Latest / Brian Thomas / Ken Kober - Weekend Violence

Transcript

Ken Kober - Weekend Violence · Brian Thomas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Fifty five KRC.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: The talk station seven fifty five guar see the talk
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: station reminds me of the old Cop Show days. It's
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: our fiend song for the Cop Show. Got to go
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: back to the chief striker for that one. But you
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: don't have to go that far back where Kent and Kober,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: current FOP president representing the Sincinni Police Department Union can.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: It's always a pleasure having on the program, and I
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: wish we had some real positive topics to talk about.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Welcome back, Hey.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Brian.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Real quick here, I just starting off. I don't know
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: where the FOP is, or where you are personally, or
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: if you've taken the temperature of the Sincinni Police Department
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: generally speaking. But Christopher Smithman's got the signature drive trying
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: to require city Council to have seven members vote in
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: favor of hiring or firing police chiefs and fire chiefs.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: I think the background on of that is well known
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: to you. Do you have you taken a position on that,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: because I know the signature campaign is going on right now.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Actually Monday night did or membership meet. The members
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: voted to endorse this amendment process and we've actually been
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: circulating a petition ourselves with some of our members in
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the city to try to get this past good.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Honestly, I didn't expect you to say anything different, Ken,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: It just seems like a logical thing. At least one
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: person can raise their hand up and say, hey, do
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: we have a basis to fire this person, you know,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: because clearly they've been letting people go without any foundation
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: for it, resulting in lawsuits. So anyhow, my interjection of
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: comments there, but I'm glad you're supporting it, and I'll
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: encourage people to at least get over to Jim and
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Jacks or someplace else where the petitions are being circulated
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: and sign it so the voters have an option to
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: vote one way or another on that pivoting over. I
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: guess you don't use the curfew centers a signal ninety
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: nine and reported, and of course was accused of being
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: not only a racist but a liar, that there was
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: gangs of youth or a big gang of youth running
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: amuck from Small Park all the way up to Fountain
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Square on Friday. Apparently the documents behind the scenes confirmed
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: that police were called. And I know you were quoted
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: by at least one of the new outlets, I think
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: it was Fox nineteen talking about this. But we spent
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: three hundred and eighty thousand dollars in the city did
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: for curfew centers. That's where you drop people kids that
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: have been picked up for violating a curfew, so their
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: parents can pick them up or a guardian can pick
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: them up. How come none of those were used? And
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: how come they were only used four times last year?
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Ken Well, I mean, the reality is, like Friday night
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: was a perfect example. There's two or three hundred kids
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: down there just creating chaos, and you got twenty five
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: officers to try to deal with it. We're not going
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: to take officers off the street to take these kids
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: to a curfew center. That's going to take half hour,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: forty five minutes to do this. And what is the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: end result of that. The end result is the kid
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: gets there and if he decides I'm not staying here,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: there's absoually nothing they can do about it. Really, they
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: can't force these they can't force these kids to stay here.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, these are literally these are people you know
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: that that work for the city volunteers. You can't you
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: can't make someone stay somewhere they don't want to be
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: you know. That's why we have, you know, a juvenile
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: justice system. We got a juvenile justice a detention center
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: that if we have kids that break the law, in theory,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: we would take them there. However, they refuse to take them.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: They've refused to take kids with felony warrants. So why
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: are the police going to waste their time, you know,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: and leave other officers short to deal with these crowds
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: while they're doing something that's going to make no impact.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: So putting aside the holding pens, which is what these
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: these whatever they call them, curfew centers, and focusing on
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: the juvenile Justice center. That's where people who have been
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: accused of committing a crime issued a citation for curfew
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: violations are supposed to go. And you're saying they will
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: not accept them.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: No, they won't. They won't accept juveniles that have felony warrants.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I had an officer called me last week and was
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: complaining about this and he goes, listen, he goes, I
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: stopped a kid and he had a felony warrant for
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: receiving stolen property. He was operating stolen vehicle. You have
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: to call to confirm that the warrants are good, which
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: they did. They said, okay, well i'll be I'll be
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: round with this prisoner and they said, no, don't know,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: we're not taking them. Don't even bring them here. Reunite
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: them with their with their parent, and tell them they
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: need to turn themselves in so we can give a
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: new court date.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: This is the stated policy at the Juvenile Justice Center.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, this is this is what they're doing. Like I said,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I get calls weekly from officers and they're frustration of having,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: you know, juvenile offenders that are refused for one reason
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: or another. And then, like I said, in this case,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: they're like, don't even bring them here to begin with.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: So you wonder why officers aren't going to be willing
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: to take them to the juvenile attention center or the
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: curfew center. It makes no sense. It's a waste of time,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: it's a waste of city resources to even think the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: only way that this would work is if these kids
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: were actually compliant. Well, we know that they're not compliant,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: because otherwise they wouldn't have been out after curfew to
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: begin with.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Excellent point, Ken, Well, I don't know at mere dereliction
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: of duty it's as if, I guess, whatever this directive is,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: is as if they want the entire juvenile justice program
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: to be deleted, omitted, thrown out, no juveniles will ever
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: be prosecuted for crimes. That's the only takeaway I can
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: have from that policy. Ken.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's that's been the frustration, and you know,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's always been difficult to deal with the
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: juvenile justice system. And I get it, you know, they're kids,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: But we have juveniles that aren't committing juvenile crimes, right
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: we have juveniles that are shooting and killing each other,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: and that has to be dealt with an Unfortunately, our
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: juvenile justice system was not prepared and they're still not
