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Dan Hils - CPD Chief Theetge's future · Brian Thomas

0:00
Speaker 1: Friday e to you starting off with the guests right now,
0:03
Speaker 1: although I always consider callers guests as well. You're welcome
0:06
Speaker 1: to call, but not right now because Dan Hills returns
0:08
Speaker 1: former FOP president Dan Hills putting his old FOP kind
0:11
Speaker 1: of hat back on and giving us an analysis of
0:13
Speaker 1: the lay of the landscape with since a police department
0:15
Speaker 1: relative to law enforcement in downtown, and will Chief Fiji
0:20
Speaker 1: be fired? Sure, sounded like it was going to happen yesterday.
0:22
Speaker 1: Welcome back, Dan Hills. It's great having you on the show,
0:26
Speaker 1: al Brian.
0:27
Speaker 2: It's good to be back. I hope you're well. Hope
0:29
Speaker 2: your health as well.
0:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm doing really well. I appreciate you asking about that.
0:33
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Now, Sure, it looked like calling
0:38
Speaker 1: Fiji back into town from her police chief conference looked
0:41
Speaker 1: like the writing was on the wall, although there was
0:44
Speaker 1: what I would call backpedaling if they had made the
0:46
Speaker 1: decision to fire her. It has not happened yet, But
0:49
Speaker 1: do you get the impression that Fiji's on thin ice
0:52
Speaker 1: and it's just the shoe just hasn't dropped yet.
0:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's obviously the thing. Bring her back
0:59
Speaker 2: from Denver, which you know, in something. I have commentary
1:02
Speaker 2: rights here. You know, I don't think going out of
1:06
Speaker 2: town to a chief conference during this time of increased
1:10
Speaker 2: scrutiny and the violence on the streets and all, that
1:13
Speaker 2: thing was probably the best the best picture to present
1:17
Speaker 2: of the police department or her leadership.
1:20
Speaker 1: Well better that than well watching while the city burns.
1:24
Speaker 2: And it was I don't think it was a good idea,
1:27
Speaker 2: But yeah, I didn't know where you were going to go.
1:31
Speaker 2: If you're just transk me my opinion of the chiefs or.
1:35
Speaker 1: Well, that's a separate here.
1:37
Speaker 2: You're the host, I'll.
1:38
Speaker 1: You no, no, no, I think that's a completely separate issue,
1:40
Speaker 1: and it's a worthy issue to address because you know,
1:43
Speaker 1: you still stay in touch with active members since a
1:45
Speaker 1: law enforcement I bet you have a pretty good idea
1:47
Speaker 1: about their perception of whether police Chief three Strategi's doing
1:51
Speaker 1: a good job or not. I've had people tell me
1:53
Speaker 1: one way or another, and I have my own perceptions
1:55
Speaker 1: along those lines. But that's why we have you on
1:57
Speaker 1: the show. So how she fares among ung the ranks
2:00
Speaker 1: is one thing. And if we had the old system
2:03
Speaker 1: before this issue five thing, the rank and file would
2:07
Speaker 1: decide whether or not they wanted to cling to her correct.
2:12
Speaker 2: Yes, and I you.
2:14
Speaker 3: Know, issue five is the discussion of its own and
2:16
Speaker 3: I was I was listening to Christopherer snootherman on there,
2:20
Speaker 3: and let's hope to god he gets elected and Steve
2:24
Speaker 3: Gooden gets elected and there is.
2:26
Speaker 2: Some change and some change of thought down at City Hall.
2:28
Speaker 2: But that's what I guess I wanted to say about
2:30
Speaker 2: the chief in my opinion, that she's more of a
2:33
Speaker 2: symptom of a problem in a sense than the problem.
2:36
Speaker 2: I think she's done a better job than I expected.
2:39
Speaker 2: I don't make any secrets about it. I was not
2:42
Speaker 2: supporting her. I was still the president when when she
2:45
Speaker 2: got appointed. I was pulling for Lisa Davis. And I
2:47
Speaker 2: was only pulling for Lisa Davis because I was listening,
2:50
Speaker 2: I want to say only, but I was mostly pulling
2:52
Speaker 2: for Lisa Davis because that's what my cops are telling me.
