Brian talks to FOP Pres Ken Kober

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Areas at ten and nine.

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First one to a lot of forecasts sunny for the
most part, to become partly cloudy, and they say the
chance of storm's best chance between one keym and atm
APMs when the heat advisory ends. Today's high ninety three
and yes, the heat X is over one hundred seventy four.
Overnight low, muggy and partly cloudy. Tomorrow, pop up storms
if possible ninety two for the high. Overnight again muggy
in seventy four and a partly cloudy Friday.

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It's still hot ninety four for.

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The high and again a chance of afternoon isolated storms
seventy five.

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just above to seventy five in Sharonville. They're on the
right shoulder, Chuck Kingramont fifty five KRC, The Talk Station.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Six thirty one, The fifty five KRC The Talk Station.
Wait a minute, I thought crime was down. Welcome back
to the fifty five KRC Morning show. FOP President Ken Kober.
He is the leader of the union representing the s
Insant Police Department.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
It's good to have you back on.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
Ken Thy Good morning, Brian, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I wish we had a better subject matter to talk about,
like how crime is actually down, which is basically what
the city council the mayor have been saving for saying
for how long now? And oh look, wake up to
a new day. Too many residents are becoming victims right now.
Too many neighbors are concerned about the safety of the street,
says Mayor Aftab purvol amidst the latest crime data which
shows an upticking crime of nearly all types citywide when

(01:51):
compared to last year, particularly in over the ride in
downtown where four men coming out of Jeff Ruby's were
beaten down by a gang of roving teams as recently
as last Friday, Ken, what the hell is going on?

Speaker 4 (02:05):
Well, you know, summertimes here, it's warm out and criminals
are being criminals is about as bluntly as I can
put it.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, let us take a look quickly at what the
city is proposing by way of dealing with this. City
officials announced it what they call our new initiatives, the
Combat Crime, including a roving task force. I guess that
involves thirty officers that are moved around in different areas
wherever I suppose crime is reported. This is the problem,

(02:37):
you know, the crime happens. Officers of course show up
to try to catch the bad guy and deal with
the aftermath. But you can't unring the bell of someone
being attacked, shot, murdered, whatever the case may be. So yeah,
roving police officers of course, lateral hires.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
You and I talked about that before.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's a way to get people on the street quickly
as opposed to going through the whole training process with
new recruits. We've got some new recruit classes. Also, drones,
apparently the city of City since a police department now
has drones. I don't know how a drone helps. I
guess it helps with surveillance in a crime scene, but
does that help stop crime?

Speaker 4 (03:15):
Now? That was kind of the takeaway that I got
from it yesterday was most of what was discussed was
about reaction, was about how to catch the bad guy
after the crime's been committed.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
The drones are a.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
Very useful tool. They are especially if you have somebody
that's fleeing, yeah, to be to be able to catch them.
What I didn't hear was this is what we're going
to do to be proactive to actually catch these bad guys.
These are the policies or these are the procedures that
we're going to change so officers are unhandcuffed so they

(03:49):
can go do their jobs. That's just what I didn't
hear yesterday.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well, I understand they're going to try to work with
businesses people. I guess generally speaking, anyone who wants to
hook up the police department with surveillance cameras, if you
let the world and it's like almost like having an
officer on the corner, I would suggest ken, you know,
if everybody in the community knows that there are cameras
activated and everybody's got one these days, and they are

(04:12):
constantly monitoring the activity, ergo, if you're going to commit
a crime, you're going to be caught on video doing it,
and you're going to be more likely to be arrested
that might act as a deterrence. I know it's very
Orwellian in concept, but I at least they appreciate the
concept of trying to get people to cooperate, working with
the police and giving them access to their cameras.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
Sure, and you know, like I said, not always lost
on the things that they said yesterday. You know, this
this roving task force that they want to do. It
is a group of highly motivated officers. It's yet to
be seen how they're actually going to be deployed and
whether it's going to make a difference. But the bottom
line is, you know, these officers are going to be

(04:53):
going into this and the last time that they did this,
they were told listen out, do what you got to do,
arrest these people. And then six months later it turned around.
They're all sitting at the Citizens Complain Authority and they're
sitting at internal and many of them faced a lot
of administrative issues and many of those officers have not

(05:14):
forgotten about that. So it's yet to be seen how
this is actually going to work out and whether it's
going to truly make a difference. I hope it does,
because the citizens deserve it. They deserve to feel safe
in their own homes. They deserve to feel safe when
they come visit the city. But you know, when I
watched this press conference yesterday, it's like, Wow, I've seen

(05:35):
a lot of I've seen and I've heard a lot
of these same words from politicians in the past, and
it just seemed like it was just that it was
just words being said.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, the word parents came up. We'll talk about that
a little bit more with FOOPI Resident Kankover.

