Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken was accused of playing politics Wednesday when he flip-flopped on a vote to hire 75 more police officers.

        After previously signing on to a motion with four other City Council members to delay talks on the additional police until next year's budget hearing, Mr. Luken cast the deciding vote Wednesday in favor of a $4.3 million hiring plan.

Luken

        “It is irrational. It is political,” Councilman James Tarbell said of Mr. Luken's vote.

        Residents shouldn't expect to see any additional police officers on the street for at least a year — because even with the mayor's backing, the decision to hire the officers won't be made until after budget talks.

        Those talks won't begin until December, after the city's election of a strong mayor and at least two new council members — who could vote to reject the plan.

        But that's not the only issue.

        Before the new council opts to hire the officers, and rejiggers the city budget to pay for them, officials first must cut $17 million to make up a projected deficit in city coffers.

        And if the plan survives the budget talks, any officers who are hired would still have to graduate from recruit class, an estimated nine-month process.

        And neither the police chief, safety director nor the city manager has uttered a word of public support for the plan.

        With all that to consider, some of Mr. Luken's fellow Democrats were left reeling Wednesday when the mayor changed his position.

        “I am very disappointed in your change of vote,” Councilwoman Alicia Reece told the mayor. “We put out an illusion to people ... that the police are going to be on the street tomorrow.”

        Mr. Luken acknowledged that more police wouldn't be cruising streets for a long time. But rather than just delaying the discussion on hiring police, he said, the council seemed to be opposed to the plan all together.

        “I've been on the record for 75 new police for months now,” he said. “I was the first one to say it and I did not want to send any mixed signals.”

        Councilman John Cranley, who authored the motion, said making the decision starts the clock ticking now. He said now police officials can increase the size of next year's recruit class.

        “We have committed to doing it,” he said. “Yeah, we've got figure out how to pay for it, but that's true of everything.”

        The plan calls for hiring 40 more police officers in 2002 and 35 officers in 2003. The officers would be assigned to neighborhood patrols; three officers per shift in each of the five police districts with enough additional officers to cover vacation and off days.

        Mr. Cranley, who drafted three different motions in order to get enough votes, said the extra officers are needed to replace those that have been reassigned permanently to the Violent Crimes Task Force.

        The task force was created in the summer, when a rash of shootings left more than 100 people dead or injured.

        One of Mr. Cranley's motions included a list of city programs that could be cut in order to pay for the officers. Among those were the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission and the Grass Roots Leadership Academy.

        On Wednesday, the council agreed not to cut those two programs. But Mr. Luken — who voted with Mr. Cranley and Republican Councilmen Phil Heimlich, Pat DeWine and Chris Monzel for the extra officers — acknowledged many cuts will have to be made.

        Mr. Tarbell, a Charterite who had agreed to delay the decision, angrily attacked the mayor's position. Mr. Tarbell said Mr. Luken had led discussions on delaying the talks and that no council members were opposed to hiring police officers.

        Councilwoman Minette Cooper, who introduced the motion to delay Tuesday, said the mayor failed to follow his own process.

        “When the rubber meets the road, we're all playing a different game,” she said.

        Ms. Reece said that in the last two years, City Council has spent $212 million on the Police Division, the most heavily funded department in the city. And even with the shootings, she said, the city's crime rate is not as high as it was in 1991, when the police were receiving less money.

        She said other city employees, including firefighters, should be raised to the same level as police before more officers are hired.

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