July 30, 2025 • 18 mins
Willie talks with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine about the funeral of a fallen officer in Lorain, Ohio, and the violence problem in Cincinnati.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
My Billy Cunningham, the Great America. And of course our
governor has been attending the services for a fallen police
officer in northern Ohio, but he's kind enough to accept
our call now. And Governor Mike DeWine, welcome to the
Bill Cunningham Show. And first of all, Governor, it was
a deep sadness at the passing of a police officer
(00:21):
in the Cleveland area. And you tend at the funeral
this morning, is that correct?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well? I did, Bill. This is so very very sad.
Phil Wagner a police officer Lorraine City Police Department, married,
got a five year old, three year old and I
think a three month old. You know, he served in Afghanistan,
had a tour over there in the Marines, came back
(00:49):
and you know, wanted to continue serving the public. And
so it's just a horrible tragedy. He was really ambushed.
He and two other officers were all hit and you know,
so one of the officers there there today, two of
them actually there today at the funeral. You know, they
(01:10):
were all hit and he did not survive. So just
very very sad. It just reminds us how you know,
the job of a police officer is today, and you
know he was. They were targeted because they were police.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Officers, right, just like in New York City last night.
This is a deep tragedies were disrespect for cops. But
on the issue what's happening in Cincinnati, you're more or
less a great Reds fan. You live in Green County
and you have connections here, of course, and what's happening
in River City right now is really unspeakable. We're going
(01:47):
to have twenty thousand shots fired in the city this year,
We're going to have about twenty five thousand and thirty
thousand crimes committed. We're gonna have four hundred people wounded,
maybe up to one hundred murdered. And the city's in crisis.
And what can you tell us about what you can
do and what your conversation has been with the mayor.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, Bill, you know, just kind of set this up
for everybody. Ohio is unique in the sense that we
don't have a state police. We have a highway patrol.
They have limited juridiction, which means that we can come
in and help, We can come in and back up
the local police. Now, we have put kind of a
(02:30):
since I became governor we've put a kind of a
package together and we've gone where we've been asked to
go with our cities. For example, we've done this in
Cleveland several different times. We've done it in Tledo, We've
done it in Dayton, we've done it Youngstown, doing Springfield
and what we can do and this is what I
(02:52):
called the mayor this morning and you know, kind of
laid out what we can do and he said yes
that he would like some you know, kind of back
up help. And so we're going to do this. But
let me just quickly outline what this is.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
One is you know, the Highway Control comes in and
we do a do a real data analysis of where
you know, where that where that crime is. So everything
is data driven. Uh. And I'm sure that you know
Cincinnati has data as well, but you know that's where
we always start. Uh. And then then you know, we
bring in the highway patrol again to work with the
(03:34):
police department. You know, this is hand in glove working
very very closely with the men and women of Blue
in Blue in Cincinnati. And we've worked with them, you know,
we've worked with them before on different different things, and
and the cooperation is always very very good. So you
know it's amazing. You know what you can find just
(03:56):
on traffic stops and you know you have a reason
to pull the guy over. It maybe they run him
and this guy has got a you known, outstanding warrant.
Uh maybe you know he's on parole. So you know,
we work very very close. The everything that we can
do and we're going to do here is is you know,
(04:17):
put the helicopter up in the air. These helicopters are amazing.
I was up in one a few months ago in Cleveland,
one of ours when we were doing one of these
programs like I'm describing here, and you know, it's it's
got the visual that you can just you can almost see,
you know, you can almost read the license plate and
sometimes you can read the license plate and you just
(04:38):
and what you know, you're pulling someone over. And these
guys are many times dangerous. So what you don't want
is a high speed chase. And so we can eliminate
a lot of those. And by having that helicopter just
follow that car once we know we're going to after
that car, working with the police department on the ground,
it can make it a big difference. So having that
(05:01):
up on the up there. You know a lot of
these individuals, as you and I have talked before, Bill,
have records, you know, they should you know, one of
one of the people, uh you know involved in Cincinnati
is you have reported you know it shouldn't have been out. No,
really he was out on bond. But really bond. I
(05:22):
think it was only four hundred dollars equivalent four hundred dollars,
so he's he was out, but he you know, he
had the possession of a stolen gun. So not like
this never just should should be out. But there are
there are a lot of people like that that are
out there, and so you really go you target those
those individuals. Uh. We can also do some of the
cover work. We bring in other departments.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
We're bringing our liquor control folks uh and and they
can do some things frankly around liquor establishments. Uh. And
they're pretty good at uh you know, spawning people who
have guns and they're going in to a liquor place.
