November 20, 2025 • 16 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's six point thirty one fifty about fair CD talk station.
A very happy Friday EU to you. Welcome back to
the fifty five case morning. She always enjoy hearing from
FOP President Ken Cover. That of course is Chapter sixty
nine FOP representing the Cincinni Police Department. Ken, It's always
pleasure having you on the show. Welcome back, my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey, good morning, Brian, Happy Friday.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Happy Friday Eve. Yeah. David Ferrara, reporting for The enquire
says the Cincinnati City of Cincinnati's now spending forty one
million dollars to obtain some new technology, all of which
comes from this company called Axon, which is the company
that started it started by manufacturing tasers, but apparently has
expanded its options to body cameras, drones, virtual reality training headsets,
(00:42):
and then a cloud based platform that this company operates itself,
where all of the data collected from this technology the
police officers have is stored basically under their corporate umbrella.
I'm going just first start by did you see the
reporting on this. Is there anything that you use the
police department generally object x two where things is unnecessary
or do you view this infusion of cash and technology
(01:04):
as a positive thing, Ken.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
And honestly, I think it's positive. Actually, I was out
in Scottsdale at Axon's headquarters a couple of weeks ago.
They invited forty FOP leaders from around the country to
kind of it was just a forum to go over
the current technology. I don't know where they're planning ongoing
future technology, and I'm telling you advance some of this
(01:27):
stuff that they're creating is absolutely phenomenal. The CEO is
the one that put us on awesome guy who's geared
around making police jobs easier and safer.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Now you've got me intrigued. Can you just give us
a little thumbnail sketch of what might be coming down
the road from this company. I'm wildly curious.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah. So there's a lot of things that they want
to do. A lot of it's AI based to be
able to make cops jobs easier, like body cameras. You know,
there's technology already out there, and one of them they
showed a video where if if you're familiar with like
Google Translate with different languages, yeah, they have it on
body cameras. Oh so if you're talking, yeah, and actually
(02:09):
we're going to be getting that I'm understanding very soon
in the near future. I came back from this conference,
met with some leadership and they're like, yeah, this is coming.
So a video that they showed us from New Mexico
where an officer was dealing with somebody that had committed
a crime. He was Russian, literally puts a couple buttons.
It indicates on the body camera that you're now in Russian.
(02:30):
You speak in English. It spits it out to the
guy in Russian. Guys, here's it. He listens to it,
he responds, and then it translates from Russian to English
right back to you, and it does it an any
language in America or in the world.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
That that is cool. And you know, obviously, you know,
say what you want about the illegal immigrant problem we
have coming in. I mean documented that people from countries
all over the globe, multiple different languages flowing on in.
That is that's an amazing development right there.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah. Absolutely, Like I said, those are those are some
of the things that that they're trying to create. And
like I said that the CEO of this company, he's
driven based off of trying to reduce police involved shootings
and if he can do that, like one of the ways.
They have a new taser that we're going to get.
I know is in that report this taser ten and
(03:21):
it's these tasers have been pretty effective, you know. But
his goal, and he told us in the next like
five years, is to have these tasers where they're like
ninety nine percent effectively. Is. I know, I'm not going
to prevent all police shootings. Is, but we've done statistics
and where we've seen that there have been police shootings
where a taser was deployed and it failed and then
(03:43):
the end result was a police involved shooting. He is,
if I can, if I can keep that from happening.
He's like, obviously, if a god pulls out a gun
and he points out you, you're going to have to
do a ship. You can protect yourself. But if you
have somebody that's that's experiencing a mental crisis and they're
just standing in their front yard with a knife, and
an officer is able to find cover, you know, whether
they're behind a car or whatever else safely deploy a
(04:05):
taser to be able to take them into custody without
having to kill them. Although they do have the right
to protect themselves up to including deadly force. But if
they can prevent that. That's good for everybody. It's good
for society, it's good for cops, it's good for everybody.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, in the new design tasers, do they provide additional range?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Is that? Yes? Absolutely? Yeah, the taser ten Now that
like I said that the police department's going to be
getting here at the beginning of twenty six they will
shoot up to almost fifty feet wow.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, and presently is what more like ten feet?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
They're up to about twenty five feet roughly now. But
I mean just said just the whole design a lot
of things. It actually makes it safer for the person
that's being tasted because they've changed some of the internal technology.