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Speaker 1 (06:42):
Fifty five car the talk station.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Buck Station Right time is here with FOP President Ken
Cober talking about crime in the city of Cincinnati and
our anointed leaders promising to do something about it. Latest
crime data they finally acknowledge yesterday the news conference the mayor,
police Chief Threes Thiji and other leaders pointing out, yes,
crime is in fact up, something they had been in

(07:05):
the state of denial over something Ken and the active
officers on duty are well aware of, and a huge
uptick over the last month or so, including over the
Rhine where there've already been five homicides this year. The
police chief pointed to repeat offending. This is a quote
from the enquiry reporting unsupervised teens and pre teens as

(07:27):
a significant source of the increase in crime. Going back
to the attack on those guys coming out of Jeff
Ruby's the other day, there was a group of eight
teenagers who beat the crap out of them, stole their
cell phone, their car, keys and stuff. Fiji said it's
not gang related, but let's face it, if you get
a group of that many teens together, I'm gonna call
it a gang. Whether it's organized, you know, like with

(07:47):
a name, or just some folks getting together on social
media promising to meet someplace and commit crime. That's a
real problem ken And how does someone deal with it?

Speaker 1 (07:56):
She says.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
City leaders calling for parents to be held accountable, Well,
there's no law on the blood that can hold a
parent accountable for what a teenager does.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
Now, you know, there's there are certain things that could
be done. I know they said they're going to look
and you know at the law department. The city can
create their own municipal codes.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
They did it.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
Years ago, you know, in the early two thousands when
they were having issues with marijuana and they created a
sincea municipal code that said possession of marijuana was a
misdemeanor the fourth degree, where the state said it was
a minor misdemeanor. They can make it more strict so
they can do those things. They can come up with law.
I don't think it's going to be something's going to
happen overnight, you know. But I've only been beating this

(08:35):
drum since early twenty twenty four about how out of
control these kids are, and it just continues. So I mean,
none of this, none of this is a surprise.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
No, it isn't.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
And obviously the parents are at the heart of solving
the problem. And you can, you know, create all the
social programs and put a pile of money together and
promise that it's going to solve the problem. But unless
you have an engaged parent who cares about where their
children are and how they're and behave and hold them
accounta well. I read a story this morning. Parents figured
out that their son was the one responsible for running

(09:06):
around town and committing break ins and of people's homes
and cars. They brought them into the police and turned
them in. We need more people like that as parents, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Without a doubt.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
I mean, how do you not know where your kids are?

Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (09:21):
To me, it's just I don't know, it doesn't make sense.
I don't know if these are parents that had these
kids and didn't want them, or if the parents are
just too busy, you know, committing their own crimes. I
don't understand how you don't know where your children are.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well, how about this, I after have purvol previously announced
additional programs as a way to combat youth crime. They
announced earlier this year they're going to expand youth events
like skating on the riverfront, open pools, and late night
activities at rec centers to curb violence. That just sounds
to me like an opportunity for all these young punks

(09:55):
who otherwise would be criminals to get together in the
same place and start fighting amongst themselves. I don't know,
it's just I'm skeptical and jaded and cynical over these
programs actually having an impact. Your your your comments and
thoughts again.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
Well, I got I got two thoughts about that. Number
one is the police officers have felt the same way.
That's why when they've tried to get them, you know,
they posted over time, you know, to staff these events
for officers, and.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
They don't want anything to do with it.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
The other part of that is the kids that are
actually going to show up to that stuff are most
likely the youth that are not really at risk anyway,
so waiting for that. So, I mean, that's so, I mean,
while I understand it, a lot of this is just
let's let's just try something and see if it works.
And the end result is, and I was dealing with
our youth services unit this this week, is they're being told, listen,

(10:44):
if you guys don't sign up for this overtime, then
we're just going to change your off days, or we're
going to cancel your off days. We're going to force
you to work it.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
You know.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
So they create these events on Friday and Saturday nights
and then they expect the police to work it when
we're already short, we're already overworked, and they're going, ah,
we'll just pile stuff on for every Friday and Saturday
night all summer and go, hey, well the police will
just go work it. Well, believe it or not, when
the police actually get a Friday or Saturday night off,
they would rather spend it with their family.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Amen, they go spend it with Trump.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
Isn't that a really important point in terms of you know,
recruiting and being understaffed and all that. I mean, everydy
fact we're going to be you're making a life choice
in a career choice when you started going to law enforcement.
If it's advertised in advance, you're gonna be working constant
overtime and you're never gonna get a Friday or Saturday
night night off.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
I'm gonna go a solid no on that as an
option for my career. Anyway.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
I do appreciate your point, though, you know, I can
see the group of teens you want to go skating
on the riverfront. No, let's go rob guys coming out
of Jeff Ruby's.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
You know.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
I mean, if those are your options, obviously the skating
is not going to be a draw for you. Here's
the other element I want to ask because you mentioned
the citizen complain authority and I kind of thought about
the follow up. If you're out there arresting people, and
I understand this is a morale problem with the police
officers because the revolving door of justice. We got all