We bring in the parole officers. Again, some of these people,
(06:06):
uh you know, who are involved in this violent crime
frankly are on parole and we can just yank them.
So it's a kind of a holistic approach. We go in,
you know, working with very very closely with the local
police department in this case would be Cincinnati. Uh. And
so that's what I offered the mayor. And you know,
(06:26):
he said, that's that's great. Uh. So we're already, you know,
working to be in touch with the with the chief
and with the police department. And look, we don't you know,
we don't say that we can solve all these problems. Uh,
but we can help. And that's that's what our job is,
is to try to help when it's city uh is
having having a situation uh, like you know, like what
(06:47):
we're seeing in in in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And Governor, did you have a sense that a f
Ted Pureval knows the seriousness of this situation and you
reached out to him, not vice versa. And of course
do you have a sense from your conversation with Mayor
Pureval he understands the cities in deep trouble.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Well, I don't want to quote him, but I mean,
is he conned absolutely? I mean that was very clear
in the conversation. Uh. He didn't use those terms, but
you know, look, he's he's the mayor he's concerned, and uh, uh,
you know, we reached out to say, this is what
we can provide. This is kind of the package we
can do, and you know, we we can come in
(07:28):
and help, and that's that's what we really want to do.
And again, you know, we're all in this together, Bill.
I mean, as you say, you know, I was the
Rich Grave Monday night and I had three my grandkids there,
and so you know, even those of us who live
an hour away from Cincinnati were in Cincinnati a lot
and uh, you know Bengals game, you know, or or
(07:51):
or the Reds game, or or some festival. I mean,
we're you know, we spend a lot of time in Cincinnati,
and a lot of people outside of Cincinnati do, which
is great. No.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Secondly want Secondly, your friend Nuke Gingrich and Bill Clinton.
Some thirty years ago, there was such so much crime
happening in cities, they agreed to hire one hundred thousand
more cops, paid for by the Feds. Have you considered
over the next two to three years, there's probably one
thy twelve hundred cops need to be hired in five
major cities. Cincinnati's two hundred cops short. Would you consider
(08:22):
a program through the state of Ohio to fund police officers.
When I talked to Ken Kober, Dan Hills, etc. They
tell you, we're overwhelmed, undermanned, we need help. We're two
hunderd cops short. Would you consider have the state of
Ohio paid for three to five years to hire a
couple hundred more cops so that there's some safety returning
to the city. Does that make sense to you?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Exactly, Bill, We have done that. We took a lot
of the frankly, the COVID money that came in from
the fellow government, we went directly to the police departments.
We did with a significant amount amount of money. The
main way that we can help is, you know, for example,
we can do more running of the traffic, which would
(09:05):
free up more of the local officers to focus on
other things. You know, that's the easiest way to do
that and to free them up. But we're always looking
for ways to support the police, and we're going to
continue to do that. It does go back to something
that you and I talked about, have talked about time
(09:26):
and time again. The most important thing we can do
any place in Ohio is target violent repeat of thunders.
Literally target them do it legally, but target them, go
after them, lock them up and keep them locked up.
I mean one of the things that we have done
for local police departments, and this was really a help
(09:49):
to the mid size cities. Let's Springfield's alimas example for example.
You know, we've given them more ability to correctly the
machines as you know that you you can take a
gun or you can take the casings and put that
information in and the database in the national database, state database,
(10:09):
national database. And some of the police departments didn't have
that equipment to do it at all. And that's one
of the best way again to target a violent offender.
