August 8, 2025 • 13 mins
Willie talks with Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey about what the Sheriff's department is doing to help the city of Cincinnati and her reaction to the brawl.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the county. She's been in office now about six
or seven years, been in law enforcement about thirty to
thirty five years. Endorsed by yours truly and also by
Simon L. Lease when she ran for sheriff. And it's
on or have her with me again and Charmaine McGuffey, Sheriff,
welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show and Sheriff. I've
received some pictures in some video of Hamley County Deputy
Sheriff's in uniform seemingly making your rest in downtown Cincinnati
(00:24):
off campus that is, away from the courthouse. Can you
tell the American people what's happening with the Sheriff's office
making a rest in the city of Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah. Sure, and thanks Bill for having me on. You know,
we have extended our campus, so we have a county
campus that is a boundary around the courthouse and County building,
and that courthouse, that Court Street corridor that extends all
the way up to Ray Street is what we have
(00:55):
claimed is our county campus. It's just an extended part
of it. It reaches over to the public Library and
over to Central Parkway, so you know we are there.
We're a uniform presence, and we are acting as we
do as the police, as law enforcement. So I'm not
(01:18):
surprised that someone seeing us making the rest and uh,
you know we are helping out. Uh. We certainly stepped
up to an ask, and uh, you know, we want
to we want to make the streets safer for everyone,
and we've been very successful in the last couple of days.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
And Sheriff McGuffey, was this request by a chief of
police Fiji or someone else or was there not a request?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
No, there was a request because we want to Look,
we want to play well with others, right, we want
to respect people's boundaries and different policing agencies boundaries. We
work well with all the police agencies in Hanilton County
and it was a request Era, you know, talk to
me a bit, and we decided that if we extend
the county campus there, that would be a natural progression
(02:09):
for us. And you know, it's a it's a help
because I do know that Cincinnati police officers they're working hard,
they're out there, they're they're making arrests also and so forth.
But look, there's just not enough of us to go around,
and so we are helping out in that way, and
we have made arrests. We've made several several arrests so far.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Is this at the cost of Sycamore Township or Green
Township or Columbia? Is this a subtraction edition reallocation because
if I live in a township and I see the
township not covered because the sheriff's departments downtown, is that
at the cost of some other jurisdiction.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
No. In fact, you know, Bill, what we did is
we sat down. You know, I have some of the
brightest minds in the criminal justice arena sitting at my table,
and my captains, majors and so forth. We sat down
and we crafted a plan that is funded by the
city because we are within the city limits. And we
(03:11):
also made this plan something that would not pull from
our regular patrols that the township's sponsor and fund and
so forth. So this is a special duty that we
have posted, and there are officers who have agreed to
help out, and it's really much more of an overtime
(03:32):
basis than it is anything else. And thereby we're able to,
you know, increase our numbers because our officers are you know,
they don't like, they don't like watching some of the
things that go on that have gone on in this
arena that are just simply lawlessness. And we know we
can help. We know we can make a difference, and
(03:54):
the city is helping to fund that.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Is there room and the justice center? You've told me
before that the justice center or the jail is essentially
a large mental hospital, that there's a lot of those
who should be in some other mental facility. Is there
room in the Hamlet County jail for twenty thirty fifty
one hundred more criminals to be housed there? Do you
have the room in the jail.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
We certainly do have the room in the jail. And
I'm going to say this to every person who lives
in Hamilton County. I'll make room in the jail. You know,
there are lots of ways. I've run that jail for many, many,
many years, and I understand how jails work. I understand
what happens when we get overcrowded. I understand what to
do when there's overcrowding in ways to continue to treat
(04:39):
people well, continue to house and incursery people in good
environments even though we're overcrowded. If it comes to that,
we're not overcrowded. We have room, and we're going to
make room because look, you know, if you don't have
law and order, what do you have. Really? I mean
(04:59):
every and I do mean everybody in Hamilton County, race, creed, color,
political origin doesn't matter. They all want to live in
safe neighborhoods. They want to know that they can put
their kids out into the yard to let them play
and things like that without you know, having to sit
there and worry whether they're going to come back. For
(05:21):
God's sake, so you know, I think we're all on board.
