Latest / Brian Thomas / FOP Pres Ken Kober - CPD facing $6.6M in cuts?

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FOP Pres Ken Kober - CPD facing $6.6M in cuts? · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: Here a fifty five KRCD talk station, or a happy
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  Speaker 1: Tuesday to you, except when you're talking about the City
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  Speaker 1: of Cincinnati's budget, which is not a happy subject matter,
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  Speaker 1: with a twenty nine and a half million dollar budget
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  Speaker 1: deficit and the demands on the Cincinni Police Department increasing
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  Speaker 1: seemingly almost every single day. Thank you for returning the
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  Speaker 1: fifty five cars Morning Show to talk about the proposed
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  Speaker 1: six point six million dollar budget cut for the police department.
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  Speaker 1: FOP President Ken Kober, thank you for joining us this morning. There, Ken, here,
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  Speaker 1: your morning, Brian.
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  Speaker 2: How are you.
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  Speaker 1: I'm doing fine. I'm just scratching my head over this
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  Speaker 1: budget deficit. Apparently they can't live without federal and state dollars.
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  Speaker 1: They've been dealing with this problem for years and years
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  Speaker 1: and years. And thank god for COVID because apparently we
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  Speaker 1: would have been facing massive deficits over the past five
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  Speaker 1: or so years plugged holes thanks to COVID money. But
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Cramerting set it straightforward in the reporting. He was
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  Speaker 1: talking to Scott Wortman from the Inquire regarding this twenty
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  Speaker 1: nine and a half million dollar deficit. He said, I
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  Speaker 1: think we're looking at cuts. I think moving forward year
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  Speaker 1: after year, that will be the new reality. So looking
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  Speaker 1: on into the future, that looks like gloom and doom
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  Speaker 1: for the budget. Pivoting over yesterday, Interim police Chief Adam
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  Speaker 1: Henny's looking into cuts, talking about a six point six
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  Speaker 1: million dollar budget cut for the police department, and it
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  Speaker 1: looked to me from the reporting from Fox nineteen he's
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  Speaker 1: struggling to find places where he can cut because the
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  Speaker 1: vast majority of the budget for the police department is
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  Speaker 1: for police officers, which he suggested might include cuts of
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  Speaker 1: not filling the vacancies that exist. Can cober your reaction
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  Speaker 1: to this, please.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's not surprising. I mean, look at how Mismanag's
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  Speaker 2: money has been in this city. It does not surprise me.
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  Speaker 2: And they're right there should be cuts, but it should
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  Speaker 2: be cuts of spending, not cuts of workforce, not cuts
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  Speaker 2: of police, not fire, not public works. But until they
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  Speaker 2: decide that they're going to prioritize, you know, the things
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  Speaker 2: that are really truly important or going to continue to
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  Speaker 2: be in the same place, you know they can continue,
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  Speaker 2: like you said, throw throw more stuff on the police.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we're about one hundred officers short. Expect the
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  Speaker 2: police to be at every single thing. If you want
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  Speaker 2: those things where you're gonna have to pay for it,
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  Speaker 2: and that's the reality of it. I guess we'll see
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  Speaker 2: what decisions they decide to make, but they won't spending
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  Speaker 2: money on music venues and reparations. We probably wouldn't be
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  Speaker 2: in this position.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and I'm glad you wrote the music venue. But
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  Speaker 1: I saw the headline yesterday afternoon, like six point six
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  Speaker 1: million dollars budget cut for the police. When all of
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  Speaker 1: this is going on. Crime is a dominant topic topic
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  Speaker 1: of what's going on the city of Cincinnati, obviously, with
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  Speaker 1: the riots, the beatdowns opening day, Holly getting punched in
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  Speaker 1: the face, people getting stabbed and murdered, little children getting
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  Speaker 1: shot in parks. Everybody wants more police, it seems, and
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  Speaker 1: in fact, someone admitted it yesterday about priorities in city government,
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  Speaker 1: Seth Walsh talking to Scott Wortman, residents have rated the
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  Speaker 1: most important things for the city to spend money on roadsnow, removal,
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  Speaker 1: police and fire. There's nothing in there about the eight
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  Speaker 1: million dollars that they that the resolution last week approved
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  Speaker 1: for the new music venue over where the swimming pool
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  Speaker 1: and the river bend used to be. What in the
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  Speaker 1: hell's would that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And it just it just shows you that I
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  Speaker 2: don't think, by and large, uh, there's even any thought
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  Speaker 2: as to what the citizens actually want. That whatever they
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  Speaker 2: think is best, what they think is best, instead of going, hey,
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  Speaker 2: let me let me see what's going on. Whether you know,
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  Speaker 2: they just did this survey and they talked about those
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  Speaker 2: very things. You know, we want roads, and we want
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  Speaker 2: we want safe neighborhoods. No where does it say that
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  Speaker 2: we want a music venue out on kel called Kellogg Avenue.
