-related violence in the West End.  The effort represents four months of investigative work by various law enforcement agencies as part of the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence, also known as CIRV. 

"We want to send a loud and clear message that we do not accept homicides; we do not accept violent behavior," said Mayor John Cranley at a press briefing Thursday.