Many many, many people are on board in Hamilton County
and we're doing it the right way. Bill. Here's the
other thing. I brought the Mental Health Board to the table,
Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health to the table, the addiction services
to the table, homeless organizations to the table because they
(05:43):
are helping us. You know, we need them in this arena.
When we do arrest people, or even when we don't,
there are ways that we can drop them off. We
can drop people off who are experiencing crisis and people
that will take care of them. So we've been very
respond possible in our efforts here.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Sheriff McGuffey. You're a lifelong Cincinnati and went to University
of Cincinnati, started at the workhouse thirty five forty years ago,
A long time ago. Hey, And when you travel the
nation and you talk to your compatriots around the Buckeye
State as a law enforcement official, are you offended by
what happened two weeks ago?
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I am? I absolutely am, And you know I'm going
to feel much like everyone else. And again, this crosses
racial lines. This isn't something that Hey, you know, you're
of a certain you know, black or white, and this
is the side you need to land on. Hold on
a minute. Okay, I'm not in charge of who gets
(06:45):
arrested in that arena. I'm not. My investigators aren't investigating
it and so forth. But you know, I think Chief
Fiji is correct when she says when people act badly.
Now they're deciding because they have the investigators as to
what really went on. But I can tell you that
there were people who acted badly black and white. Okay,
(07:07):
I mean, I'm just going to say it out. And
you know, when you have a situation like that, the
best thing to do is get the police there in
the most timely manner. You can, you know, and that
means asking people to call nine to one one, right,
You've got to give us a chance to intervene in
a horrific situation like that. Nobody wants to see that,
(07:30):
nobody wants to be involved in it. And as you
saw on some of the video, there were black men
who were trying to diffuse that situation. They they were
trying to corral people and say, hey, let's just move
on and just you know, let's let this go. So
I'd just like people to take in the entire picture
(07:51):
when we.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Look at that. I have a text here from a
noted Cincinnati and who said the last two three four years,
things have gotten worse, not better. Do you have a
sense that things are worse than they are today? Was
this a singular event or was this a culmination of
things happening all over town that maybe the police are overwhelmed,
maybe they don't have the right facilities, whatever it might be.
(08:13):
Do you have a sense things are getting better, getting
worse or about the same.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I can tell you right now from this point on,
they're going to get better. I can tell you that.
But I can also tell you that, yes, what I've
seen in the criminal justice system as a whole. In
I don't mean to say just one police department, et cetera.
What I've seen is a little bit of I think
(08:38):
the boundaries have gotten a little blurry there, honestly, and
I think we need to. I think we need to,
you know, call it in some and say, look, guys,
and it is and that's exactly what we're going to do.
Things are going to get better. I promise you that,
And that is exactly what law enforcement leaders do.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Chief Thiji. You talked about the legal system and the
fact that just for somebody getting a four hundred dollars
cash bond when you got a previous criminal record. I
don't know how you get to the judges. That's difficult. Heck,
I'm married to one, but nonetheless it is hard to
get to the judges. Is that part of the difficulty.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Well, i'd tell you what has to happen in this arena.
And I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, and I certainly
don't want anyone targeting judges. That is absolutely out of bounds.
But what I will tell you is we all need
to come to the table, and that is something that
needs to happen on a regular basis, and I think
then with dialogue understanding you know, all sides of the issue,
(09:39):
I think we're going to have a much better outcome.
And I do have meetings scheduled, you know, not necessarily
with all the judges. I can't tell a judge what
to do. I don't think anyone should be able to.
But I can invite them to the table, and I
believe many of them will come because they have input too.
You know, there owned by certain legal boundaries as well,
(10:02):
and I think the public needs to understand what those are. So,
you know, as we start the conversations and get the
criminal justice system working, and that's EMU, that's probation, that's judges,
that's the jail, that's law enforcement. I mean, there are
so many arms out there, and we will we'll bring
(10:25):
this situation to bear and it's going to get better.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Lastly, Sheriff McGuffey, when you had your conversations with the
mayor to purevoal, was there a time limit to this?