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: prepared to deal with these juveniles that are committing these
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: absolute heinous crimes.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Do you have a possible solution, Ken, I'm going to
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: put you on the spot, because all this seems to
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: me to be the product of a probably a poor
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: home life, or parents who are non existent and not
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: involved in the raising and upbringing, or even having a
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: concern about the children that they brought into this world.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Beyond that, I'm going to loss to know what possibly
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: could be done is by way of government solution, because
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: making and paying for curfew centers clear isn't the answer.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Can no? I mean, the answer is that these juveniles
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: that are committing the most heinous crimes, they need to
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: be held accountable. You know, we play this game of well,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: it's just a property crime. And this is the way
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: that the juvenile justice system in Hamilton County has said, listen,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: a juvenile stealing a gun, it's a property crime. This
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: isn't this isn't some big thing. We're not holding these
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: kids because it's it's not a big deal. However, what
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: we know that these kids are not collecting these firearms
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: because they have some elaborate collection of guns. They're they're
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: stealing these guns so they can go shoot each other,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: so they can rob each other. And that's what I
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: think is the biggest disconnect with the juvenile courts right
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: now is them not even recognizing that you're stolen cars
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: are the same way. They're not stealing cars because you know,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: they want to be able to drive to school. They're
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: stealing cars because they're going out and they're robbing people.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: They're breaking into businesses, they're creating other they're committing other crimes.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: This isn't just some property crime.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Let's pause, bring FOP president can cover back for a
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: couple more questions after the East brief or seven fifty
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: one if if you have KCD talk station Bright Thomas
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: with f OP President Ken Cober diving for the issues. Ken,
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: I guess I wanted to get your reaction to the
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: City of Cincinnati's budget. I've got a lot of criticism
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: in it and a lot of big swirling question marks
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: over but I was looking at the figure in terms
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: of police funding and wanted to get your reaction and
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: whether you believe it to be adequate and does it
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: address the needs of this insant police department.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean the reality is they're going to continue
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: to have us work over time. So I mean the
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: budget is what it is. I know, not one time
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: is that I'm aware of that people been denied over time,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and as long as that continues, then that's fine. But
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: they can't continue to live on an overtime budget because
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: these cops are getting burnt out and we're seeing cops
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: that are just leaving. You know that we just had
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: a couple of officers that just resigned and went to
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: other departments, and that's that's going to continue, unfortunately, to
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: be the theme until we get back to a full compliment.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: And I've actually talked to some city leaders and let's
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: say we're about a hundred short right now. Let's say
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: we get back to what our current compliment is. If
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: we get back there, I go, it's likely they're going
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: to have to increase that even more, probably an extra
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: two hundred officers to have all the events, all the
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: things that they want cops to staff. They can't just
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: continue to live by overtime.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Well, and going back to your concerns about these roving
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: gangs of youths two hundred three hundred, you can't afford
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: to send a police officer to wherever they're supposed to go,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: like the juvenile court system or even a curfew center,
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: because it puts the officers lives in peril. So I
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: get all that, and we have a growing crime problem
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: if I have, unless I've gotten wrong, Obviously, you need
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: more police officers to deal with the officers to deal
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: with a growing crime problem. Now there is money in
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: the budget for classes, recruit classes. Obviously those take time.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Are you having or is the sinsin police department having
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: any success in getting lateral hires to fill some of
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: these vacant positions.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, our last lateral class there's only eight officers two
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: of them, you know, eight eight is in single digits,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: and two of them actually recently went back to the
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: departments that they came from. Oh so that's certainly that
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: creates a challenge as well.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Oh my, and do you get a do you have
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: any idea what the reaction is from, you know, the
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: the I mean the paucity of people interested in taking
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: a job for the cincint Police Department. What is driving
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: that is that the city of Cincinnati's elected officials who
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: don't seem to have support for this police Is that
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: perhaps how the juvenile court system is run? Is it
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: lack of respect by the population of the city for
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: police officers. Why aren't officers interested in joining the CINCINNTI
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Police Department.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's a tough place to work. I mean,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: you look at this report that just came out that
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: basically insinuated that all since a police officers are racist. Yeah,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: so that that certainly has an impact on why do
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: you want to go and work for a place that
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: you're going to be subjected to these things. It's difficult,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: and Cincinnati is not unique to any other city. You know,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: if the same things go on the same you know,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: anti police bashing goes on in pretty much every major
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: city around this country, and that's unfortunate. But the only
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: way that we're actually going to get be able to
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: get back on track and to your point, is for
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: politicians to stand up and say we're going to support
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: law enforcement and to have just a societal shift of
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the police aren't the problem. It's the criminals in this
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: in this society that are the problems. And until that
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: really swings back, we're going to continue to have trouble
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: recruiting people.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Underscore exclamation point bold and all caps on that. FOP President,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Ken Cobra, I cannot thank you enough for your time,
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: your commitment to the city of Cincinnati and it's residents,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: and for the fine work that the insant police officers
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: do day in and day out. God bless each and
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: every one of you for that. And I'll look forward
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: to having you back on the show, hopefully talking about
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: some better news. Ken Covert, It's been great having you
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: here today.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Hey, Brian, Thanks, I appreciate you having me.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much seventy five right now, fifty five
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: cares