2:56
Speaker 2: So it was like, this is an easy one. I
2:57
Speaker 2: got all these cops calling me and saying, yeah, can
2:59
Speaker 2: you get can you get anything done? And and I
3:03
Speaker 2: remember being disappointed in city at City Hall, namely share
3:08
Speaker 2: Al Long because she went on this last second tour
3:11
Speaker 2: of talking to the cops when I knew she had
3:13
Speaker 2: already decided. I had a good source inside city Hall
3:16
Speaker 2: that said she had ready decided, but then she heard
3:19
Speaker 2: the controversy that was out there. I was putting it
3:21
Speaker 2: out there that the cops far preferred Lisa Davis, who
3:25
Speaker 2: went on to to be the chief in Austin, Texas.
3:29
Speaker 2: But just so I'm not here, you know, celebrating this
3:33
Speaker 2: trouble rating. I think that Parryg's done a better job
3:38
Speaker 2: than what I had expected. Handsom downside, I guess anybody would.
3:43
Speaker 2: And and it's easy to sit outside and be a
3:46
Speaker 2: critic and throw darts. But you know, again, I think
3:50
Speaker 2: the reason she got the job as part of the
3:54
Speaker 2: symptom of the disease, and that is you're far left
4:00
Speaker 2: activism within city Hall to the point where they hire
4:04
Speaker 2: somebody like Irish Rolli, which we could talk about.
4:06
Speaker 1: We will rest of the show, right Well, so, you know, and.
4:11
Speaker 2: So you hire somebody like uh Perry Thiji who had
4:15
Speaker 2: gone in there and willing to sit down and and
4:18
Speaker 2: and play with Irish Roly. Can you imagine uh uh
4:23
Speaker 2: back in the day you mentioned Striker or Smitherman mentioned Striker.
4:27
Speaker 2: That's the last guy in their old system, would he
4:29
Speaker 2: have would he have paid attention to her or cared
4:32
Speaker 2: what she said? Ever, only to criticize there is the
4:35
Speaker 2: only time he would have spoke up in his mind.
4:37
Speaker 2: And even under their new system of hiring and and
4:40
Speaker 2: and and keeping chiefs. Can you imagine if James Craig
4:43
Speaker 2: would have had a deal with Irish Rolly, you would
4:45
Speaker 2: have he would have come out publicly and and uh
4:49
Speaker 2: and condemned her for the dingling that she is. So
4:52
Speaker 2: you know, you put somebody into place and part of
4:55
Speaker 2: her marching orders and part of what I assume I said,
4:58
Speaker 2: I don't know this for a fact. Part of what
4:59
Speaker 2: she agreed to to get the appointment was that she
5:03
Speaker 2: would she would play along with Iris and all that
5:06
Speaker 2: silliness that you're he is wrong with that.
5:07
Speaker 1: So you're illustrating the political reality that that job became.
5:11
Speaker 1: Once the city manager and the mayor have the sole
5:14
Speaker 1: power to hire and fire, then they really are at
5:17
Speaker 1: the whim of the directive of the city manager and mayor.
5:19
Speaker 1: If you don't follow my directive, you're going to lose
5:21
Speaker 1: your job. So let's hold I'm just going to stop there.
5:24
Speaker 1: That's my thought. We'll let you respond and we will
5:26
Speaker 1: bring up iris role among other topics with Dan Hill's
5:29
Speaker 1: former FOP president, Right.
5:31
Speaker 2: Talk Station.
5:33
Speaker 1: Six Thursday, Right Time. That's with former FOP President Dan
5:38
Speaker 1: Hill talking about the situation going in downtown Cincinnati. He
5:40
Speaker 1: looks like the chief TG's job, that Figi's job may
5:43
Speaker 1: be on the line of speculation, wondering about back and forth.