So there's a lot of things that this company is
doing that is serving the And I know I saw
the article you know about how they have a corner
(05:02):
on the market, and yeah, if other companies want to
come up with stuff, I bet are just as good
that police department should buy it.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Keed. I just I thought that was rather comical. The
one person. Companies like ix On are very interested in
getting their customers and then keeping them. This will make
the effort it takes the transfer a different platform of
offload information so that customers don't try to do that. Well,
no kidding, welcome to capitalism. Yes, of course they want
to retain their customers. So what you're the boiled down
(05:29):
version of what I'm hearing is there is nothing wrong
with this Axon company. They're not evil in the farious
They're doing good for the people. And who can argue
with a less deadly form of dealing with someone who
represents a significant harm to the community. This is not
something that Iris Roll is going to come out and
scream about. This is something that someone like her has
to embrace. Ken Cover, we got more technology to talk about.
(05:50):
Plus the meeting today, Hamilton County Sheriff Charmei mcuffey emerging
from her cave to talk about how safe it is
in the city of Cincinnati. Get your comments on that
as well more with FOP president in Ken Cobra first speak.
You know, it's not Tech Friday, it's fopew President Ken
Kober Thursday talking about the new technology the Cincinnati The
City of Cincinnati spending forty one million dollars on over
the next several years access to the company providing the technology.
(06:13):
They apparently have not a monopoly so much, but they
are the leader in providing technology for law enforcement. Is
can explain altruistic designed to save lives. That's what they're
all about. And they are the largest provider of this
type of equipment. Ken Cobra, I got to ask you
because apparently we're buying and already have acquired some drones.
Then to enquire crunch the numbers and they estimate for
(06:35):
if you care, they come out to be about sixty
two thousand dollars apiece. But they're also maintenance fees and
stuff like that. But in the final analysis, I guess
I'm kind of curious how the city is Cincinnati, the
police department rather utilizes the drone technology. I mean, there's
I envision, you know, sort of an Orwellian reality where
these things are flying around all the time everywhere. But
then I'm thinking, well, there aren't enough people really monitor
(06:56):
what the drones are viewing. So how does law enforcem
we utilize drone technology to the citizens advantage.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So the number one way that they use them outside
of like patrol, and I'll get to that is during
like swat situations. We've been using them for years, right
where instead of sending officers in, you know, if you
have a standoff in a building, they'll send a drone
in makes perfect which makes a hope, It makes absolutely
makes perfect sense, not only is to protecting the officers,
(07:25):
but as protecting someone there, especially if they're armed, then
they're able to see that in real time. And then
obviously the drone. Through the drone, they can communicate if
there's somebody in the building that's armed with a gun,
they can start giving them commands to drop the gun,
drop the gun. Once they finally drop the gun, they
can then give them commands to come to any door,
lay down whatever they want them to do. That way,
(07:46):
the officers can safely go in there and apprehend them
so nobody gets hurt. The way they're using them on
a daily basis are specific radio runs, you know, so
they're not just like flying around like you know, just
just waiting for some them to happen. You know, if
they get a specific radio run where an officer goes, hey,
a drone would be useful, you know, whether it's you know,
(08:07):
a fight in progress, you know, at a specific location,
they could say, let's send a drone and see what's
going on. Maybe there's no fight. If there's no fight,
then we don't need to worry about sending officers that
are on the ground to go there. They can be
focused towards other things interesting. But they also they also
use them. They'll use them flight a gun run. You know.
