A secret draft settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and the city of Cincinnati would make sweeping changes in the way the Cincinnati Police Department deals with foot pursuits, choke holds and mentally ill suspects.

        The proposed agreement would conclude a 10-month-old “patterns and practices investigation” that found sometimes fatal flaws in how Cincinnati police officers used force against suspects, how the department tracked those incidents, and how police officers were disciplined.

Differing versions

        Three weeks before the mayor's April 1 deadline for an agreement, lawyers for the city and the Justice Department seemed to be far apart on several key issues, according to copies of two draft agreements obtained by The Cincinnati Enquirer Wednesday.

        The Justice Department's proposed draft, dated March 1, calls for a broad range of specific reforms, a comprehensive and expensive system to track the conduct of police officers, and tight deadlines to keep the reforms on track.

        The city's proposed draft, dated March 11, incorporates many of those reforms but leaves some out.

More info refused

        It's unclear how far city and federal lawyers have come since those drafts were written. The city and the Justice Department have refused requests to release documents related to the “patterns and practices” investigation under the Ohio Public Records Act and the federal Freedom of Information Act.

        Mayor Charlie Luken said Wednesday that city and federal lawyers have been meeting day and night, and that the documents don't necessarily reflect where the parties are today.

        He promised in January to have an agreement in hand by next Monday — less than a week before the first anniversary of the fatal shooting that led to last April's riots.

        “All I can tell you is that all of the things have been refined, and there's been a coming together of the minds on several issues,” Mr. Luken said. “We're very sensitive right now. The next few days are critical to this.”

        City lawyers and police officials declined to comment on the progress of the talks Wednesday.

        One of the most pressing issues for the city's lawyers appears to be money.

        The city's draft makes many of the Justice Department reforms contingent on “available technical and financial resources” — a phrase that's used at least nine times.

        A clause in the city's draft would require the Justice Department to help find money for any reform that costs more than $10,000. And it would get the city off the hook for many reforms as long as city officials make “reasonable, good-faith efforts to obtain necessary funds.”

        Mr. Luken wrote the city's representatives in the U.S. House and Senate this month asking for $12 million to create and maintain the new police database, and for more computers and video cameras in police cruisers.

        Many of the Justice Department's proposed reforms address specific incidents involving police use of force in Cincinnati.

        • Timothy Thomas, a 19-year-old wanted on 14 traffic and misdemeanor warrants, was shot by police last April 7 after a foot chase into a dark Over-the-Rhine alley. He was later found to be unarmed.

        The Justice Department proposed a new policy on foot chases, which would require police to consider several factors before a foot chase. They include the suspect's offense, the location (especially the lighting and the officer's familiarity with the surroundings), whether the suspect is armed, and the possibility of catching the suspect later.

        • Roger Owensby Jr. died of asphyxiation in the back of a police cruiser after allegedly being choked, sprayed with chemical irritant and struck by police officers in Roselawn in November 2000.

        The Justice Department would “prohibit officers from keeping any sprayed suspect in a face-down position,” and “explicitly prohibit the use of choke holds and similar carotid holds.”

        • Lorenzo Collins, an escaped mental patient, charged police officers with a brick in 1997 and was fatally shot.

        The Justice Department wants the Police Department to create “a cadre of specially trained officers within each shift” who would have primary responsibility for dealing with mentally ill suspects.

        None of those reforms were included in the Justice Department's initial report last October, so city officials were reportedly caught off guard by those recommendations. The city's draft agreement does not address those issues.

        In some cases, the city has proposed reforms that are not as far reaching, or are less specific, than the Justice Department's.

        The federal government wants officers to report each time officers discharge a gun “on- or off-duty,” for example, but the city's proposed settlement leaves out that phrase.

        And the Justice Department wants the city to write into its policy manual that the use of police dogs and chemical spray is forbidden when used “solely to protect property.”

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Differences in Justice, Cincinnati police drafts
       

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