I mean this guy, for example, the one guy at
least we know we I don't know about the other ones,
but one guy, you know, the guy should have been
locked up. I mean, so again, more information, more data,
(10:31):
more science, more following where that data takes you. All
that is helpful is police departments take on on the
crime problem.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Another issue. About a month ago, the chief of police,
THEJI who's well intended, put together something called the Street
Crime Task Force, targeting the most violent of the violent,
and one of those was Merriweather, thirty four years old
and it's dangerous when you have a felon in possession
of guns, his professional arm robbery in order to do
(11:07):
what they had to do to arrest him. And they
arrested Merriweather and Judge Mallory lets him out on a
four hundred dollars bond immediately he gets He said that,
in fact, that Merriweather dude two weeks ago, is out
before the paperwork was done. And so what do you
do with judges to do this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Well, I'm not going to get into that bill, but
they run for election, so all judges do. Hey, I'm
sitting here with Ben souver who has long law enforcement background.
He is with me when I was the attorney general.
Now he's the number two person in public safety. But
I want him to tell you, and very quickly you
(11:45):
and your listeners about what else we can do in
regard to intelligence. I haven't talked about that or what
we call oek. Let's do it. Hello again, it's Ben Souverer.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
The governor has made a lot of investments into law
per One of those investments is the intelligence area, and
and he created the Ohio.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
And Narcotics Intelligence Center.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
We were statewide in fact, We are based out of
the Blue Ash as one of our locations, and those
folks are working every day to work with law enforcement,
to include since Santi Pede, to identify those that are
trafficking harmful drugs story communities.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
But in many cases.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
There is a direct correlation between drugs and violent crime,
and that's a resource the government governors invested in the
in the state, and that's another resource that we think
would be helpful in the fight here a.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Ben, are you currently working with CPD in the Mayor's
office or is this something perspective in the future. Currently,
are you doing this in the city.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
The The OIK probably has present cases with Sincantia. I
can't speak to those cases, but they are active in
Hamilton County and surrounding counties to include Cin Santi Pede.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Thank you, Thank you very much. Let me talk to
governor one more time. Thanks all right, find out the governor.
Two other things. When there's a big event like the
Kentucky Derby. Uh, you'll have National Guard from Kentucky standing
on street corners. Uh, look in uniform, looking tough, but
they have no arrest powers, but they back it up.
Have you considered the National Guard in Cincinnati for some
(13:24):
of these events when the city's overwhelmed, like it was
with the music festival.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Bill, we can always bring in the in the guard
what we what we normally do. There's there's a layer
to this, uh, and you know, you start with the
local PD. We went through this in Columbus. You started
the local PD. You can bring the patrol in, uh,
you know, with permission of the local police, and the
patrol can have a function there too, And ultimately you
(13:51):
could you would go to the National Guard. But you know,
I think you have to layer this and do it
one one step, one step at a time. But the
National Guard is not not trained right to do you know, this,
particularly this type of work. They do have some police training,
certainly some of them are police officers, but this is
(14:14):
not the way that the Guard is usually you know,
is usually deployed. So uh, it's it's a tool that
we have. We've called the Guard out when we think
we need it. We certainly called the Guard out anytime
uh a police agency has asked us, you know to
do this, we will do this. But UH, the focus primarily,
the first line beyond the local police is the highway patrol.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
When your conversations to the peer of all as the
National Guard come up, because like in California, Karen Bass
didn't request it, but the President put it in any
way because things are out of control? Is peer of
all opening the idea of you calling in the National Guard?
Would you do it without his permission?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
We had no, We had no no discussion about that,
uh at all. No, I just didn't come up. Now.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Lastly, about about the Intel thing in Central o Hi.
There's some reporting that the Intel may pull that project
in Central Ohio. What can you tell us about that?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I don't think that's gonna happen. Uh. You know, I
had the chance to talk to the new CEO of
I guess about five or six seven days ago, uh,
and had had a good conversation. He look, he's optimistic.
They have already put seven or eight billion, that's a
b billion dollars into the ground. Uh. And so they're
(15:37):
not going anywhere. There will be ships made there. Uh.
You know what he what he is facing is uh.
You know, he's got to be the salesman out there
selling these ships and finding you know, who wants who
wants to buy these particular chips or or how that
will how that will work, and that certainly is beyond me.
