Cincinnati Police Chief Michael Snowden, 50, retired Friday after six years in a tough, high-pressure job. In January, he will take a new job as chief probation officer for Hamilton County. On Tuesday, Chief Snowden dropped by for an interview with the Enquirer editorial board. Here are excerpts of his comments.
Q. You've been through turmoil and tragedy. As we approach the one-year anniversary of the killings of two officers, Daniel Pope and Ronald Jeter, can you reflect on how the Police Division has changed as a result?
A. Well, you know, in a situation like that, we have a young department. A lot of them have never experienced anything like that. Seventy percent have 10 years or less on the job. A lot have heard about it in training but never experienced anything like it.
It's a tragic experience, but it really got them focused on what we've been telling them about being mentally prepared. Now they are taking those things more seriously. It got them thinking "How many wrong things have I don that could have gotten me killed? How many times have I ignored my training?"
Q. The arrest of Pharon Crosby and shooting of Lorenzo Collins were among the biggest controversies in your administration. What can you say about police and community race relations?
A. One thing that disappoints me about the media is that when those kind of things happen, they become a racial event because some people in the community want to make it a racial event. The squeaky wheels start to make noise at City Council, getting coverage by talking about "strained police-community relations." Don't listen to them. Overall, we have very good community relations.
Those kinds of events can be used to propel changes. With Pharon Crosby, we had been trying several years to get that bus stop situation changed.
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SNOWDEN FILE
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Personal: Born May 12, 1948. Lives in Miami Heights with his wife, Carol. Has two sons, one daughter and one granddaughter
Career: Became police cadet upon graduation from Western Hills High School in 1966; officer in 1969; sergeant in 1975; lieutenant in 1978; captain in 1986; assistant chief in 1990; chief in 1992.
Education: Associate degree in police science and bachelor's degree in administrative management, University of Cincinnati; training at the FBI National Academy
Community: Instructor in religious education, church lector and volleyball coach at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church in Bridgetown .
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Q. Some police advocates say there are too many layers of investigations and second-guessing of police. What do you think of adding another civilian review board?
A. I don't think there has ever been an investigation as thorough and complete as the ones done by the police division. Investigations by the Office of Municipal Investigations (OMI) generally mirror the police division's own investigations. But without the OMI will the police investigations stay as clean? It's a healthy thing to have both. The key is that the police have to have the confidence of the community. Across the country, civilian review boards have borne out the fact that police can investigate themselves. They can stand the scrutiny. If another civilian review board is needed, then fine.
Q. Any police chief is judged by crime trends during his administration. What are you happy about or unhappy about?
A. Crime has gone down, in particular violent crime, in the past five years, but I don't know if I can take credit. It's going down across the country. Interestingly, Indianapolis is not part of that trends. Their crime is up and they are a neighbor of ours, so they're asking what are we doing differently and better.
I credit community policing, hiring more cops, and the attitude of officers and the community.
On the downside, too many kids, younger and younger, are committing violent crimes and I think that is going to continue.
Q. A lot of veteran officers are leaving the Cincinnati Police Division. What does that mean for the future?
A. We have a very good pension system. Many good officers are leaving, not because they don't like the job, but because private businesses are out there saying we will hire you. Ohio is considering a plan that would allow them to retire and freeze that nest egg to be invested. They can come back to work and nothing changes except they have a very good retirement investment.
Eight to 10 years ago, it was rare to find someone whose record was clean, who didn't use marijuana. Now we're getting kids who are not only clean, they're bright, highly educated and extremely dedicated.
Q. What is your legacy to the police division?
A. One thing I wanted to do was get our people involved. We're a paramilitary organization, decisions are made from the top and if they are made at the middle, they better be the same decision the guy was gonna make at the top. But we took a gamble to give people the ability to fail and push decisions down.
The best example is our mounted bike patrol. Three guys came to me two days after I became chief. They had the bikes and uniforms in line, but the previous chief said no. I said, "what have we got to lose? Give it a try." Now we've got 70 bikes and our people go around the country teaching other cities. Drug dealers hate the bikes because they just sneak up.
Q. Any advice regarding your replacement?
A. Try to stay out of the political issues. Some (candidates) are more ready than others to step into the job. I think they're doing the right thing by getting an outside agency to rate the candidates. That should get the list down to three good ones.
Q. Any final words?
A. When I left, I wanted to be able to look at myself in the mirror and say that as each situation arose, I did my best. I tried to be honest. I like to think God leads me in different ways and this is the way he's leading me now.
P.S.: Chief Snowden recalled how his grandfather joined the Cincinnati Police Division, with a borrowed gun and no training. "He asked the lieutenant, 'What am I supposed to do?' And he replied, 'Do you know the Ten Commandments?' He said, 'Yes.' And the lieutenant said, 'If you see anyone breaking any of them, whack them on the head with this stick and drag 'em in here.'
"That was his recruit training. Things have changed a bit."
