Latest / Brian Thomas / Chief Scott Hughes - Violence in Cincinnati

Transcript

Chief Scott Hughes - Violence in Cincinnati · Brian Thomas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Considering the eleven year old got gunned down in a
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: playground and since he's West End just before seven pm
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: should never have happened. There is no justification for this.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: And to join the program. Who has got some comments
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of his own, the Hamilton Township Police Chief Scott Hughes. Scott,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I saw your post the other day and I'm glad
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to have you on the program this morning. Welcome sir,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and happy New year to you.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Glad to be back, Brian, Happy New Year to you
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: too well.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Christopher obviously very passionate about his criticism of the administration
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: in downtown Cincinnati, and I know the residents of the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: West End had been promised some cameras and some lighting
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: in this area for a couple of years. Only last
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: summer did they get one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: financial allocation to do that. And yet, of course here
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: we are standing today they have never been put in.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: But that's not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: as from I understand it, officers are stretched way too thin.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, Brian. This has happened at large cities all
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: across the country. I've had a couple of folks reach
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: out to me inside the city of Cincinnati as an example,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: and you know they're they're telling me that you've got
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: three police officers showing up for a roll call. Uh.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: And some of the busiest districts in Cincinnati, you've got
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: you've got robberies that are occurring, and they don't have
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: enough police officers to establish perimeters. You try to catch
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: these bad actors after they commit these crimes, and you know, uh,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: preventative excuse me, we can we can prevent crimes by
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: being visible, right, you know, I was using analogy, Using analogy,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: what happens when you're driving up the highway and you
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: see a police car sitting in the turnaround in the
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: middle of the highway. You slow down?
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Its determin right, Yes, I know that.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, think about it. Right. As soon
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: as you do, you slam on the brakes and everybody
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: slows down, and then you know that, and then they
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: resume after they passed the police car. Imagine if we
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: have police officers visible and in these locations. This eleve
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: year old kid is not dead, right, it's just it's
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: just something not going to happen. But when you've got
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: three officers shown up to roll call, uh, and they're
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: going call to call to call, and then when it
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: do get calls, they don't have enough people to handle
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: the calls. That is a recipe for disaster and unfortunately
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: then the end up in situations like this. So this
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: has happened all across this country.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Well, Chief Hughes, we have obviously known about the lack
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: of police officers or the limited number. Our contingent is
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: still way below where it's supposed to be, and maybe
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: where it's supposed to be isn't even quite enough. The solution,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: obviously is to hire more police officers, lateral hires, of course,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: new police classes. That does take time. But if the
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: administration had the will, if you had a pro policing administration,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: one that understands exactly what you're talking about, more police
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: equals less crime, how quickly could we replace the contingent
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: of police officers? I mean, isn't that a logistical hurdle?
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: It's almost insurmountable these days with all the criticism of
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: law enforcement generally, Yeah.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: You know it sure is, and that is a big
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: driving factor. You've gotten morales, it's just absolutely crushed and a
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: lot of these organizations and these these men and women
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: out up there in these uniforms are doing what a
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: buddy of mine calls the hardest job in America, and
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: they are doing it with pride and honor, and they well,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: they are willing to risk their lives for people that
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: they've never met. But when when you're when you have
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: locality locations that are demonizing law enforcement, they're not supporting,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: they're not given the resources that they need. It makes
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: a job be more challenging. And you know, I'm up
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: here in Warren County, we don't have those recruitment issues
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: because we are in a pro police uh location. Case
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: in point, there was a I'm sure you saw in
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: the news this weekend. They had a high speed chase
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: that came through Warren County. Multiple jurisdictions involved, and jurisdictions
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: up here took proactive approaches in that pursuit and take
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: these two individuals who are not from Warren County as
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: minunderstanding into custody and they will be held accountable up
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: here in Warren County. And it's just it's just amazing
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: to me the difference when you cross county lines and
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: in some places state law is just the difference in
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: what's tolerant and what's not and where you have recruitment
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: issues and where you don't have recruitment issues.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Well, I think part of the recruitment issue problem could
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: be solved if the administration was more outspoken in favor
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: of police. The silence from the city is just deafening
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: when it comes to law enforcement and support of them.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: And you know, having Iris Rolie say what you want
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: about Iris Rollie, but she is not a friend of
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: the police department. She's been paying six hundred plus thousand
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: dollars years under contract. Is a you know, sort of
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: a subcontractor employee of the city. You're not an employee
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: of the city, but a subcontractor, so she's free of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: all these nepotism rules and everything. But because of her
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: very prominent position and her close connection with f tab
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Provo and the Vice mayor, that sends a message just
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: in and of itself that's the city is not pro police,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: and that to me would be a big step in
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the right direction. Maybe get rid of her your thoughts.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm not familiar with her in particular down
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: there in the city, but I can tell you based
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: on what I've read and what i'm hearing, there's no
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: doubt that that's impact the morale, it's impacting the mental
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: women who are out there doing this job. It's certainly
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: going to cause hesitation. We have to be able to
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: proactively go after these these low level offenses. We know
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: there's a there's a ferry called broken windows policing to
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: target low up You know, if you target these low
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: level offenders, that's going to prevent these bigger cases from occurring.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: But again, when you don't have enough officers out there
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: to make the traffic stops, to stop and have conversations
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: with people in the corners because they're going from call
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: to call a call again, it's just this recipe for disaster.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: In like unfortunately we had a couple of days ago,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: you have eleven year olds who are now victims because
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: the police officer's hands are tied, often by not their
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: own doing.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: One can only pray that the murder of that eleven
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: year old is a straw that finally breaks the camel's
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: back of this anti police rhetoric that comes out of
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: our elected officials. Can only pray to God that we
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: get more police and you know, maybe the answer is
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: offering them more money. Scott, that's one dangling carrot. That's
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: certainly in the arsenal of options.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Isn't it. You know, those guys and galas down there,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: they certainly are not ever going to be paid enough.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: That is certainly going to help incentivize this. But I
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: think more important than that is they have to have
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: the support politically, knowing that if they make a decision,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: it's going to be supported all it's right, not wrong,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: good not bad. People are going to protect them. They're
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: going to have their back. They've got to be outspoken.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: They got to be in front of us supporting these
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: men and women when they're involved in these situations. That's
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: how you That's, in my opinion, that's how you improve it.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Amen. And I tell you what I know, the members
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: of the Cincinna Police Department truly appreciate your support. Hamilton
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Township Police Chief Scott Hughes. Keep up the words of support, sir,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and you're always welcome here in the morning show to
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: comment on matters law enforcement. Happy new year to you
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and appreciate your support of law enforcement. Of running a
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: really tight ship there, my friend. Apparently a lot better
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: environment for law enforcement than it is in the city.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate it, Brian again, happy to your thoughts
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: and prayers of the family.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Eleven year old exactly, Thank you Scott, he's been a pleasure.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Seven fifty seven. Right now brother Andre Ewing, brother Dre
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: in studio he'll be talking about crime.