Public Safety Partnership; Community Policing Grants

Award Description: The COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) provided the City of Cincinnati funds to rehire fifty (50) career law enforcement officers in an effort to create and preserve jobs, and to increase community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.

Description of Jobs Created: Work performed on the City of Cincinnati’s COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) for the 4th quarter of 2011 retained a total of 48.69 FTE. Several of these officers are Neighborhood Liaison Officers (NLOs) who remain as the primary citizen contact for problem-oriented policing. NLO's provide an upward flow of information from neighborhood contacts to their supervisors and commanders. Together they formulate appropriate responses to reduce neighborhood crime while measuring their impact on these problems. These include: crime trends, intelligence information, rumors of unrest, and hot spots. The NLO can also recommend problem-solving initiatives based on community concerns.

Quarterly Activities: Use of the COPS Hiring Recovery Program has helped the 50 officers whose jobs were saved by this grant to learn to develop and establish partnerships with several state, federal and local agencies in combating drugs and violence in Cincinnati. Six officers are working in Central Vice Section (CVCS), with one officer from the group in the mid-level drug squad worked with CVCS in arresting 21 individuals on serious gun and drug charges. They confiscated approximately five pounds of heroin, two pounds of cocaine, and eight firearms as well as $77,000 in asset forfeitures. Six other officers work at the district level on the Violent Crimes Squads. Police Officers Saidler, Peters and Koeppe work in the Data Integration Section as part of the Real Time Crime Center on data analysis and live monitoring of the city-wide neighborhood camera network. Police Officers Brehm and Harley are part of the Community Oriented Policing effort in two different districts. Police Specialist Newman was thanked for his efforts in providing a citizen with an informative and educational civilian ride-a-long. Police Officer Bischoff is a K-9 officer who aided in the recent effort to apprehend an armed suspect who threatened passengers and employees at a public bus station before the suspect took his own life. The majority of the officers in this funded group continue with their exceptionally important role as first responders and community contacts with the citizens of Cincinnati in their respective districts and neighborhoods. Police Officer Morrisey worked with Citizens on Patrol members and numerous other officers in District 5 in the apprehension and arrest of a dangerous felon who shot at the police and had numerous felony and misdemeanor warrants.