But he was optimistic. Uh, he said, look forward to
(15:59):
you know, talking you in person. He says, maybe you
come out and see me, or he said, I'll come
into Ohile sometimes. So they're not going anywhere. They're going
slower than we would have liked. But frankly, when we
made the deal, we knew that it was it was
you know, we weren't sure how fast they were going
to go. They told us what they wanted to do,
what they hoped to do. They've not been able to,
(16:20):
you know, go as fast as they wanted to go,
nor as fast as we want them to go. But
you know, again there's if you go out there, you
can see that they're not moving any place. They got
a lot invested out there, all right.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Lastly, getting back to this issue of the day, I
made a note Highway Patrol data help work with CPD
helicopters in the air to supplement and help the drones Highway.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Patrol liquor control liquor prole officers in and because all
of this is related, Bill, and it all so often,
almost in all cases comes back to guns. It is
it is these criminals who you know, Bill, when somebody
convicted of a vile offense to sey of Ohio, they're
not allowed to have a gun anymore. And so all
(17:05):
you have to do if you pick them up and
they got a gun, you know, is manag's worth samsing
they need to go away.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Well, why didn't Merriweather? How do you get a four
hundred dollars bond from Judge Mallory? Four hundred dollars?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I don't know, Bill, an armed robber with a.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Gun, and he says said, go go.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
You're asking the wrong person, Bill, yet I don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
All right, Well, we'll see what happens down the road.
But I'm glad you had a conversation with the mayor.
Is hopefully he'll come back at some point and see
what happens. But all right, Governor Mike Dwaine, thanks for
coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Thank you, Governor. All right,
talk with you there we go. All right, At least
helps being sought. At least the governor could speak with
(17:44):
the mayor, which is something none of us can do
because he's parts unknown. And hopefully at some point the
mayor will come back and understand that being an empty
suit is not real valuable to the citizens at this point,
and there will be an alternative, by the way, and
no number in three months from now to change. But
nothing is changes until you change it. If you're a voter,
(18:05):
nothing's going to change. Empty suit is too kind a
word to describe the behavior of AFT Apuaval. It is
too kind, and incompetent is too kind of word and
adjective to use about share along the city manager. Hell,
she couldn't run North College Hill ran that into the ground,
And that was a resume builder to run the city
of Cincinnati. Are you kidding me? Let's continue with more
(18:29):
the line becomes available five one, three, seven, four, nine,
seven thousand. River City is in trouble. Bill Cunningham with
you every day. You're home of the Reds. News Radio
seven hundred WW
My Billy Cunningham, the Great America. And of course our
governor has been attending the services for a fallen police
officer in northern Ohio, but he's kind enough to accept
our call now. And Governor Mike DeWine, welcome to the
Bill Cunningham Show. And first of all, Governor, it was
a deep sadness at the passing of a police officer
(00:21):
in the Cleveland area. And you tend at the funeral
this morning, is that correct?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well? I did, Bill. This is so very very sad.
Phil Wagner a police officer Lorraine City Police Department, married,
got a five year old, three year old and I
think a three month old. You know, he served in Afghanistan,
had a tour over there in the Marines, came back
(00:49):
and you know, wanted to continue serving the public. And
so it's just a horrible tragedy. He was really ambushed.
He and two other officers were all hit and you know,
so one of the officers there there today, two of
them actually there today at the funeral. You know, they
(01:10):
were all hit and he did not survive. So just
very very sad. It just reminds us how you know,
the job of a police officer is today, and you
know he was. They were targeted because they were police.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Officers, right, just like in New York City last night.
This is a deep tragedies were disrespect for cops. But
on the issue what's happening in Cincinnati, you're more or
less a great Reds fan. You live in Green County
and you have connections here, of course, and what's happening
in River City right now is really unspeakable. We're going
(01:47):
to have twenty thousand shots fired in the city this year,
We're going to have about twenty five thousand and thirty
thousand crimes committed. We're gonna have four hundred people wounded,
maybe up to one hundred murdered. And the city's in crisis.
And what can you tell us about what you can
do and what your conversation has been with the mayor.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, Bill, you know, just kind of set this up
for everybody. Ohio is unique in the sense that we
don't have a state police. We have a highway patrol.
