Wednesday, October 13, 1999
Mayor's letter, plan irk police officers
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NORWOOD — Mayor Joe Hochbein issued a 10-point plan Tuesday addressing areas in which he thinks the police division must improve.
The mayor contends:
• Senior officers need to leave police headquarters more often to be visible on the street.
• A physical-fitness program should be adopted.
• More officers must be assigned to work the busy 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. hours.
• Foot patrols are needed.
• Public forums with police should be initiated, and police performance standards raised.
The 10-point program comes in the wake of a letter the mayor distributed throughout the city of about 21,500 people last week calling the community “a police state” and accusing the police division of having “an old-boy network.”
The letter has created a rift between the administration and police.
In the plan, the mayor contends the police department has reacted to problems such as summertime crowds outside Surrey Square cinemas and drug-related crimes rather than trying to deal with such issues before they occur.
The mayor said he wants “to work with those Norwood police officers who are committed to excellence, to implement ... the improvements.”
Detective Tom Fallon, chairman of the 46-member police division's wage and benefits committee — the department's negotiating arm with the city — deferred comment to attorney Donald Hardin.
Mr. Hardin said the mayor has been in office for four years “and these things could have been raised at an earlier juncture, in my opinion.” He said the issues raised by the mayor should be included in collective bargaining which will start after the November elections.
The mayor countered: “These are issues that have met with resistance at every turn by the (police leadership) over the past four years” and are important to the development of an effective community-oriented policing program.
Detective Fallon called the mayor's accusations “appalling and slanderous. ... Referring to us as "the old-boy network' ... is a total negative stereotype that is not true considering our long-standing history of service to the citizens of Norwood.”
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