They get a description of a male wearing a purple
(08:28):
shirt at at third and Main Street, they can fly
a drone there find out first of all, is there
a mail with a purple shirt standing there? And number
two does he have a gun? And if he does, well,
then let's see how we can coordinate this effort. That way,
we can do this the safest way possible.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Well, I imagine they also have to be they'll arrive
on the scene probably a lot quicker than some officer
that's being dispatched from what District three or something has
got to drive halfway across town to get to the
actual scene. As the description says, these docks where the
drones are going to be stored are placed all across
the city. So is there one remote drone operation center
(09:05):
that could deploy a drone immediately and then have it
arrive at the scene even before the officers get.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
There without a doubt? You know? But not only that,
it's like, you know, they're they're subject to being recalled
if there's not a current drone operator working and they
need one for something. All they need is an Internet
connection and they could fly a drone from anywhere. Oh wow.
So if they're at home and they go, hey, we
need a drone right now, they could go log into
(09:31):
a computer and they could have a drone in the
air going somewhere within a matter of minutes. Wow. Which
is it's incredible technology. That is Certainly it's going to
make officers a whole lot safer, which certainly is why
I'm the biggest proponent of this. But it's also going
to keep the community safer as well. When you look
at having to apprehend violent people that may be armed.
(09:52):
It's just a safer way of doing things. And it's
it's the future of policing, whether we like it or not.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
And I'm glad you put that on the tail end,
because you know what I love about this is for
everything you pointed out, it's better for the officers, it's
better for us safer communities, but it also is a
orwell in reality that we are being video cameraed and
all the time. It's something we're all going to have
to guests get used to Ken Cobra pause. Apparently Charmee
mcuffey and others are going to be having a meeting today,
including the interim police chief, talk about how low the
(10:19):
crime rate is in the city of Cincinnati. Will get
your insights and thoughts about this upcoming meeting. One more
with FOP President Kencober after cover Sincy. What's six fifty
fifth about KARCD talk station Very Happy Thursday s Last
Friday EVU Brian Thomas with FOP President Cancober represented the
Cincinni's Police Department and doing a great job, and I
(10:40):
appreciate your willingness to come on the program to talk
about these vital issues. And of course over the summer
we had the July twenty six beat down. No one
forgets that it sort of set off alarm bells. Of course,
in the aftermath of Sarah Herringer getting her husband stabbed
to death in their over the Rhine apartment, we've got
a real problem with crime in the city. Everyone's screaming
about crime in the city and mayor have to have
provol After well years if not months, of saying there
(11:01):
is no problem with crime, finally acknowledge there is and
decided to move in a different direction with law enforcement,
taking the state up on some of the offers of
resources like the state patrols, and changing how law enforcement
operates downtown. They're going to have a press conference day,
Haven't and Kenny Sheriff Charmey McGuffey, Interim Police Chief Adam Henney,
and State Patrol Colonel Charles Jones are going to be
(11:22):
talking about this. Ken Cobert, is your perception that crime
is down since those turbulent months over the summertime?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Well yeah, I mean, obviously as soon as we go
into a colder weather, things do seem to calm down.
But you know, one of the things that I was
told yesterday from an officer that was happening to be
off duty up on Shortvine last Thursday night, it said,
you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a cop.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
And when that happens, they had the state patrol there,
they had the city there. When you start doing those
things and you flood areas with law enforcement, of crime's
gonna go down. I mean, that's just that's common sense.
That's what the horse have been trying to beat for
the last year and a half. Now, Well, hiring more officers.
Find they have to find creative ways to hire officers quicker,
(12:12):
but they have to be qualified officers, but hire them quicker,
and that just is yet to be done. But yeah,
I mean, we're seeing it that it's crime will be
reduced when you have a bigger presence. That's why they
have cops on Fountain Square every day.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
It just seems so like, no kidding, what do we
do to reduce crime. Let's put more cops out there,
a police presence. Wow, that'll work. Okay, not exactly revolutionary,
can but at least they're trying to do that now.
Whereas I guess police up until a moment and time ago,
were perceived as some soul somehow, I don't know, triggering
for residents of certain communities, like the presence of a
(12:45):
police officer, we're going to cause people to break down emotionally.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Well. And the reality is if you have that just
that presence is likely going to avoid having to take
any enforcement exactly no. And if one knucklehead wants to
act up, then you deal with that person, and everybody
else around sees them and goes I don't want to
go to jail today. I think I'll just not break
the law while the cops are around. I mean, it's
pretty simple concept.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Okay, back to the topic of well, the solution of
the problem more officers, more officer presence. We are down.