They have limited juridiction, which means that we can come
in and help, We can come in and back up
the local police. Now, we have put kind of a
(02:30):
since I became governor we've put a kind of a
package together and we've gone where we've been asked to
go with our cities. For example, we've done this in
Cleveland several different times. We've done it in Tledo, We've
done it in Dayton, we've done it Youngstown, doing Springfield
and what we can do and this is what I
(02:52):
called the mayor this morning and you know, kind of
laid out what we can do and he said yes
that he would like some you know, kind of back
up help. And so we're going to do this. But
let me just quickly outline what this is.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
One is you know, the Highway Control comes in and
we do a do a real data analysis of where
you know, where that where that crime is. So everything
is data driven. Uh. And I'm sure that you know
Cincinnati has data as well, but you know that's where
we always start. Uh. And then then you know, we
bring in the highway patrol again to work with the
(03:34):
police department. You know, this is hand in glove working
very very closely with the men and women of Blue
in Blue in Cincinnati. And we've worked with them, you know,
we've worked with them before on different different things, and
and the cooperation is always very very good. So you
know it's amazing. You know what you can find just
(03:56):
on traffic stops and you know you have a reason
to pull the guy over. It maybe they run him
and this guy has got a you known, outstanding warrant.
Uh maybe you know he's on parole. So you know,
we work very very close. The everything that we can
do and we're going to do here is is you know,
(04:17):
put the helicopter up in the air. These helicopters are amazing.
I was up in one a few months ago in Cleveland,
one of ours when we were doing one of these
programs like I'm describing here, and you know, it's it's
got the visual that you can just you can almost see,
you know, you can almost read the license plate and
sometimes you can read the license plate and you just
(04:38):
and what you know, you're pulling someone over. And these
guys are many times dangerous. So what you don't want
is a high speed chase. And so we can eliminate
a lot of those. And by having that helicopter just
follow that car once we know we're going to after
that car, working with the police department on the ground,
it can make it a big difference. So having that
(05:01):
up on the up there. You know a lot of
these individuals, as you and I have talked before, Bill,
have records, you know, they should you know, one of
one of the people, uh you know involved in Cincinnati
is you have reported you know it shouldn't have been out. No,
really he was out on bond. But really bond. I
(05:22):
think it was only four hundred dollars equivalent four hundred dollars,
so he's he was out, but he you know, he
had the possession of a stolen gun. So not like
this never just should should be out. But there are
there are a lot of people like that that are
out there, and so you really go you target those
those individuals. Uh. We can also do some of the
cover work. We bring in other departments.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
We're bringing our liquor control folks uh and and they
can do some things frankly around liquor establishments. Uh. And
they're pretty good at uh you know, spawning people who
have guns and they're going in to a liquor place.
We bring in the parole officers. Again, some of these people,
(06:06):
uh you know, who are involved in this violent crime
frankly are on parole and we can just yank them.
So it's a kind of a holistic approach. We go in,
you know, working with very very closely with the local
police department in this case would be Cincinnati. Uh. And
so that's what I offered the mayor. And you know,
(06:26):
he said, that's that's great. Uh. So we're already, you know,
working to be in touch with the with the chief
and with the police department. And look, we don't you know,
we don't say that we can solve all these problems. Uh,
but we can help. And that's that's what our job is,
is to try to help when it's city uh is
having having a situation uh, like you know, like what
(06:47):
we're seeing in in in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And Governor, did you have a sense that a f
Ted Pureval knows the seriousness of this situation and you
reached out to him, not vice versa. And of course
do you have a sense from your conversation with Mayor
Pureval he understands the cities in deep trouble.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Well, I don't want to quote him, but I mean,
is he conned absolutely? I mean that was very clear
in the conversation. Uh. He didn't use those terms, but
you know, look, he's he's the mayor he's concerned, and uh, uh,
you know, we reached out to say, this is what
we can provide. This is kind of the package we
can do, and you know, we we can come in
(07:28):
and help, and that's that's what we really want to do.
And again, you know, we're all in this together, Bill.
I mean, as you say, you know, I was the
Rich Grave Monday night and I had three my grandkids there,
and so you know, even those of us who live
an hour away from Cincinnati were in Cincinnati a lot
and uh, you know Bengals game, you know, or or
(07:51):
or the Reds game, or or some festival. I mean,
we're you know, we spend a lot of time in Cincinnati,
and a lot of people outside of Cincinnati do, which
is great. No.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Secondly want Secondly, your friend Nuke Gingrich and Bill Clinton.
