Mayor Charlie Luken's first year as "strong mayor" found him in an uneven arm wrestle over city streets.

So far, the criminals have held the upper hand in many neighborhoods. Homicides, shootings, other violent crimes are up; overall arrests and long jail times for drug dealers are not.

De-policing tilted the game, as officers, demoralized after the April 2001 riots, slowed down on the job.

That's why Mayor Luken's State of City Address on Thursday seemed designed to bolster their ranks, to get them back to work.

"Crime is the No. 1 drag on our efforts to move forward at every level,'' Mayor Luken said. "We must focus our efforts and our resources on its reduction."

Nothing wrong with that. The crime problem is as clear as the open-air drug markets on some city streets.

"When (officers) use reasonable force in the exercise of their duties, I will stand with them," he said to generous applause. "... Council has said they will, too."

Nothing wrong with that, either, except that the Cincinnati police's use of force hasn't always been reasonable. When police have used force unreasonably, it's often been black people in poor neighborhoods bearing the brunt.

Unreasonable force

True, criminals run many of these neighborhoods. It's not always easy telling the good guys from the bad guys, not when police are the outsiders, and the insiders - neighborhood residents - are too afraid or too resentful to talk.

Mayor Luken's speech touched on efforts to counter that. He mentioned Community Problem-Oriented Policing, Citizens on Patrol and even efforts by the "Peace Down the Way" Coalition as ways to get people more involved in crime fighting.

But Mayor Luken omitted some factors that may determine whether any of these efforts succeed.

He failed to mention citizen complaints of racial profiling, police misuse of force or acts of aggression by police against law-abiding people - conditions that gave rise to the boycott against downtown conventions and entertainment.

In fact, Mayor Luken didn't use the "B" word at all.

Luken didn't mention it Thursday because he can't claim much progress in the past year toward resolving it.

Besides crime, it's the largest nuisance marring our image. Yet it survives into his second year of strong-mayorship.

What Luken chose to concentrate on was his police constituency. It almost sounded as if someone else was at the podium, someone wearing a uniform and carrying a Fraternal Order of Police card.

He cited recent arrest statistics that showed police doing real work, real well.

"During the week of January 6, officers made 256 arrests, served 183 warrants and recovered 17 guns from our streets," Luken said.

But that week was atypical; it was the last of the police department's concentrated crackdown on robbery. Dozens of officers worked hours of overtime to ring up those numbers after two well-publicized shootings in the West End.

Police endorsements

It was good work, albeit expensive. We'll know if it was worth it later, if those arrested don't return to the streets in a few weeks or months.

Meanwhile, Luken inducts about 50 new officers today. More police overtime is on tap, he said.

Police leaders heard what they wanted.

"I think he's shown profound leadership," Chief Thomas Streicher said.

"I would give his speech an A," said Keith Fangman, former police union leader.

"The next major incident will ... determine if we're headed in the right path."

E-mail damos@enquirer.com or phone 768-8395