5:46
Speaker 1: Of course, exclusive control over her position held by a
5:49
Speaker 1: mayor aft to have Purvall and Sherry Long didn't used
5:52
Speaker 1: to be that way, but now we have the involvement.
5:54
Speaker 1: And you mentioned Iris Roli before and I wanted to
5:56
Speaker 1: see if you have confirmation on something I read from
5:59
Speaker 1: our friend and signal ninety nine. I think she is
6:02
Speaker 1: at least a former, if not current, police officer, but
6:05
Speaker 1: she's always standing up on these issues, So follow her
6:07
Speaker 1: on Facebook. She said. With regard to the Governor's office
6:11
Speaker 1: and him providing these state agency resources that Mayor avtab
6:15
Speaker 1: Porval took a little bit of she gave them a
6:19
Speaker 1: lecture and I just I can read the quote here
6:21
Speaker 1: even where's mayor and the city council forced the Governor's office,
6:23
Speaker 1: multiple state agencies to sit through a lecture from Iris
6:26
Speaker 1: Rowley fast forward a little bit, not the director of
6:29
Speaker 1: the collaborative agreement because there isn't one, but dictated to
6:32
Speaker 1: the troopers what the agents could and could not do
6:35
Speaker 1: in the city of Cincinnati. Did she really do that?
6:38
Speaker 2: Did she?
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Speaker 1: Did she speak to all the officers that were coming
6:40
Speaker 1: in from the from the state?
6:44
Speaker 2: You know, I don't have confirmation to that, And that
6:49
Speaker 2: might be a little bit of the difference between me
6:52
Speaker 2: and ninety nine. I think that we comment on a
6:54
Speaker 2: lot of the same things, and where you obviously have
6:56
Speaker 2: the same political feelings as those she's got. Right now
7:01
Speaker 2: at this stage of my life, she's got more sources
7:03
Speaker 2: than I do, and she's definitely working at her page
7:07
Speaker 2: and stuff harder than I work mine. But I'll say this,
7:12
Speaker 2: it sounds likely to me because that's the way that
7:15
Speaker 2: things work in the city, which brings me around full
7:18
Speaker 2: circle to where do you go next? And I think
7:22
Speaker 2: it's here Cobra if he was on this morning. But
7:25
Speaker 2: I did read this statement that they put out saying that,
7:29
Speaker 2: you know, the police chief isn't the problem, which is
7:31
Speaker 2: kind of what I'm doubling down on. But my thing
7:34
Speaker 2: is where do you go next? How can you get
7:37
Speaker 2: a quality person in here to be the police chief
7:40
Speaker 2: when you still have Irish Roli on your payroll. And
7:43
Speaker 2: they I think they actually believe that Irish Roly has
7:47
Speaker 2: like a riot button in her den or something, that
7:50
Speaker 2: she can push a button and cause a riot, and
7:54
Speaker 2: that's why they bow to her. And I don't think
7:55
Speaker 2: she has that much power. I think the only power
7:57
Speaker 2: she has is the power they give her. So I mean,
8:00
Speaker 2: it's it's insanity on top of insanity. You you have
8:03
Speaker 2: a law and order problem, so you hire somebody that
8:07
Speaker 2: is an anti law order person to go up to
8:10
Speaker 2: go out and and rile up the masses from time
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Speaker 2: to time, and it's it's almost like an alternate reality.
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Speaker 2: It's hard to believe that the city does that, that
8:19
Speaker 2: they hire this lady and that you know, the only
8:23
Speaker 2: reason that I think they could is because again they
8:25
Speaker 2: think that she has the power to uh let loose
8:30
Speaker 2: uh you know, all the all the use and cause
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Speaker 2: and cause some sort of promotion. And I don't think
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Speaker 2: I don't think that she has that power. So yes,
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Speaker 2: I can see her speaking to the troopers and stuff. Enough,
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Speaker 2: I was the troopers or the commander that came up
8:44
Speaker 2: the troopers, I would I would get all my people
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Speaker 2: up and say, let's go. We listen to this, this malarkey.
8:49
Speaker 2: We're down here to help the city with a crime problem.
