Leaders of Cincinnati's black community and police force begin today to debate what the city's new racial profiling ordinance should say.

        Police Chief Tom Streicher, NAACP President Norma Holt Davis and 13 others are scheduled to address City Council's law committee on the topic.

        Their comments at the 3 p.m. meeting in City Hall will be used to help the committee finish legislation against the alleged police practice of pulling drivers over solely because of their skin color.

        “I'd like to hear from African-American leaders about whether they think there is tension between minority communities and the police,” said Councilman John Cranley, the committee's new chairman. “So hopefully we'll outline the actual need and then hear immediately from the police on exactly the same kinds of questions.”

        Conversations about police-community relations, a topic for years, continue in many arenas around the Tristate, galvanized this time by public outcry after the Nov. 7 death of Roger Owensby Jr., who asphyxiated in Cincinnati police custody.

        The Cincinnati Enquirer, in a special report Sunday, interviewed 28 prominent black and white Cincinnati leaders who said the state of race relations threatens the city's ability to thrive.

        Some of those same leaders will speak to council today. Also expected: the Rev. Aaron Greenlea, president of the Baptist Ministers Conference; Fanon Rucker, president of the Black Lawyers As
sociation of Cincinnati; Scotty Johnson, president of the Sentinels, an organization of black police officers; and Robert Richardson, president of the NAACP chapter at the University of Cincinnati.

        Mr. Cranley hopes to finish the ordinance so council can vote on it March 28. He has scheduled a March 14 public hearing in Avondale and a March 19 hearing from experts in collecting data from police traffic stops. He wants the committee to vote March 26.

        The final ordinance likely will outlaw racial profiling in the city, he said, and specify how officers will collect race information from all traffic stops and set out a plan for analyzing those data.

        The police division already has a policy against race-based stops, he said; the ordinance would just be a stronger statement.

        The final version probably will differ from the one proposed now, Mr. Cranley said. The proposal would require officers to write down more information than just the driver's race, including why they chose to stop a car, if they searched it and why.

        Fraternal Order of Police President Keith Fangman has said that is too much to ask of busy officers.

        The city expects to be sued soon by lawyers who say Cincinnati police practice racial profiling. Attorneys Ken Lawson, Al Gerhardstein and Scott Greenwood are working together to prepare the suit.

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