Can you do it indefinitely or is it just for
the next time until til September or October.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well, I tell you I always I always like to
do things in a very increment way. And by that
I mean, you know, we've created this as a pilot, right,
so we can see where some of the gaps might be,
we can work out some of the kings, and then
we're going to come back to the table in a
couple months here, in a month or so, and we're
(11:04):
going to continue to look at that and say, Okay,
what worked well, what didn't? What do we want to continue?
So I can promise you we're going to have a
continued collaboration with the brave men and women from Cincinnati
Police Department. And you know we appreciate them a great deal.
Everyone should, and you know we're all in it.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Together, all hands on deck. Sheriff McGuffey, once again, thanks
for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. And I think
all of us pulling the same direction is the best
way to go. But Sheriff, thank you very much and
you continue to have a great afternoon. Thank you, Yes, sir,
thank you, God bless you. Let's continue with more, Sheriff McGuffey.
News Radio seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
HI.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I'm Rocky Woman from the Eddie and Rocky Show with
a special poem just for you. If you missed part
of our show and you now feel like crap. You
can always hear the podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Billy Cunning in the Great American from my friends, my
buddies at McKinley Mortgage. I've been using McKinley Mortgage myself
and my family now for about twenty five years with
great success, and you should too. How about getting all
your debts under one particular mortgage wrap around in which
that payment largely is tax deductible. McKinley Mortgage is an
expert at getting your financial house in order and getting
(12:23):
customers approved that were turned down by other banks or lenders.
McKinley and Paul Luck and the staff took the time
not only to improve their credit score, but also secondly
to get those loans placed. And when you close your loan,
you get to skip a payment or two of those
moneys go directly in your pocket. And if you're a
first time home buyer, as many are, how about getting
down payment help through McKinley Mortgage. McKinley is first time
(12:46):
buyer down payment assistance and do not fall behind any
of your payments. Called McKinley Mortgage now within a five
or ten minute telephone call. They'll let you know whether
they can help or not, and the answer normally is yes.
My family and I've used them for about twenty five years,
Ohio and Kentucky number to call. It all begins with
a simple telephone call McKinley Mortgage five one, three, seven
(13:06):
nine one twenty seven hundred or Bestler Rates dot com.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
The stuff you should Know.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Guys have made their own summer playlists of their Musclessen
podcasts on movies. It's me Josh, and I'd like to
welcome you to
In the county. She's been in office now about six
or seven years, been in law enforcement about thirty to
thirty five years. Endorsed by yours truly and also by
Simon L. Lease when she ran for sheriff. And it's
on or have her with me again and Charmaine McGuffey, Sheriff,
welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show and Sheriff. I've
received some pictures in some video of Hamley County Deputy
Sheriff's in uniform seemingly making your rest in downtown Cincinnati
(00:24):
off campus that is, away from the courthouse. Can you
tell the American people what's happening with the Sheriff's office
making a rest in the city of Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah. Sure, and thanks Bill for having me on. You know,
we have extended our campus, so we have a county
campus that is a boundary around the courthouse and County building,
and that courthouse, that Court Street corridor that extends all
the way up to Ray Street is what we have
(00:55):
claimed is our county campus. It's just an extended part
of it. It reaches over to the public Library and
over to Central Parkway, so you know we are there.
We're a uniform presence, and we are acting as we
do as the police, as law enforcement. So I'm not
(01:18):
surprised that someone seeing us making the rest and uh,
you know we are helping out. Uh. We certainly stepped
up to an ask, and uh, you know, we want
to we want to make the streets safer for everyone,
and we've been very successful in the last couple of days.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
And Sheriff McGuffey, was this request by a chief of
police Fiji or someone else or was there not a request?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
No, there was a request because we want to Look,
we want to play well with others, right, we want
to respect people's boundaries and different policing agencies boundaries. We
work well with all the police agencies in Hanilton County
and it was a request Era, you know, talk to
me a bit, and we decided that if we extend
the county campus there, that would be a natural progression
(02:09):
for us. And you know, it's a it's a help
because I do know that Cincinnati police officers they're working hard,
they're out there, they're they're making arrests also and so forth.
