By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WEST END - Cincinnati's new top police watchdog is a veteran police commander credited with slashing homicide rates in East Baltimore, but who has also been publicly critical of a racist culture that he says permeates police departments.

Wendell M. France, introduced Friday as the new executive director of the Citizen Complaint Authority by City Manager Valerie Lemmie, has been described in Baltimore as modest and soft-spoken - but also a "terrific leader" who's unafraid to show independence.

In 1995, a Cable News Network story about black police officers focused on the controversy surrounding the racial composition of the Cincinnati Police Department and the promotion of Ronald J. Twitty to captain. The Fraternal Order of Police protested that Twitty's promotion passed over more qualified white lieutenants.

France, then head of the National Black Police Association, told CNN that white men dominate the profession of policing.

"Their ascension through the ranks is clothed in hatred and racism, so why would he want to change a system that supported his very being?" he said.

Nine years later, France stands by those statements. "Racism has been rampant in law enforcement historically," he said Friday. "Racism and sexism and different cultural biases have impacted most government agencies, not just law enforcement."

Indeed, those looking for an indication of whether France will be supportive or critical of police can look at his record in Baltimore and find ample evidence of both.

In 1997, while keeping a bedside vigil for his 18-year-old son who was shot in the face while stopped in traffic, France complained about gun buybacks, zero-tolerance policies and other solutions to violent crime proposed by Baltimore City Council members.

"We don't need any more programs. We need to stop with the gimmicks," he told the Baltimore Sun.

"When people violate the law, hold them accountable and cut out the foolishness. Stop letting the whole criminal justice system be the mockery it's becoming. The real solution is not in the arrests. It's what happens after. Time and time again, people have gone through the arrest cycle only to be right back in our face. Maybe if a judge's son gets shot - that would be horrible, but they could feel what I'm feeling. I'm tired."

His son survived.

Six months later, in a speech to the NAACP convention in Philadelphia, he criticized police for being too detached from the people they serve.

"If we decided tomorrow to take the police out of our communities and to replace the police with people who . . . understand the community, we'd be much better off," he said.

In deciding which actions by Cincinnati police officers the city should and shouldn't tolerate, France said he would look at the evidence and allow the seven civilian members of the agency's board to review the judgments.

"The evidence usually speaks for itself. But in some cases, the evidence isn't there, so you have to go digging for it," he said.

"I don't think you need to be an experienced police officer in order to know what makes sense and what doesn't," he said. "My orientation has always been that citizens should have some oversight or some input."

France's hiring comes at a critical time for the Citizen Complaint Authority.

The agency, which investigates police custody deaths and other allegations of police misconduct, has been without a full-time director since Nathanael L. Ford left last June to go back to Toledo. Lemmie joked Friday that she made France sign in blood that he would stay at least two years.

France's hiring comes as the agency ramps up its investigation of the Nov. 30, 2003 police custody death of Nathaniel Jones in North Avondale. The investigation was on hold until the criminal investigation was completed this week with the county prosecutor's decision not to file criminal charges.

France was the top choice of the other two parties to Cincinnati's police reform agreement: the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and the Fraternal Order of Police Queen City Lodge No. 69.

"You've heard the adage, 'Don't judge someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes,'" said the FOP president, Sgt. Harry Roberts. "That is ever most important when it comes to policing."

France starts April 26 and will make $96,000 a year.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com