We are still down a couple of one hundred. Can
am I accurate on that? And the number is still dropping?
Are more people in the drop program or were people
taking early retirement?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Where are we on that? We are getting dangerously close
to being under nine hundred again, you know, with a
complement of almost one thousand and sixty, so I mean
we're pushing one hundred and sixty short. We're facing sixty
to eighty retirements a year, and the problem is we're
only hiring about fifty five a year. And I get
it with the we can only have one recruit class year.
(13:45):
I mean, the reality is our academy staff doesn't have
the means nor the space to be able to run
more than one recruit class at a time. So they
really have to start thinking about, you know, thinking outside
the box in unconventional ways new officers, and there are
ways out there, there are things that have been discussed
so far, none of it's been done, So I'm certainly
(14:07):
hoping that maybe here in the future they'll start listening
and find a way to get more people in the door,
especially when they see that if you have these extra cops,
you know, these things will calm down, crime will start
to go down if you have more of a presence.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Well, you have two options, new classes or lateral hires.
So let's real quick with the new classes, if you
could do more than one annually, let's say they had
unlimited training resources, would there be enough competent, warm bodies
that would sign up to want to join the classes.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I think you would, because what we're seeing now is
we have there are people going through like you see
Claremont has a police academy, Butler Tech has a police academy,
and they're filling their classes. And these are people that
are paying to go to these classes, and they're paying
upwards of ten thousand dollars, you know, to be certified
as police officers. Well, why can't the city of Cincinnati
(15:02):
be capitalizing on those folks?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Good point, excellent point. Insofar as lateral hires, since we're
almost out of time, you're in competition literally with every
other city that is looking for police officers, and you know,
going to a lower crime area. Maybe worth sacrificing a
bit of compensation. What is the biggest impediment to getting
lateral hires to choose the city of Cincinnati versus really
literally anyplace else.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Well, what we saw over the summer was was City
Hall and the things that were being said from City
Hall and the perceived lack of support. Let's be honest,
it wasn't perceived, it was just actual that constant believe
they're being supported because quite honestly, they weren't being forced
to sign charges on somebody they weren't comfortable doing. Who
would want to subject themselves to that. You know, we
(15:45):
have a new city council with the same mayor. Hopefully
their teams change, we can get that support back. I mean,
I look forward to working with them. Hopefully that comes
to fruition and you know, maybe we'll get back to
where you know, they want to support the police, are
going to show that they support the police, and that
will certainly have a major impact on recruiting. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah, something Christopher Smith has been saying for years, Where
is the administration, Where is their show of support for
the police. The silence is deafening. So maybe we have
turned a new page. I'm willing to remain optimistic about that, Ken,
and I wish you all the best in the hopes
that the city moves in that direction and we have
a safer city to show for it. Ken Cobra, FLP President.
Thank you so much, sir for joining us and talking
about these important topics. Looking forward to having you back
(16:27):
on again.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Thanks Brian, so it was a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Thank you brother,
It's six point thirty one fifty about fair CD talk station.
A very happy Friday EU to you. Welcome back to
the fifty five case morning. She always enjoy hearing from
FOP President Ken Cover. That of course is Chapter sixty
nine FOP representing the Cincinni Police Department. Ken, It's always
pleasure having you on the show. Welcome back, my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey, good morning, Brian, Happy Friday.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Happy Friday Eve. Yeah. David Ferrara, reporting for The enquire
says the Cincinnati City of Cincinnati's now spending forty one
million dollars to obtain some new technology, all of which
comes from this company called Axon, which is the company
that started it started by manufacturing tasers, but apparently has
expanded its options to body cameras, drones, virtual reality training headsets,
(00:42):
and then a cloud based platform that this company operates itself,
where all of the data collected from this technology the
police officers have is stored basically under their corporate umbrella.