Some thirty years ago, there was such so much crime
happening in cities, they agreed to hire one hundred thousand
more cops, paid for by the Feds. Have you considered
over the next two to three years, there's probably one
thy twelve hundred cops need to be hired in five
major cities. Cincinnati's two hundred cops short. Would you consider
(08:22):
a program through the state of Ohio to fund police officers.
When I talked to Ken Kober, Dan Hills, etc. They
tell you, we're overwhelmed, undermanned, we need help. We're two
hunderd cops short. Would you consider have the state of
Ohio paid for three to five years to hire a
couple hundred more cops so that there's some safety returning
to the city. Does that make sense to you?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Exactly, Bill, We have done that. We took a lot
of the frankly, the COVID money that came in from
the fellow government, we went directly to the police departments.
We did with a significant amount amount of money. The
main way that we can help is, you know, for example,
we can do more running of the traffic, which would
(09:05):
free up more of the local officers to focus on
other things. You know, that's the easiest way to do
that and to free them up. But we're always looking
for ways to support the police, and we're going to
continue to do that. It does go back to something
that you and I talked about, have talked about time
(09:26):
and time again. The most important thing we can do
any place in Ohio is target violent repeat of thunders.
Literally target them do it legally, but target them, go
after them, lock them up and keep them locked up.
I mean one of the things that we have done
for local police departments, and this was really a help
(09:49):
to the mid size cities. Let's Springfield's alimas example for example.
You know, we've given them more ability to correctly the
machines as you know that you you can take a
gun or you can take the casings and put that
information in and the database in the national database, state database,
(10:09):
national database. And some of the police departments didn't have
that equipment to do it at all. And that's one
of the best way again to target a violent offender.
I mean this guy, for example, the one guy at
least we know we I don't know about the other ones,
but one guy, you know, the guy should have been
locked up. I mean, so again, more information, more data,
(10:31):
more science, more following where that data takes you. All
that is helpful is police departments take on on the
crime problem.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Another issue. About a month ago, the chief of police,
THEJI who's well intended, put together something called the Street
Crime Task Force, targeting the most violent of the violent,
and one of those was Merriweather, thirty four years old
and it's dangerous when you have a felon in possession
of guns, his professional arm robbery in order to do
(11:07):
what they had to do to arrest him. And they
arrested Merriweather and Judge Mallory lets him out on a
four hundred dollars bond immediately he gets He said that,
in fact, that Merriweather dude two weeks ago, is out
before the paperwork was done. And so what do you
do with judges to do this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Well, I'm not going to get into that bill, but
they run for election, so all judges do. Hey, I'm
sitting here with Ben souver who has long law enforcement background.
He is with me when I was the attorney general.
Now he's the number two person in public safety. But
I want him to tell you, and very quickly you
(11:45):
and your listeners about what else we can do in
regard to intelligence. I haven't talked about that or what
we call oek. Let's do it. Hello again, it's Ben Souverer.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
The governor has made a lot of investments into law
per One of those investments is the intelligence area, and
and he created the Ohio.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
And Narcotics Intelligence Center.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
We were statewide in fact, We are based out of
the Blue Ash as one of our locations, and those
folks are working every day to work with law enforcement,
to include since Santi Pede, to identify those that are
trafficking harmful drugs story communities.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
But in many cases.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
There is a direct correlation between drugs and violent crime,
and that's a resource the government governors invested in the
in the state, and that's another resource that we think
would be helpful in the fight here a.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Ben, are you currently working with CPD in the Mayor's
office or is this something perspective in the future. Currently,
are you doing this in the city.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
The The OIK probably has present cases with Sincantia. I
can't speak to those cases, but they are active in
Hamilton County and surrounding counties to include Cin Santi Pede.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Thank you, Thank you very much. Let me talk to
governor one more time. Thanks all right, find out the governor.
Two other things. When there's a big event like the
Kentucky Derby. Uh, you'll have National Guard from Kentucky standing
on street corners. Uh, look in uniform, looking tough, but
they have no arrest powers, but they back it up.
