By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A dozen former Cleveland police officers will be introduced at Cincinnati City Hall today as the city's newest police recruits.

Laid off because of budget cuts in Cleveland, the 12 will start a shortened police academy Monday. The group is about half the size that Chief Tom Streicher recommended be hired, but the group does add diversity, which the chief praised. Seven of the 12 are minorities.

Among them, according to thick files of information compiled by Cincinnati's recruiting and background check department:

• Long T. "Chino'' Dang, 34, was born in Saigon during the Vietnam War. He became a U.S. citizen in 1987 and is now working to bring his mother to the United States.

• Rochelle Waddell, 30, is African-American and the only woman in the class. A mother, she tested twice before getting hired by Cleveland, where supervisors described her as proactive and good at writing reports.

• Aric Pruitt, 34, is a former Marine and father of two sons who had been laid off three times in Cleveland. He looked to Cincinnati to stay in law enforcement, but also to be near his mother, who lives in Cleveland and suffers from lupus.

"I love being a police officer,'' he said. "I thought Cincinnati was the best place for me.''

Their hiring process - the first time Cincinnati granted lateral entry to officers from another departments - generated controversy after the Civil Service Commission cut five from the 29 officers Streicher recommended be hired. The commission has not publicly released its reasons for cutting the five, one of whom told Cincinnati police that his brother was a drug dealer. Another, Robert Taylor, is a white officer who was exonerated after fatally shooting a black teenager two years ago.

Taylor is represented by local Fraternal Order of Police lawyer Steve Lazarus, who says Taylor was unfairly rejected .

The 29 officers recommended by the chief were cut from an original applicant list of 105.

After the commission approved 24, eight declined the job for various reasons. One was rehired by Cleveland; another got a job with the U.S. Secret Service.

The small number expected to start the class Monday didn't surprise Sgt. Tom Waller, supervisor of the background-check unit. It's a lot to ask people with families and Cleveland roots to pick up and move, he said.

All the officers were hired in Cleveland in 2000 or 2001.

Cincinnati's hiring process - including lie-detector examinations and a 10-page questionnaire about prior drug use - elicited admissions from would-be officers on such topics as marijuana use as young as 12 years old or whether they've ever had sex in public.

Several confessed to stealing candy when they were kids.

The files also include pages of credit reports, child-support payment histories and high-school transcripts.

Keith Fangman, vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the union welcomes the former Cleveland officers.

"We have already spoken with many of them and will continue to try to make this a smooth transition,'' he said.

Email jprendergast@enquirer.com