I'm going just first start by did you see the
reporting on this. Is there anything that you use the
police department generally object x two where things is unnecessary
or do you view this infusion of cash and technology
(01:04):
as a positive thing, Ken.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
And honestly, I think it's positive. Actually, I was out
in Scottsdale at Axon's headquarters a couple of weeks ago.
They invited forty FOP leaders from around the country to
kind of it was just a forum to go over
the current technology. I don't know where they're planning ongoing
future technology, and I'm telling you advance some of this
(01:27):
stuff that they're creating is absolutely phenomenal. The CEO is
the one that put us on awesome guy who's geared
around making police jobs easier and safer.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Now you've got me intrigued. Can you just give us
a little thumbnail sketch of what might be coming down
the road from this company. I'm wildly curious.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah. So there's a lot of things that they want
to do. A lot of it's AI based to be
able to make cops jobs easier, like body cameras. You know,
there's technology already out there, and one of them they
showed a video where if if you're familiar with like
Google Translate with different languages, yeah, they have it on
body cameras. Oh so if you're talking, yeah, and actually
(02:09):
we're going to be getting that I'm understanding very soon
in the near future. I came back from this conference,
met with some leadership and they're like, yeah, this is coming.
So a video that they showed us from New Mexico
where an officer was dealing with somebody that had committed
a crime. He was Russian, literally puts a couple buttons.
It indicates on the body camera that you're now in Russian.
(02:30):
You speak in English. It spits it out to the
guy in Russian. Guys, here's it. He listens to it,
he responds, and then it translates from Russian to English
right back to you, and it does it an any
language in America or in the world.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
That that is cool. And you know, obviously, you know,
say what you want about the illegal immigrant problem we
have coming in. I mean documented that people from countries
all over the globe, multiple different languages flowing on in.
That is that's an amazing development right there.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah. Absolutely, Like I said, those are those are some
of the things that that they're trying to create. And
like I said that the CEO of this company, he's
driven based off of trying to reduce police involved shootings
and if he can do that, like one of the ways.
They have a new taser that we're going to get.
I know is in that report this taser ten and
(03:21):
it's these tasers have been pretty effective, you know. But
his goal, and he told us in the next like
five years, is to have these tasers where they're like
ninety nine percent effectively. Is. I know, I'm not going
to prevent all police shootings. Is, but we've done statistics
and where we've seen that there have been police shootings
where a taser was deployed and it failed and then
(03:43):
the end result was a police involved shooting. He is,
if I can, if I can keep that from happening.
He's like, obviously, if a god pulls out a gun
and he points out you, you're going to have to
do a ship. You can protect yourself. But if you
have somebody that's that's experiencing a mental crisis and they're
just standing in their front yard with a knife, and
an officer is able to find cover, you know, whether
they're behind a car or whatever else safely deploy a
(04:05):
taser to be able to take them into custody without
having to kill them. Although they do have the right
to protect themselves up to including deadly force. But if
they can prevent that. That's good for everybody. It's good
for society, it's good for cops, it's good for everybody.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, in the new design tasers, do they provide additional range?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Is that? Yes? Absolutely? Yeah, the taser ten Now that
like I said that the police department's going to be
getting here at the beginning of twenty six they will
shoot up to almost fifty feet wow.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, and presently is what more like ten feet?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
They're up to about twenty five feet roughly now. But
I mean just said just the whole design a lot
of things. It actually makes it safer for the person
that's being tasted because they've changed some of the internal technology.
So there's a lot of things that this company is
doing that is serving the And I know I saw
the article you know about how they have a corner
(05:02):
on the market, and yeah, if other companies want to
come up with stuff, I bet are just as good
that police department should buy it.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Keed. I just I thought that was rather comical. The
one person. Companies like ix On are very interested in
getting their customers and then keeping them. This will make
the effort it takes the transfer a different platform of
offload information so that customers don't try to do that. Well,
no kidding, welcome to capitalism. Yes, of course they want
to retain their customers. So what you're the boiled down
(05:29):
version of what I'm hearing is there is nothing wrong
with this Axon company. They're not evil in the farious
They're doing good for the people. And who can argue
with a less deadly form of dealing with someone who
represents a significant harm to the community. This is not
something that Iris Roll is going to come out and
scream about. This is something that someone like her has
to embrace. Ken Cover, we got more technology to talk about.
