Something is cooking at semi-secret marathon meetings downtown. Some say it's chicken soup for Cincinnati's soul. Others smell bologna.

Whatever it is, it will be "rolled out in the next couple of weeks,'' said Juleana Frierson of the Black United Front.

Participants described hours of meetings almost weekly, involving the parties to Cincinnati's collaborative agreement: the city, the Fraternal Order of Police, the BUF and the ACLU.

"We're not fighting back and forth, we're working together,'' said Ken Lawson, the lawyer for the BUF and ACLU.

Add accountability

He said the result will be a Community Problem-Oriented Policing (CPOP) plan that could be a national model, by building mutual trust between cops and the black community.

That's the missing piece of the puzzle: accountability from the black community.

The cops are doing their share. But the collaborative tells the BUF and the ACLU to encourage support for the police. They could start with a simple message to save lives and reduce confrontations: "Don't run or fight when a cop stops you.''

Lawson and Frierson said the plan will be a positive surprise. I hope so.

But Mayor Charlie Luken is not ready to throw any confetti yet. "In my reading of the (draft) text, it doesn't address community accountability. I'm almost concerned it puts this (CPOP) panel in the police division business in ways that may be unhealthy.''

He said the draft CPOP panel looks like another layer of police bosses, packed by the BUF, ACLU, NAACP and Urban League.

Simmer gently

"I was concerned after the Northside shooting,'' Luken said, when BUF leaders visited the scene to conduct their own investigation of a fatal shooting by a cop. "It doesn't seem to me the collaborative called for the plaintiffs to go out and conduct their own CSI investigation.''

Frierson said Luken should be in on the meetings. "The mayor hasn't been involved in anything, but he wants to take credit for everything,'' she said.

Luken said he was told not to attend by CAN Chairman Ross Love.

FOP President Roger Webster has been in on the meetings, but says, "We're falling off the wagon, slowly but surely.''

"We're not getting what we wanted out of this collaborative agreement. Everyone else is getting what they want. You can file a complaint against a cop by going to a Web site. But there is no place for a cop to complain about a citizen because there are no damn forms.''

"We're not seeing any of that mutual accountability.''

He think BUF leaders are angling for jobs: "I don't think anybody that's involved in this process needs to be executive director of anything.''

Suspicion and mistrust are no surprise in a deal that was stirred up by threats and riots.

The good news is that the most militant boycotters are not in the kitchen.

And if the BUF accepts real accountability, that would be a welcome surprise.

But it's not soup yet.

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.