But look, there's just not enough of us to go around,
and so we are helping out in that way, and
we have made arrests. We've made several several arrests so far.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Is this at the cost of Sycamore Township or Green
Township or Columbia? Is this a subtraction edition reallocation because
if I live in a township and I see the
township not covered because the sheriff's departments downtown, is that
at the cost of some other jurisdiction.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
No. In fact, you know, Bill, what we did is
we sat down. You know, I have some of the
brightest minds in the criminal justice arena sitting at my table,
and my captains, majors and so forth. We sat down
and we crafted a plan that is funded by the
city because we are within the city limits. And we
(03:11):
also made this plan something that would not pull from
our regular patrols that the township's sponsor and fund and
so forth. So this is a special duty that we
have posted, and there are officers who have agreed to
help out, and it's really much more of an overtime
(03:32):
basis than it is anything else. And thereby we're able to,
you know, increase our numbers because our officers are you know,
they don't like, they don't like watching some of the
things that go on that have gone on in this
arena that are just simply lawlessness. And we know we
can help. We know we can make a difference, and
(03:54):
the city is helping to fund that.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Is there room and the justice center? You've told me
before that the justice center or the jail is essentially
a large mental hospital, that there's a lot of those
who should be in some other mental facility. Is there
room in the Hamlet County jail for twenty thirty fifty
one hundred more criminals to be housed there? Do you
have the room in the jail.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
We certainly do have the room in the jail. And
I'm going to say this to every person who lives
in Hamilton County. I'll make room in the jail. You know,
there are lots of ways. I've run that jail for many, many,
many years, and I understand how jails work. I understand
what happens when we get overcrowded. I understand what to
do when there's overcrowding in ways to continue to treat
(04:39):
people well, continue to house and incursery people in good
environments even though we're overcrowded. If it comes to that,
we're not overcrowded. We have room, and we're going to
make room because look, you know, if you don't have
law and order, what do you have. Really? I mean
(04:59):
every and I do mean everybody in Hamilton County, race, creed, color,
political origin doesn't matter. They all want to live in
safe neighborhoods. They want to know that they can put
their kids out into the yard to let them play
and things like that without you know, having to sit
there and worry whether they're going to come back. For
(05:21):
God's sake, so you know, I think we're all on board.
Many many, many people are on board in Hamilton County
and we're doing it the right way. Bill. Here's the
other thing. I brought the Mental Health Board to the table,
Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health to the table, the addiction services
to the table, homeless organizations to the table because they
(05:43):
are helping us. You know, we need them in this arena.
When we do arrest people, or even when we don't,
there are ways that we can drop them off. We
can drop people off who are experiencing crisis and people
that will take care of them. So we've been very
respond possible in our efforts here.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Sheriff McGuffey. You're a lifelong Cincinnati and went to University
of Cincinnati, started at the workhouse thirty five forty years ago,
A long time ago. Hey, And when you travel the
nation and you talk to your compatriots around the Buckeye
State as a law enforcement official, are you offended by
what happened two weeks ago?
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I am? I absolutely am, And you know I'm going
to feel much like everyone else. And again, this crosses
racial lines. This isn't something that Hey, you know, you're
of a certain you know, black or white, and this
is the side you need to land on. Hold on
a minute. Okay, I'm not in charge of who gets
(06:45):
arrested in that arena. I'm not. My investigators aren't investigating
it and so forth. But you know, I think Chief
Fiji is correct when she says when people act badly.
Now they're deciding because they have the investigators as to
what really went on. But I can tell you that
there were people who acted badly black and white. Okay,
(07:07):
I mean, I'm just going to say it out. And
you know, when you have a situation like that, the
best thing to do is get the police there in
the most timely manner. You can, you know, and that
means asking people to call nine to one one, right,
You've got to give us a chance to intervene in
a horrific situation like that. Nobody wants to see that,
(07:30):
nobody wants to be involved in it. And as you
saw on some of the video, there were black men
who were trying to diffuse that situation. They they were
trying to corral people and say, hey, let's just move
on and just you know, let's let this go. So
I'd just like people to take in the entire picture
(07:51):
when we.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Look at that. I have a text here from a
noted Cincinnati and who said the last two three four years,
things have gotten worse, not better. Do you have a
sense that things are worse than they are today? Was
this a singular event or was this a culmination of
things happening all over town that maybe the police are overwhelmed,
maybe they don't have the right facilities, whatever it might be.