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Speaker 2: Not listen, uh, not listen to her. So that's the
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Speaker 2: that's the back to the symptom, rather than these they
9:02
Speaker 2: only are going to appoint somebody. And I think that's
9:05
Speaker 2: part of what cover statement that I want to double
9:07
Speaker 2: down on us is the chief isn't the problem? You know,
9:11
Speaker 2: Like I said, I can sit there and nitpick a
9:13
Speaker 2: couple of things, and I could also compliment a couple
9:16
Speaker 2: of things. But the problem started because I think she
9:19
Speaker 2: agreed to be their yes person.
9:23
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, Okay. Then she got the job for agreeing
9:28
Speaker 1: to be a yes person for a woke pretty much
9:31
Speaker 1: anti police administration, a rethink the police administration, or a
9:35
Speaker 1: defund the police administration. I think iris Roli was part
9:37
Speaker 1: of that entire movement. So I think in defending your
9:42
Speaker 1: you're also pointing out a criticism. A strong chief who
9:45
Speaker 1: knows how to conduct law enforcement, how to manage police resources,
9:49
Speaker 1: would stand in defiance to a directive that was counter
9:53
Speaker 1: to what her perception of proper law enforcement is. Okay, yeah,
9:56
Speaker 1: I was appointed by the city manager and mayor. I
9:58
Speaker 1: know they want to go this direction, but I think
10:00
Speaker 1: it's bad for the city for the following reasons. She
10:02
Speaker 1: runs the risk of losing your job for you know,
10:04
Speaker 1: rejecting something that they told her. But it would show
10:07
Speaker 1: that she is independent and of thought, of mind and
10:11
Speaker 1: independent of you know, the direction the police need to go.
10:14
Speaker 1: So I think that's not She's not.
10:18
Speaker 2: She's not the problem. She's not She's not independent. I
10:21
Speaker 2: think she was Sheryl Long's girl from the get go.
10:25
Speaker 2: I mean, like I was pulling for Lisa Davis, somebody
10:29
Speaker 2: that I don't necessarily hang out with politically, shall I
10:33
Speaker 2: say she is a friend and I and I thought
10:36
Speaker 2: she was a better natural leader. And you know that's
10:40
Speaker 2: and and again I think I think Terry is a
10:42
Speaker 2: nice person. I think she's very smart and qualified, but
10:45
Speaker 2: she doesn't have that whatever it is that certain leaders
10:49
Speaker 2: have that get people to fall where I thought Lisa
10:52
Speaker 2: had more of that. Lisa politically and I are are
10:56
Speaker 2: are our world's apart. But I just thought that she
11:00
Speaker 2: she would be more of that natural leader. And I
11:02
Speaker 2: also think Lisa has stood up to him on some
11:05
Speaker 2: different things that made her not not their pick. And
11:10
Speaker 2: so until you fix the system, and this is where
11:12
Speaker 2: you know, like I said, I'm double amount on what
11:14
Speaker 2: cover said with issue five, and mister Spinderman said, until
11:17
Speaker 2: you double down on the system, changed the system, then
11:21
Speaker 2: then then nothing's going to get better. And I don't
11:23
Speaker 2: think you're going to get anybody of any quality, at
11:26
Speaker 2: least not from outside of the agency to come in
11:30
Speaker 2: and and inside I don't know either if they're going
11:33
Speaker 2: to get somebody that's very interested in this, because you
11:37
Speaker 2: you either have to compromise yourself or risk risk risk
11:42
Speaker 2: risks and what is no might might or likely happen to.
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Speaker 1: Terry something that this Issue five created. It highly politicized
11:51
Speaker 1: the job and tied the hands of the police chief
11:54
Speaker 1: in the city of Cincinnat. Kay, let's stop and we'll
11:56
Speaker 1: bring you back and get a couple of final words
11:58
Speaker 1: on that of Dan. I'm sorry, I'm I was thinking
12:00
Speaker 1: that I was looking up my interview with Ken was
12:05
Speaker 1: on the fourteenth. You can go to fifty five KRC
12:07
Speaker 1: dot com and check out the podcast. I was searching
12:09
Speaker 1: for that since you brought him up in my conversation
12:11
Speaker 1: earlier in this week. One more with AIRCB Talk stations.