(12:08):
these liberal and I don't know if it's the prosecutor's
department or it's the judges or a combination of both,
but they're not interested in meeting a punishment on these
young people. It's like, oh my god, they're gonna be
scarred for life. We can't, you know, convict them for anything,
because it's gonna be a up light on their record.
They're never gonna be able to get a job. But
that's that's the key element to the criminal justice system deterrence.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
You've got to.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Punish in order to bring about a reality that, yeah,
I'm gonna be thrown in that category, I better not
commit the crime or I'm gonna end up with a record.
Isn't that the point?

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Ken?

Speaker 4 (12:40):
Sure it is. And actually your chief Siege you talked
about yesterday the thirteen year old in the West End
that was adjudicated delinquent for shooting someone in northern Kentucky
in November. Jeez. And then all of a sudden, now
a week ago, the same thirteen year old is running
around the West End with a semiotic pistol. What they
say round Drum magazine. Oh my god, I don't think

(13:03):
that deterrent worked. That this is where we're at. The
kid never should have been out, and that's that is
an absolute court system blunder. The kid was actually sentenced
to be held until he was eighteen. Yeah, somehow was
released in May.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
That's why we have juvenile detentions facilities, most notably for
the ones running around with firearms committing back to violence.
I mean, who else should be in there? Ken is
there currently a curfew in effect for minors.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
Well, there is, but it's and that's one of the
things that they didn't talk about. It's not enforced. Twenty
years ago, all summer we would do curfew sweeps or
we would open up rec centers and if you were
out on the street as a juvenile, you were going
to be detained. We put you in the back of
a prisoner van, take you to a rec center. You
would be processed. They had officers there doing all the processing.

(13:55):
Would call the parentsy go come pick up your child,
or they're going to twenty twenty. That law's already there,
it's just not being utilized. It's just not you do
arrest of juvenile for curfew and try to take them
up to twenty twenty. Right now you're the juvenile detention center.
They won't even take them.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Well, that's a breakdown in this system. I mean an
obvious one state the obvious. But that that's what's the
point of having a law on the book One't that
probably be more effective than anything else preventing these gangs
of roving teenagers from assaulting and battering people. I don't
understand is there a directive within the police department from

(14:33):
the top authorities to not utilize or is it enforce
that curfew or is it just simple practical effect that
it's not worth the police officer's time because of exactly
what you said, it's not going to result in anything happening.

Speaker 4 (14:47):
Well, it's not effective when you have two officers you'll
work in downtown on a Friday or Saturday night and
then you know, you have a juvenile that you call
twenty twenty and they go, we're not taking them, So
why are you going to drive up to Mount Auburn
to take this kit up there for them to refuse them?
And now they're offered for an hour wait, yeah, parent
to come while everything else.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Is going on downtown. That's not a pretty picture. Can
cover it? Really isn't well.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
I think obviously they've addressed the issue, or at least
they purportedly addressed the issue of the understaffing. Three new
classes of at least one hundred and fifty of officers.
They're trying to do lateral hires and good luck to
them on that. Do you know how successful or can
you predict how successful they're going to be with getting
laterals in given the state of affairs in the city
on the police department generally.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
I'll be honest, I don't think they'll have any trouble
fill in a class. There's a lot of interest. You know,
a lot of officers that are already experienced come here
because we do have pretty decent pay, we do benefits,
So I think I don't there's been a lot of interest.
I don't think we're going to have any trouble of
trouble filling the class.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Well, we can leave on that positive note. Ken Let's
I'm very very happy to hear that. Again, I view
things from someone who is not a member of law
enforcement perspective, and it just doesn't sound good in downtown Cincinnati.
But I'm glad to hear that laterals won't be a problem.
Can cover FLP. President, Thank you so much for your
time today. I appreciate your insight and your thoughts and
your willingness to share your time with my listeners and

(16:14):
me here on the fifty five KRC Morning Show. And
I feel pretty confident we'll talk again, hopefully with more
good news.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
Sure, thanks for having me, Brian.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Happy to do it.

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