By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

DOWNTOWN - The memos to the city manager's office come at the rate of about one a day, and sometimes as many as three or four. They started on the second day of Christopher Smitherman's first term on Cincinnati City Council, and have not let up.

Smitherman's assertive questioning has earned him a close following of supporters as well as critics.

The requests for information are usually no longer than two or three sentences. The answers sometimes take days of staff time to complete.

• "Please provide my office with an autopsy report for Nathaniel Jones today." (Dec. 3, 2003)

• "My office is requesting the number of deaths that have occurred in police custody since Chief Thomas Streicher has been in leadership as the police chief in the city of Cincinnati." (Dec. 3, 2003)

• "During the past 10 years, what is the amount of money the city has paid to settle lawsuits against the Police Department?" (Dec. 5, 2003)

But the most controversial memo - the one that put the freshman councilman at the center of Cincinnati's cultural battleground of race, geography and policing - came Jan. 5.

"Please provide my office with the following information: A listing of each sworn officer in the Cincinnati Police Department. For each sworn officer, the name of the high school that he/she attended."

The memo didn't mention a specific high school, but Smitherman's critics said it was clear what he was after.

"He's asking for the information because he doesn't like white Elder grad police officers," said Hamilton County Prosecutor Michael K. Allen, an Elder alumnus and former Cincinnati police officer. "Let's be honest about it. What he is doing is profiling, and he should have to account for that."

Smitherman denied the memo was an attack on the Catholic high school in Price Hill. "My memo had nothing to do with Elder, with Western Hills, or with Woodward," he said.

The requests are long-overdue attempts to exert civilian control over the Cincinnati Police Department, he said. He has made deliberate attempts to keep some of his memos quiet. On Jan. 13, he asked the city manager not to release the information she had submitted to his office about police overtime. (The city manager responded that it was a public record.)

In just seven weeks on City Council, Smitherman has gone from the candidate of "racial reconciliation" to council's most controversial member.

His investigation of police overtime and his Dec. 3 remark accusing the police chief of "insubordination" made him a hero to police critics and a "smart-mouthed little punk" to the county prosecutor.

Some police critics see a deliberate attempt to discredit Smitherman because he's asking uncomfortable questions about the force.

Smitherman said he's been getting threatening e-mails and phone calls ever since callers to WLW radio said they heard him draw a connection between racism in the police department and sexual abuse by priests at Elder. Smitherman denies the remark.

"Whenever a strong black man in a position like Chris is in speaks his mind, he's told in no uncertain terms he better get back in his place," said lawyer Kenneth L. Lawson, whose lawsuit alleging racial profiling in the police department resulted in a "collaborative agreement" on police-community relations. "He has said nothing about Elder, so why are people on the west side so paranoid?"

"Chris Smitherman is the master of illusion," said Keith Fangman, the Fraternal Order of Police vice president. "He hoodwinked the voters into believing he wanted to improve police-community relations. And he has done the exact opposite."

Smitherman said some have misunderstood what he meant in his campaign by "reconciliation."

"Racial reconciliation is not looking at issues and then not discussing them. We have to pull the carpet back, look at what is there, and then have an honest dialogue about it," Smitherman said in a speech to City Council last week. "I don't know why people would think I would get elected and then not talk about the issues."

Smitherman's supporters come to council meetings to applaud his statements and hold signs saying, "Smitherman for mayor."

"He's a great example of what strong leadership is - black or white," said Earmon J. Powell, a West Price Hill resident who met Smitherman when he was campaigning at last year's Black Family Reunion. "He's done more work than any of these jokers have for years.''."

Charter Committee President Michael Goldman, who banked on Smitherman to give the Charterites a second seat on City Council for the first time in a decade, said he's growing into the job.

Though he campaigned on promises to strengthen environmental regulation and close the city's budget deficit, the events of the past two months have put the attention on more controversial issues.

Mayor Charlie Luken said he's tried to give Smitherman leeway, but will try to steer the debate to a more constructive track.

"I don't want to lecture him. I just want to assess how his first few weeks have been, and I want to explain the work some of his memos generate," he said.

Luken said he's also worried about the divisive debate.

"Name-calling of any kind is not appropriate,'' he said. "Mike Allen should apologize."

Allen said no apology would be forthcoming. "My words were strong, they were harsh, but they were an appropriate response to an incredibly irresponsible statement by an elected official," he said. At a Martin Luther King Day event this month, Smitherman noted that King himself was branded as a "troublemaker."

"I will continue to move Cincinnati forward into the 21st century," he said.

Report card

West-side high schools lead the list of the top breeding grounds for the city's 1,044 police officers, according to a report by City Manager Valerie Lemmie last week. Lemmie prepared the report at the request of Councilman Christopher Smitherman.

1. Elder, 76

2. Western Hills, 69

3. Oak Hills, 46

4. Withrow, 39

5. Woodward, 37

6. Aiken, 36

7. Roger Bacon, 35

8. Hughes, 32

9. Colerain, 27

10. Walnut Hills, 25

11. LaSalle, 24

12. Purcell Marian, 23

13. Mount Healthy, 22

14. Seton, 20

15. St. Xavier, 16

16. Anderson, 15

(tie) Princeton, 15

18. Forest Park, 14

19. Northwest, 13

20. Moeller, 11

(tie) McNicholas, 11

Note: Totals include current recruit class and officers who spent only part of their high school education at a given school.

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E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com