12:15
Speaker 1: He right a prying with Thomas here with FOP former
12:18
Speaker 1: FFP president Dan Hills. Dan, obviously, I think everyone can.
12:23
Speaker 1: Everyone can, all political stripes can agree that may have
12:26
Speaker 1: to have pur Ball in a reactive mode. Wasn't out
12:29
Speaker 1: getting in front of crime issues, crimes. I guess this
12:32
Speaker 1: started building. We've got a societal breakdown problem, regardless of
12:35
Speaker 1: the genesis of it. His answer to it has been
12:39
Speaker 1: only to recently create and enforce the curfew. Now he's
12:45
Speaker 1: extended the hours of the curfew. But the curfew, it
12:49
Speaker 1: is what it is. It's only enforced in certain neighborhoods,
12:51
Speaker 1: and I kind of scratched my head and wonder about it.
12:52
Speaker 1: There's fifty two neighborhoods in the city. What about the
12:54
Speaker 1: other neighborhoods where the curfew doesn't exist. I know they
12:56
Speaker 1: have crime problems there, but also the idea of putting
13:00
Speaker 1: SWAT in other police resources on Fountain Square at least
13:05
Speaker 1: at a larger presence until ten pm, I thought all
13:10
Speaker 1: the crap hit the fan. I know it happens during
13:12
Speaker 1: the day, but a lot of the criminal activity takes
13:14
Speaker 1: place after ten pm. So I just wanted your reaction
13:17
Speaker 1: to his most recent reactive efforts to deal with crime.
13:22
Speaker 2: But you know, you just you just sat right there.
13:25
Speaker 2: Reacting is never as good as being proactive, you know.
13:30
Speaker 2: But also I'm going to I'm going to say the
13:32
Speaker 2: same thing you kind of said too, that the country
13:36
Speaker 2: and the big parts of the community are in a speech, spiritual,
13:40
Speaker 2: and cultural crisis. I mean, that's that's beyond the mayor's control,
13:45
Speaker 2: the chiefs control, and everybody else. It's And then the
13:48
Speaker 2: next step down is the state doesn't have enough prison
13:52
Speaker 2: space for all the thuggery that needs to go to
13:54
Speaker 2: jail and stay in jail. And I don't know, if
13:57
Speaker 2: you know, taxpayers up here in more In County and
14:00
Speaker 2: everybody else are necessarily going to want end on what
14:03
Speaker 2: it would take to house all the bad guys that
14:06
Speaker 2: we have in this state. And so this, you know,
14:09
Speaker 2: there's there's a problem there. The county judges, oh my gosh,
14:11
Speaker 2: you'd cover that all the time. And ninety you talked
14:14
Speaker 2: about ninety nine. She likes to she likes to bring
14:16
Speaker 2: up in detail the insanity that you have accounty judges.
14:20
Speaker 2: So you have all that, and then so what do
14:23
Speaker 2: you do. You get reactive because there's stuff beyond your
14:26
Speaker 2: control and like to swat the CDR T stuff, all
14:29
Speaker 2: that is doing is Robin Peter to pay Paul. You know,
14:32
Speaker 2: most of our SWAT members are CDR Team members. They're
14:35
Speaker 2: all in different assignments, and a whole lot of those
14:37
Speaker 2: assignments are patrol people in districts two, three, and four,
14:42
Speaker 2: and so now you're you're bringing them down. Well that
14:46
Speaker 2: you can't be two places at one time, right, and
14:48
Speaker 2: you can only work so much over time and still
14:51
Speaker 2: be effective. So while I agree if I was if
14:56
Speaker 2: I was the chief, or if Joe Strucker was the
14:58
Speaker 2: chief and I was advising, because I don't want your chief,
15:00
Speaker 2: but if if I were there, I understand wanting to
15:06
Speaker 2: have those central business districts feel and be one hundred
15:10
Speaker 2: percent safe, And the best way you can do that
15:13
Speaker 2: is to occupy with an occupy an army, if you would.