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  Speaker 2: You know the eight point two million dollars that they
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  Speaker 2: just spent on protesters or what's called what they were
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  Speaker 2: rioters from twenty twenty. But yet here we are and
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  Speaker 2: their solutions that they're going to come up with is
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  Speaker 2: this is going to be a surprise to you. Well,
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  Speaker 2: we're just going to raise taxes. That way we'll have
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  Speaker 2: we'll have more income coming in. But that just means
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  Speaker 2: they're going to have more income, this on things that
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  Speaker 2: aren't priorities.
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  Speaker 1: I guess they haven't gotten the memo Ken, because I
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  Speaker 1: tell you what, every single I mean, it's almost every
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  Speaker 1: single day, if not certainly every single week. I keep
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  Speaker 1: reading about, well, Democrats trying to increase taxes and actually
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  Speaker 1: succeeding in increasing taxes, whether it's on a state or
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  Speaker 1: local level, which has the obvious effect of wake up
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  Speaker 1: people moving and leaving the high tax area. Do you
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  Speaker 1: think raising the taxes in downtown Cincinnati is going to
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  Speaker 1: result in growth or expansion or more people wanting to
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  Speaker 1: move into the city.
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  Speaker 2: Can No, of course not. And ironically enough, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I was talking last night to my adult son as
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  Speaker 2: he's getting ready to be a homeowner himself and is
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  Speaker 2: trying to figure out where should I move, Where shouldn't
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  Speaker 2: I move? I go, well, you look, first of all,
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  Speaker 2: what crime looks like in a neighborhood, and then you
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  Speaker 2: look and see what taxes are you going to pay?
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  Speaker 2: How expensive is it to live in any particular place.
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  Speaker 2: That those are things that have to be considered. And
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  Speaker 2: certainly one place that I'm not suggesting that he comes
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  Speaker 2: to live is in Cincinnati or Hamilton County for that matter,
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  Speaker 2: because taxes are just absolutely out of control, you know what.
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  Speaker 1: And it was just an article I believe it was
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  Speaker 1: in the inquire Redded Life several days ago about they
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  Speaker 1: were tracking growth in the surrounding counties and Hamilton County
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  Speaker 1: only group point six percent, while Brown and Claremont and
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  Speaker 1: Warren and the other surrounding counties all grew by sizeably
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  Speaker 1: larger margins. Duh, helping yourself.
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  Speaker 2: This isn't surprising, I know. Police.
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  Speaker 1: Hold on, Ken, we're gonna talk a little bit more
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  Speaker 1: about this insanity six point six million dollar budget cut
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  Speaker 1: for the police. I don't think so you're gonna get
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  Speaker 1: it anyway. Probably the talk station fifty five KRCD talk
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  Speaker 1: station trying to make it a happy Tuesday. Brian Thomas,
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  Speaker 1: a FOP president, Ken Kober, representing the Cincinny Police Departments Union,
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  Speaker 1: pivoting over to Chief Adam Henny, We're talking about these
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  Speaker 1: six point six million dollars in proposed cuts for the
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  Speaker 1: police department because the city's got no money either out
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  Speaker 1: that's a twenty nine point five million dollar budget deficit,
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  Speaker 1: figuring out ways they can cut across the board. Although
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  Speaker 1: they apparently at least some of the council people realize
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  Speaker 1: that the residents like the police and the fire and
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  Speaker 1: roads and snow removal, so those are the most important
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  Speaker 1: things for the residents. So why would you go after
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  Speaker 1: the cuts and why would you go after the police department,
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  Speaker 1: which is and police confirm can cover for me and
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  Speaker 1: my listening audience, you're still not operating under a full
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  Speaker 1: contingency of police officers.
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  Speaker 2: Correct, No, that's correct. I mean we're still still trying
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  Speaker 2: to get there. I do at least appreciate the fact
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  Speaker 2: that well until maybe now that has been funded, but
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  Speaker 2: it's still a struggle trying to get people to want
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  Speaker 2: to take these jobs as difficult that we're just going
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  Speaker 2: to continue pressing on until we get back to a
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  Speaker 2: full compliment with they realizes that we have an aging
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  Speaker 2: police department that's seeing retirements every day. Is at an
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  Speaker 2: officer stopped by yesterday to turn his paperwork in because
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  Speaker 2: he's retiring as well. I mean, this is every week.
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  Speaker 2: We're running into these things times, two or three people
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  Speaker 2: a week, so we're literally chasing our tail trying to
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  Speaker 2: make up for the people that are leaving. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: with these budget cuts certainly aren't going to help anything.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I saw what chief and he said, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: the reality is six and a half million dollars that
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  Speaker 2: could be in it, that could be a recruit class. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I guess we'll see what happens.
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  Speaker 1: It could be a recruit class. So two things at
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  Speaker 1: issue here. One the idea that they're they're potentially cutting
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  Speaker 1: six point six million dollars, which certainly could impact the
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  Speaker 1: cost of a recruit class. But pivoting over to the
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  Speaker 1: other point you kind of made there, I just want
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  Speaker 1: to double down on it. Getting people to want to
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  Speaker 1: become a police officer remains a challenge. So if you
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  Speaker 1: have a recruit class, filling the spots in the recruit
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  Speaker 1: class remains problematic and you can't fill them.