(08:13):
Do you have a sense things are getting better, getting
worse or about the same.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I can tell you right now from this point on,
they're going to get better. I can tell you that.
But I can also tell you that, yes, what I've
seen in the criminal justice system as a whole. In
I don't mean to say just one police department, et cetera.
What I've seen is a little bit of I think
(08:38):
the boundaries have gotten a little blurry there, honestly, and
I think we need to. I think we need to,
you know, call it in some and say, look, guys,
and it is and that's exactly what we're going to do.
Things are going to get better. I promise you that,
And that is exactly what law enforcement leaders do.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Chief Thiji. You talked about the legal system and the
fact that just for somebody getting a four hundred dollars
cash bond when you got a previous criminal record. I
don't know how you get to the judges. That's difficult. Heck,
I'm married to one, but nonetheless it is hard to
get to the judges. Is that part of the difficulty.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Well, i'd tell you what has to happen in this arena.
And I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, and I certainly
don't want anyone targeting judges. That is absolutely out of bounds.
But what I will tell you is we all need
to come to the table, and that is something that
needs to happen on a regular basis, and I think
then with dialogue understanding you know, all sides of the issue,
(09:39):
I think we're going to have a much better outcome.
And I do have meetings scheduled, you know, not necessarily
with all the judges. I can't tell a judge what
to do. I don't think anyone should be able to.
But I can invite them to the table, and I
believe many of them will come because they have input too.
You know, there owned by certain legal boundaries as well,
(10:02):
and I think the public needs to understand what those are. So,
you know, as we start the conversations and get the
criminal justice system working, and that's EMU, that's probation, that's judges,
that's the jail, that's law enforcement. I mean, there are
so many arms out there, and we will we'll bring
(10:25):
this situation to bear and it's going to get better.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Lastly, Sheriff McGuffey, when you had your conversations with the
mayor to purevoal, was there a time limit to this?
Can you do it indefinitely or is it just for
the next time until til September or October.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well, I tell you I always I always like to
do things in a very increment way. And by that
I mean, you know, we've created this as a pilot, right,
so we can see where some of the gaps might be,
we can work out some of the kings, and then
we're going to come back to the table in a
couple months here, in a month or so, and we're
(11:04):
going to continue to look at that and say, Okay,
what worked well, what didn't? What do we want to continue?
So I can promise you we're going to have a
continued collaboration with the brave men and women from Cincinnati
Police Department. And you know we appreciate them a great deal.
Everyone should, and you know we're all in it.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Together, all hands on deck. Sheriff McGuffey, once again, thanks
for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. And I think
all of us pulling the same direction is the best
way to go. But Sheriff, thank you very much and
you continue to have a great afternoon. Thank you, Yes, sir,
thank you, God bless you. Let's continue with more, Sheriff McGuffey.
News Radio seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
HI.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I'm Rocky Woman from the Eddie and Rocky Show with
a special poem just for you. If you missed part
of our show and you now feel like crap. You
can always hear the podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Billy Cunning in the Great American from my friends, my
buddies at McKinley Mortgage. I've been using McKinley Mortgage myself
and my family now for about twenty five years with
great success, and you should too. How about getting all
your debts under one particular mortgage wrap around in which
that payment largely is tax deductible. McKinley Mortgage is an
expert at getting your financial house in order and getting
(12:23):
customers approved that were turned down by other banks or lenders.
McKinley and Paul Luck and the staff took the time
not only to improve their credit score, but also secondly
to get those loans placed. And when you close your loan,
you get to skip a payment or two of those
moneys go directly in your pocket. And if you're a
first time home buyer, as many are, how about getting
down payment help through McKinley Mortgage. McKinley is first time
(12:46):
buyer down payment assistance and do not fall behind any
of your payments. Called McKinley Mortgage now within a five
or ten minute telephone call. They'll let you know whether
they can help or not, and the answer normally is yes.
My family and I've used them for about twenty five years,
Ohio and Kentucky number to call. It all begins with
a simple telephone call McKinley Mortgage five one, three, seven
(13:06):
nine one twenty seven hundred or Bestler Rates dot com.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
The stuff you should Know.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Guys have made their own summer playlists of their Musclessen
podcasts on movies. It's me Josh, and I'd like to
welcome you to
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