Overview:

Community Voices on Cincinnati Policing Meeting July 14 Documented by Michelle Wilson

Meeting summary:

  • The Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement (CCA) Campaign Zero report was released. The report spanned the years of 2009-2025. The report used Cincinnati Police Department (CPD) Contact Cards to compile data across the 52 Cincinnati neighborhoods. 
  • The report shows that Cincinnati police officers stopped Black people 3.4 times more often than white people. Once stopped, Black people are 2.4 times more likely to be searched, 1.9 times more likely to have force used against them, and 1.8 times more likely to be arrested. 
  • CPD Interim Chief Adam Hennie and Cincinnati City Council Member Scotty Johnson described what efforts would be taken to further review and understand the report. Johnson said city leaders had “dropped the ball,” and he and Hennie promised that future review, accountability, training and necessary changes would be forthcoming.

Documenter’s follow-up question:

  • What recommendations or policy changes will the city see in light of the information that came out regarding racial disparities in community policing? Will the city hire independent advisers to go over the information and make recommendations? 
  • Why are there such large racial disparities? Is this a personnel issue? A training issue? Or is this a systemic racist culture that exists in our police department?  
  • What will the data show regarding racial disparity once House Bill 492 takes effect later this year? 

Notes

The meeting started at 6 p.m. and concluded at 8:35 p.m.

The meeting was held at the Urban League’s Holloman Center for Social Justice. 

In attendance were approximately 100 city leaders, community members and other stakeholders. Some of the attendees included:

Contact card report highlights: Findings, context and limitations. Presented by Treva Reid

  • Cincinnati police officers complete a “Contact Card” for every pedestrian and motor vehicle stop.
  • The Contact Card includes the following information:
    • Name
    • Age
    • Gender
    • Race
    • Location
    • Time of day
    • Outcomes of the stop (whether the officer used force, searched or arrested the individual.
  • In 2025, Black pedestrians were stopped 5.4 times more often than white pedestrians.
  • In 2025, Black motorists were stopped 3.2 times more often than white motorists.
  • The neighborhoods with the highest motor vehicle stops rates include:
    • Lower Price Hill (1,931)
    • Queengate (572)
    • Sedamsville (486)
    • Over-the-Rhine (344)
    • Camp Washington (269)
    • East End (225).
  • High pedestrian stop rates included the neighborhoods and areas of:
    • Queensgate
    • Lower Price Hill
    • Downtown Central Business District
    • Over-the-Rhine and nearby areas
    • The urban core
  • Numbers show that high motor vehicle stop rates are concentrated in a small number of lower-income neighborhoods and that pedestrian stop rates are more localized to specific streets and areas.
  • Data indicates that Black Cincinnati residents are stopped at higher rates than white residents across most of the city, including in areas where Black residents are the minority.
  • While the report outlines the data collected, it did not include any reasoning behind the documented disparities.
  • For more in-depth information, please visit contactcards.org. 

City response and next steps:

Panelists: Adam Hennie- Interim City of Cincinnati Police Chief

Scotty Johnson- City of Cincinnati Council Member

Moderator: David Whitehead- President, Cincinnati NAACP

Takeaways:

  • Hennie said he is glad the report came out and believes this is the first time the department is looking at this type of information. He also said the police department needs to be more customer-service-oriented.
  • When asked how confident he is in the quality and consistency of the data in the report, he said his responsibility is to ensure he has the most accurate information in order to make the best decisions. He will accept the information if it tells him that there are challenges and problems and that he will accept those challenges collaboratively with the community and make the hard decisions.
  • Hennie explained that he also receives quarterly data on each individual officer that includes factors such as use of force and complaints and is compared to their peers. If they are above a certain threshold, they are flagged. This information is then used to determine measures including additional training, disciplinary action or relocation.
  • Johnson stated he believes the Cincinnati Police Department is still committed to community-oriented policing, but he emphasized that the department does not currently have enough staffing for the community foot patrols and neighborhood interaction.
  • Johnson urged the audience to encourage “good” people to think about joining the police force and said that they are currently recruiting.
  • When the council member was asked what citizens should do when they had issues they wanted to address with him, he provided his contact information and urged people to contact him directly.

Hamilton County Public Defenders Perspective: 

Panelists: Angela Chang, Hamilton County Public Defenders Office

Sean Vicente, Hamilton County Public Defenders Office

Moderator: Derrick Rogers- Director, Community Partnering Center & Youth Program, 

Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio

Takeaways:

  • The Contact Cards are beneficial to the Public Defenders office because they provide information as to the legal reason of why a person was stopped and help the office advocate for their clients. In addition, the cards provide information about the full context of the stop.
  • Chang said they were seeing their Black clients experiencing police stops in a much different way than white clients.
  • She said It is important for the community to know who is being stopped and why. One focus is when the outcome of a stop of a Black citizen is “No Action Taken.” What was going on there? Why was the person stopped in the first place?
  • Chang was asked about the new House Bill 492. She stated that there may be some concern as to how it will be implemented and who will get the types of charges the bill allows for when failing to identify. She stated that she is “sure they will be litigating” this in court.
  • https://signalcleveland.org/what-ohios-new-traffic-stop-law-means-for-drivers-and-passengers/ 

Additional Speaker: Iris Roley, Community Activist, Cincinnati Black United Front, Cincinnati Collaborative Foundation

  • Roley spoke about her work with the city and the collaborative. She urged people to attend upcoming community meetings to continue to review the Campaign Zero data and to continue the community discussion.
  • Some of these dates include:

Community Table Discussion: 

Facilitator: Pastor Lesley Jones, Truth and Destiny Covenant Ministries Fellowship, UCC 

This session asked the attendees to answer some questions regarding their takeaways from the meeting. Some of these questions and takeaways are listed below. 

*It should be noted that approximately 75% of the attendees left the meeting and did not participate in this part of the panel.

The CCA and the community should hear back on action steps taken to address issues.

What did you learn tonight?

The data in Campaign Zero aligns with the perception Black residents have of racially biased community policing.

CPD is committed to providing quarterly reports to the CCA and the Public Defenders office regarding policy recommendations.

The Public Defenders Office is concerned about House Bill 492.

What additional information would increase your understanding of public trust?

Accountability

Honesty

Transparency

What recommendations or ideas do you have?

Quarterly review of the Contact Cards 

Officers interacting with youth should be more aware of youth programming in the city in an effort to redirect kids.

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@signalcincinnati.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.

Find more Documenters’ notes here.