Have you considered the National Guard in Cincinnati for some
(13:24):
of these events when the city's overwhelmed, like it was
with the music festival.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Bill, we can always bring in the in the guard
what we what we normally do. There's there's a layer
to this, uh, and you know, you start with the
local PD. We went through this in Columbus. You started
the local PD. You can bring the patrol in, uh,
you know, with permission of the local police, and the
patrol can have a function there too, And ultimately you
(13:51):
could you would go to the National Guard. But you know,
I think you have to layer this and do it
one one step, one step at a time. But the
National Guard is not not trained right to do you know, this,
particularly this type of work. They do have some police training,
certainly some of them are police officers, but this is
(14:14):
not the way that the Guard is usually you know,
is usually deployed. So uh, it's it's a tool that
we have. We've called the Guard out when we think
we need it. We certainly called the Guard out anytime
uh a police agency has asked us, you know to
do this, we will do this. But UH, the focus primarily,
the first line beyond the local police is the highway patrol.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
When your conversations to the peer of all as the
National Guard come up, because like in California, Karen Bass
didn't request it, but the President put it in any
way because things are out of control? Is peer of
all opening the idea of you calling in the National Guard?
Would you do it without his permission?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
We had no, We had no no discussion about that,
uh at all. No, I just didn't come up. Now.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Lastly, about about the Intel thing in Central o Hi.
There's some reporting that the Intel may pull that project
in Central Ohio. What can you tell us about that?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I don't think that's gonna happen. Uh. You know, I
had the chance to talk to the new CEO of
I guess about five or six seven days ago, uh,
and had had a good conversation. He look, he's optimistic.
They have already put seven or eight billion, that's a
b billion dollars into the ground. Uh. And so they're
(15:37):
not going anywhere. There will be ships made there. Uh.
You know what he what he is facing is uh.
You know, he's got to be the salesman out there
selling these ships and finding you know, who wants who
wants to buy these particular chips or or how that
will how that will work, and that certainly is beyond me.
But he was optimistic. Uh, he said, look forward to
(15:59):
you know, talking you in person. He says, maybe you
come out and see me, or he said, I'll come
into Ohile sometimes. So they're not going anywhere. They're going
slower than we would have liked. But frankly, when we
made the deal, we knew that it was it was
you know, we weren't sure how fast they were going
to go. They told us what they wanted to do,
what they hoped to do. They've not been able to,
(16:20):
you know, go as fast as they wanted to go,
nor as fast as we want them to go. But
you know, again there's if you go out there, you
can see that they're not moving any place. They got
a lot invested out there, all right.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Lastly, getting back to this issue of the day, I
made a note Highway Patrol data help work with CPD
helicopters in the air to supplement and help the drones Highway.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Patrol liquor control liquor prole officers in and because all
of this is related, Bill, and it all so often,
almost in all cases comes back to guns. It is
it is these criminals who you know, Bill, when somebody
convicted of a vile offense to sey of Ohio, they're
not allowed to have a gun anymore. And so all
(17:05):
you have to do if you pick them up and
they got a gun, you know, is manag's worth samsing
they need to go away.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Well, why didn't Merriweather? How do you get a four
hundred dollars bond from Judge Mallory? Four hundred dollars?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I don't know, Bill, an armed robber with a.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Gun, and he says said, go go.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
You're asking the wrong person, Bill, yet I don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
All right, Well, we'll see what happens down the road.
But I'm glad you had a conversation with the mayor.
Is hopefully he'll come back at some point and see
what happens. But all right, Governor Mike Dwaine, thanks for
coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Thank you, Governor. All right,
talk with you there we go. All right, At least
helps being sought. At least the governor could speak with
(17:44):
the mayor, which is something none of us can do
because he's parts unknown. And hopefully at some point the
mayor will come back and understand that being an empty
suit is not real valuable to the citizens at this point,
and there will be an alternative, by the way, and
no number in three months from now to change. But
nothing is changes until you change it. If you're a voter,
(18:05):
nothing's going to change. Empty suit is too kind a
word to describe the behavior of AFT Apuaval. It is
too kind, and incompetent is too kind of word and
adjective to use about share along the city manager. Hell,
she couldn't run North College Hill ran that into the ground,
And that was a resume builder to run the city
of Cincinnati. Are you kidding me? Let's continue with more
(18:29):
the line becomes available five one, three, seven, four, nine,
seven thousand. River City is in trouble. Bill Cunningham with
you every day. You're home of the Reds. News Radio
seven hundred WW
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