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  Speaker 2: Ken, Well, yeah, and now let's look at somebody, a
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  Speaker 2: potential recruit that pays attention to your news and what's
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  Speaker 2: going on in Cincinnati, and Se said, well, Budge cuts,
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  Speaker 2: and well the police chief said that we might have
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  Speaker 2: to cut recruit classes. So are you going to come
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  Speaker 2: here not knowing whether or not you're going to have
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  Speaker 2: a stable you know, stable or steady income where you
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  Speaker 2: might come here and then be laid off because because
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  Speaker 2: of budget cuts. I mean, that's only going to make
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  Speaker 2: trying to recruit people, trying to retain people that much harder.
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  Speaker 1: It certainly is. And then you know the other growing phenomenon,
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  Speaker 1: and we experienced this with Opening Day. Are these roving
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  Speaker 1: gangs of lawless youths who use you know, their their
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  Speaker 1: instant messaging and their social media profiles to promote street
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  Speaker 1: takeovers and basically events designed to ruin the lives of
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  Speaker 1: everybody who lives in a neighborhood. I have to imagine
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  Speaker 1: that dealing with those and dealing with the idea of it.
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  Speaker 1: If you're thinking about being a police officer and you
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  Speaker 1: see the future, this stuff seemingly only going to get worse.
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  Speaker 1: And who wants to deal with that kind of thing,
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  Speaker 1: especially with a city council and administration that is extraordinarily
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  Speaker 1: soft on youth crime.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, out of that, I mean, they're certainly not making
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  Speaker 2: it very appealing to want to come here, and it
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  Speaker 2: does make efforts to recruit that much more difficult. To
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  Speaker 2: tell people, hey, looks, the reality is you might have
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  Speaker 2: to deal with, you know, thousands of people gathering and
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  Speaker 2: you know, just complete disorder, and by the way, you
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  Speaker 2: might have to deal with whatevery weekend. It certainly does
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  Speaker 2: become a challenge to recruit people who want to come here.
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  Speaker 1: Well, one other point that handymade the other day interned
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  Speaker 1: police Chief Henny He suggested that the city needs to
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  Speaker 1: spend some money by investing in software, as explained by
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  Speaker 1: local media again going back to the Fox nineteen's reporting
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  Speaker 1: software that puts all the police departments technology into one
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  Speaker 1: place to make it more efficient and allow the city
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  Speaker 1: to save money over time, you know, spend money to
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  Speaker 1: save money kind of concept. Are you familiar with the
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  Speaker 1: type of tech technology he's referring to and what that
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  Speaker 1: might mean in reality?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, our records management system has been a mess forever.
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  Speaker 2: I mean as long as as long as I've been here,
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  Speaker 2: and it's only been twenty six years, but it's always
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  Speaker 2: been difficult or to try to trying to complete reports
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  Speaker 2: and doing it in systems that are just not user friendly.
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  Speaker 2: So the thought is, of course, if we make something
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  Speaker 2: that's user friendly, we have this, it's going to be
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  Speaker 2: less time than officers are going to have to spend
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  Speaker 2: doing reports and instead they can be out in the
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  Speaker 2: communities where of course the public wants them. But it's
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  Speaker 2: been a challenge forever, and I mean, who knows how
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  Speaker 2: soon it's actually going to be fixed, but it's always
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  Speaker 2: been a challenge. And then you switch from one system
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  Speaker 2: to another, while you've got to teach these cops to
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  Speaker 2: use this new system and it just becomes it just
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  Speaker 2: becomes something that is very labor intensive, frustrating for officers,
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  Speaker 2: and they've got to find a way to make the
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  Speaker 2: reporting system to where it's a lot more user friendly.
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  Speaker 1: Well on behalf of my entire listening audience, Ken Kober,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for what you're doing, not just for your
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  Speaker 1: fellow officers, but as an officer the law on the
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  Speaker 1: Cincinni Police, we truly appreciate all with Apparently the residents
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  Speaker 1: of the city of Cincinnati largely love what you're doing
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  Speaker 1: and prioritize what you the fire and the road repair
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  Speaker 1: crews are doing. So to the city of council, let's
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  Speaker 1: get your ducks in a row. Let's get your priority straight.
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  Speaker 1: Let's not cut the police department. Let's do everything we
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  Speaker 1: can to improve the reputation the police department and get
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  Speaker 1: more recruits in there. Ken Cober, God bless you, sir.
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  Speaker 1: Anytime you want come on the program. Let's talk about
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  Speaker 1: these issues. I appreciate your willingness to do it. Man.
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  Speaker 2: Sure well yeah, well, thank you not only to you,
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  Speaker 2: but your listeners as well for your support. We appreciate it.
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  Speaker 1: We've all got your back. Man. I assure you of
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  Speaker 1: that have a good one man stay safe six forty
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  Speaker 1: six that's fifty five k CE