By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Prencis Wilson heard about the community improvement idea at church one Sunday and decided it was time to get involved and help clean up Madisonville.

Now, Wilson is leader of the neighborhood's Community Problem-Oriented Policing team. Members of the team are working to reduce by 50 percent the three key problems they decided were the biggest issues afflicting their first hotspot, the intersection of Bramble and Whetsel avenues - loitering, littering and drug dealing.

They surveyed businesses and residents,as well as students who walk by on their way to school. They went to court with a resident who had problems with a trespasser. They got new trash cans from Keep Cincinnati Beautiful.

"Rather than somebody at City Hall saying, 'We want to do this for Madisonville,' " Wilson said, "we're saying this is what we want for Madisonville."

After about a year, the policing team is satisfied with changes at that first intersection. Now theyare deciding where to focus next.

It's exactly that kind of community involvement authorities hope will spread throughout the city now that the community-policing center has a leader. Retiring Assistant Police Chief Rick Biehl was announced Friday as the first executive director of the Community Police Partnering Center. The center is a privately funded clearinghouse based at The Urban League in Avondale where residents can learn what the community-based policing program is all about. Pieces of the program are already under way in Over-the-Rhine, the West End, Avondale and Walnut Hills.

Biehl has been on the Cincinnati police force for more than two decades. His selection drew praise from a broad spectrum of people, including attorney Ken Lawson, Chief Tom Streicher and Cecil Thomas, director of the city's Human Relations Commission. Mayor Charlie Luken said Biehl was a great choice who "gives me a lot more confidence in the partnering center.''

Biehl, 51, said that as his retirement eligibility approached, he started thinking about what other police or government jobs he might want. Once someone called him about the community-policing position, he stopped considering anything else.

He plans to reach out to community groups immediately - starting with next week's neighborhood summit - and said a marketing plan would follow soon to make sure everyone in the city knows about the center and the philosophy behind its work. He also plans to visit Chicago to learn about their successes with a similar program there.

Biehl promised to first be a good listener to residents in all the city's 52 neighborhoods, then work with them to determine what needs to be fixed - and how to get the work done - as a way to combat crime and conditions that lead to crime.

Lawson said Biehl and the partnering center can have an impact on everything from respect between officers and residents to the escalating homicide rate.

"You hear people talking about black-on-black crime," he said. "The resolution for that is right here."

Email jprendergast@enquirer.com