First Posted: 1/23/2015
A message was delivered in Cleveland last week that underscores the push for Lima to reinstate community policing.
It came from David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at the prestigious John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Speaking before a newly formed Ohio task force seeking to improve relations between communities and their police departments, Kennedy said in no uncertain terms that police must demonstrate a commitment to directly engage the people they serve if relations between officers and minorities are going to improve.
Such is the argument for community policing, which Lima Police Chief Kevin Martin, Mayor David Berger and a host of African-American ministers want to re-establish in Lima.
The problem is finding the money to fund the program.
In the mid-1990s, the federal government provided the money that saw Lima police officers walking neighborhoods and working out of neighborhood substations. The funds were pulled several years later, leaving it up to local governments to find a way to pay the bill. With budget restraints, Lima Police Department had to reluctantly close its community offices and move the officers back into police cruisers on patrol.
This month, Martin pushed the envelope and requested City Council provide him with an additional $226,000 to fund three new community-oriented police officers along with a new sergeant position to oversee the program. These three officers would each be assigned to crime “hot spots” in the city.
We’re told the city could squeeze the funds out of the yearly carryover in its budget for at least a couple of years. Beyond that, however, it is questionable. Thus such a move would be a gamble, as the last thing anyone wants is to re-start the program and then shut it down again.
Finding a long-term solution for funding needs to happen.
Tax hikes are out of the question, but a re-allocation of the tax money already being paid by residents is an option. In that regard, the timing couldn’t be better for local governments to push the state for funds.
Gov. John Kasich put together his task force as a result of the U.S. Justice Department’s blistering report on the use of force by Cleveland police, and the fatal shootings of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland and John Crawford III in Beavercreek. Kasich found some heavy hitters to lead the charge in former U.S. Senator and Ohio Gov. George Voinovich, former Congressman Louis Stokes, and former state Sen. Nina Turner.
Tuesday’s public forum was the first of four. Other public forums are scheduled Feb. 9 at Central State University in Wilberforce, Feb. 25 at the University of Toledo, and March 10 at the University of Cincinnati.
Communities desperately want a different type of policing. The continued mistrust of police will only serve to make violent neighborhoods worse.
