Posted by Michael Earl Patton

Photo courtesy of here.

At the Urban League forum on October 18, I was asked my opinion of the Collaborative Agreement.  Among other things, I stated that the sheriff patrols in Over-the-Rhine were not covered and that this was a problem.  Chris Bortz strongly criticized me and said I was completely wrong—that the sheriff patrols were in fact covered by the Collaborative Agreement and that city council would never have approved the patrols if they weren’t.  Well, Chris Bortz is the one who is completely wrong.

Actually, it is hard to understand how Chris Bortz could be so wrong about his facts.  I admit I was taken aback by his criticism—could the media and all the people to whom I had talked be so far off? But I have since had time to thoroughly check out the facts, and they are so clear it seems impossible that Mr. Bortz could simply have been mistaken.

First, a little clarification: the Collaborative Agreement was a five-year contract that expired in August.  But the city manager has ordered the police to continue certain aspects of the agreement such as the Citizens Complaint Authority (CCA) and the CPOP program.  And the sheriff’s department is not under the authority of the city manager. But, in theory, Sheriff Leis could have ordered his department to voluntarily cooperate with the CCA for any complaints against his deputies.  He did not do so, as is clear from the agreement he did reach with the city (par. 4 of the settlement).  There is only limited cooperation promised—Leis agrees that his deputies can be interviewed during investigations of Cincinnati police officers, but themselves are not subject to investigations by the CCA.  And there are exceptions to even that limited cooperation.

The Cincinnati Beacon, contacted the Chief Investigator of the CCA, who confirmed this.  He stated that they have no authority to investigate any complaints against the sheriff department.

As for CPOP, a community-police partnership to reduce crime, the settlement avoids any commitment by the sheriff department to participate.  The city and the ACLU merely agree to keep the sheriff department informed “as appropriate.”

So it is very clear that the sheriff patrols in Over-the-Rhine are NOT covered by the provisions of the Collaborative Agreement and never were.  Any additional patrols in other parts of the city would also not be covered.  But Mr. Bortz insists that these were pre-conditions to council’s approval of the patrols in the first place.  So, taking him at his word, we can expect him to work vigorously to include the sheriff deputies into the provisions of the Collaborative Agreement.

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