Members of a panel charged only with reviewing complaints about Cincinnati police called again Monday night for more power, saying the city won't heal until citizens get truly independent investigations into officers' misconduct.

John Breckenridge of Roselawn addresses the panel. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        That's a familiar refrain for the Citizens Police Review Panel. But at their meeting in a Madisonville church, with backup from about 75 residents in attendance, members called not only for the ability to subpoena people, but also for the power to investigate cases and to hire staff.

        The panel repeatedly has advised City Manager John Shirey and others in city administration that there have long been “pockets and pockets of ill will” throughout the black community, panel Chairman Keith Borders said.

        The city should listen now, giv en the protests and violence that tore the city apart two weeks ago.

        The citizens who came to speak echoed panel members' concerns about the lack of an independent voice.

        Subpoena power is “the only way we're going to get the work done,” said Mel Williams, who described himself as the father of a Cincinnati officer and a good friend of Lt. Col. Ron Twitty, an assistant chief. “So I say to you folks, "Whatever you need, you let us know.'”

        Barbara Breckenridge of Roselawn was out of town at a black social workers convention when the riots broke out in downtown, Over-the-Rhine and West End. She was embarrassed by her colleagues' questions about the state of race relations in Cincinnati.

        “Police officers here haven't learned a thing about respecting the people who pay them,” she said. “I pay them.”

        From there, residents questioned everything from whether Keith Fangman, the vocal Frater nal Order of Police president, is a hindrance to good police/community relations to why the Safety Department doesn't have a more informative page on the city's Web site.

        The review panel was created from discussions with federal mediators after the 1997 death of Lorenzo Collins, an escaped mental patient who waved a brick at officers and was shot dead. Members review internal and Office of Municipal Investigation reports, then make recommendations to Mr. Shirey.

        They find no bias in most reports. They have found problems in some, particularly the police shootings of Timothy Blair in 1998 and Michael Carpenter in 1999. They complain that Mr. Shirey has not implemented any of their recommendations from those reports.

        Mr. Shirey could not be reached for comment Monday night.

        He has been critical of the panel in the past, including for taking a year in the Blair case to say they could not make a decision because the investigations were too poorly done.

        Archive of reports on the riots and their aftermath

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