At least one Cincinnati group has found potential in the city's most opposing viewpoints and plans to bring them together to develop better police-community relations.

        The Cincinnati Human Relations Commission plans to organize a pilot project July 15 through Aug. 11 of the nationally recognized program Study Circles based in Pomfret, Conn. It is a grass-roots effort that will involve groups from all parts of the community in meetings at schools, congregations, businesses and community organizations.

ABOUT STUDY CIRCLES

Study Circles is a project of the Topsfield Foundation Inc., which is private, nonprofit and nonpartisan. The program brings together people of many viewpoints and backgrounds for honest and helpful talks that eventually lead to solutions to community problems, according to the foundation.

        “This is really a process to empower the citizen to take action now,” said Lesley Jones, communication coordinator for CHRC.

        After the pilot, the commission will sponsor a community-wide program that will kick off Sept.24. Though the staff started in November 2000 to bring the program to Cincinnati, the commission moved up the timeline because of the three days of rioting in April that followed the shooting death of an unarmed black man by a police officer.

        Lt. Col. Ron Twitty said it is crucial for Cincinnati officers participate, including beat officers.

        “I think it has a lot of promise,” he said of the program. “It breaks down a lot of barriers.”

        Ms. Jones said the commission plans to do several types of programs over three to five years. The first year will focus on police-community relations, the second on race and the third on community building.

        “The emphasis is not on consensus,” said Carolyne Abdullah, program director for Study Circles. “It's common ground. We identify things (people) can agree on so they can move the community forward.

        “Over and over, both the police and residents say, "We have to find a way to talk.'”

Open dialogue
               The program works by bringing together groups of a dozen or so people for five two-hour sessions. Those sessions are moderated by a trained facilitator.

        Participants develop suggestions for action in their last session, which are then introduced to the community at an action forum. The forum for the pilot is Aug. 25. Participants and organizers then begin to put the ideas into action.

        Louisville, Ky., just finished its third round of Study Circles sessions. The most recent was on police-community relations.

        “I volunteered to do it,” said Sgt. David Blake of the Jefferson County Police Department. “I looked forward to each meeting.”

        The program gave him the opportunity to express himself as a police officer and tell other participants how he does his job and why.

        “The moderator put me on the spot several times and asked me some tough questions,” Officer Blake said. “He really made you think about your answers but nobody held back.

        “Everybody told me, "Boy, you're going to have your hands full, and you're going to be on the chopping block.' But when we got started it was never like that.”

Suggestions in action
               Officer Blake is part of the action committee that took suggestions from the group sessions and is trying to implement them. The group is studying whether to have a citizens review board and is developing ideas for more sensitivity training for officers and a “how to” for citizens on what to do when they're stopped by a police officer.

        Officer Blake said he was able to show the group that though he is a police officer, he is also a citizen and has a family.

        “I was tickled that I had an influence on someone,” he said.

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