15:16
Speaker 2: So back to the one hundred and fifty to two
15:20
Speaker 2: hundred cops that were short, maybe we even need to
15:22
Speaker 2: reconsider the complement of cops. But that takes us back
15:26
Speaker 2: to who wants to come work here. It's been harder
15:28
Speaker 2: to get people to come to a police department a
15:31
Speaker 2: city that hires Irish rolling and one of my favorite
15:34
Speaker 2: topics in my years there the CCA, which is an
15:37
Speaker 2: anti police organization. So we're paying, we're paying tax dollars
15:42
Speaker 2: to have people that go out there and handicap the
15:44
Speaker 2: police department. I don't know how many times I can
15:47
Speaker 2: use the word insane in a single guest appearance on
15:50
Speaker 2: your show, Brian to where you get tire, You got
15:53
Speaker 2: to come up, you got to come up with some
15:54
Speaker 2: different terms there, Dan, But it's insane. I mean, it
15:58
Speaker 2: is insane that to have the CCA and have it
16:02
Speaker 2: operate like it does. It's insane to have Irish roly
16:05
Speaker 2: and have her on the payroll, and so then you
16:07
Speaker 2: end up getting reactive and doing stuff like working people
16:10
Speaker 2: after death to have presence in your central business district
16:15
Speaker 2: that you should have anyway, if you had the proper
16:18
Speaker 2: number of cops. What's that proper number, I don't know,
16:21
Speaker 2: I would I would say, you know, it might be
16:24
Speaker 2: approaching like fourteen hundred cops or something that you would
16:27
Speaker 2: like to have in a city this side with the
16:30
Speaker 2: crime problems that it has and the people that come
16:33
Speaker 2: into here for business and entertainment. So you can't just go, oh, look,
16:37
Speaker 2: you know we're about the same size as you know,
16:40
Speaker 2: Salt Lake City or whatever. I don't know any thing
16:43
Speaker 2: about the size of the Salt Lake City if they
16:45
Speaker 2: have a totally different demographic and crime problem and don't
16:50
Speaker 2: have professional teams and all the other stuff. We need
16:53
Speaker 2: more cops. You know. We can't control the spiritual and
16:56
Speaker 2: cultural crisis that's in this country and in our commun unities.
17:00
Speaker 2: We can't control what's going on as a state. The
17:02
Speaker 2: one thing we can do is we can have more cops.
17:06
Speaker 2: And that's not the chief problem, at least not alone.
17:11
Speaker 2: The city hall's problem that they haven't gone out there
17:14
Speaker 2: and been the city that people want to come and
17:18
Speaker 2: work for and then go and get the people that
17:20
Speaker 2: you need to have that presence to do the best
17:23
Speaker 2: you can under really bad circumstances here in the country now.
17:27
Speaker 1: Been complaining about the lack of police office for a
17:29
Speaker 1: long time. Pervall even said he once to increase the compliment.
17:32
Speaker 1: But the big hurdle here is getting the bodies to apply.
17:36
Speaker 1: Whether they're going through an academy class from start or
17:38
Speaker 1: they're a lateral higher you got to have well, the
17:41
Speaker 1: dangling carrots of incentive to front officer want to move
17:43
Speaker 1: over here in the city of Cincinnati, and you pointed
17:45
Speaker 1: out a number of problems and challenges we all face
17:48
Speaker 1: in that regard. I certainly appreciate Dan Hilsey coming on
17:51
Speaker 1: the program today. It's been a great conversation. Keep up
17:53
Speaker 1: the great work, and I knew you and i'd be
17:54
Speaker 1: talking again soon. I hope take care of my friend.
17:58
Speaker 2: Looking forward to it, Brian.
17:59
Speaker 1: Take care. Six fifty six fifty five Teris City Detoxification.
18:01
Speaker 1: Congressman Warren