(05:50):
Plus the meeting today, Hamilton County Sheriff Charmei mcuffey emerging
from her cave to talk about how safe it is
in the city of Cincinnati. Get your comments on that
as well more with FOP president in Ken Cobra first speak.
You know, it's not Tech Friday, it's fopew President Ken
Kober Thursday talking about the new technology the Cincinnati The
City of Cincinnati spending forty one million dollars on over
the next several years access to the company providing the technology.
(06:13):
They apparently have not a monopoly so much, but they
are the leader in providing technology for law enforcement. Is
can explain altruistic designed to save lives. That's what they're
all about. And they are the largest provider of this
type of equipment. Ken Cobra, I got to ask you
because apparently we're buying and already have acquired some drones.
Then to enquire crunch the numbers and they estimate for
(06:35):
if you care, they come out to be about sixty
two thousand dollars apiece. But they're also maintenance fees and
stuff like that. But in the final analysis, I guess
I'm kind of curious how the city is Cincinnati, the
police department rather utilizes the drone technology. I mean, there's
I envision, you know, sort of an Orwellian reality where
these things are flying around all the time everywhere. But
then I'm thinking, well, there aren't enough people really monitor
(06:56):
what the drones are viewing. So how does law enforcem
we utilize drone technology to the citizens advantage.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So the number one way that they use them outside
of like patrol, and I'll get to that is during
like swat situations. We've been using them for years, right
where instead of sending officers in, you know, if you
have a standoff in a building, they'll send a drone
in makes perfect which makes a hope, It makes absolutely
makes perfect sense, not only is to protecting the officers,
(07:25):
but as protecting someone there, especially if they're armed, then
they're able to see that in real time. And then
obviously the drone. Through the drone, they can communicate if
there's somebody in the building that's armed with a gun,
they can start giving them commands to drop the gun,
drop the gun. Once they finally drop the gun, they
can then give them commands to come to any door,
lay down whatever they want them to do. That way,
(07:46):
the officers can safely go in there and apprehend them
so nobody gets hurt. The way they're using them on
a daily basis are specific radio runs, you know, so
they're not just like flying around like you know, just
just waiting for some them to happen. You know, if
they get a specific radio run where an officer goes, hey,
a drone would be useful, you know, whether it's you know,
(08:07):
a fight in progress, you know, at a specific location,
they could say, let's send a drone and see what's
going on. Maybe there's no fight. If there's no fight,
then we don't need to worry about sending officers that
are on the ground to go there. They can be
focused towards other things interesting. But they also they also
use them. They'll use them flight a gun run. You know.
They get a description of a male wearing a purple
(08:28):
shirt at at third and Main Street, they can fly
a drone there find out first of all, is there
a mail with a purple shirt standing there? And number
two does he have a gun? And if he does, well,
then let's see how we can coordinate this effort. That way,
we can do this the safest way possible.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Well, I imagine they also have to be they'll arrive
on the scene probably a lot quicker than some officer
that's being dispatched from what District three or something has
got to drive halfway across town to get to the
actual scene. As the description says, these docks where the
drones are going to be stored are placed all across
the city. So is there one remote drone operation center
(09:05):
that could deploy a drone immediately and then have it
arrive at the scene even before the officers get.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
There without a doubt? You know? But not only that,
it's like, you know, they're they're subject to being recalled
if there's not a current drone operator working and they
need one for something. All they need is an Internet
connection and they could fly a drone from anywhere. Oh wow.
So if they're at home and they go, hey, we
need a drone right now, they could go log into
(09:31):
a computer and they could have a drone in the
air going somewhere within a matter of minutes. Wow. Which
is it's incredible technology. That is Certainly it's going to
make officers a whole lot safer, which certainly is why
I'm the biggest proponent of this. But it's also going
to keep the community safer as well. When you look
at having to apprehend violent people that may be armed.
(09:52):
It's just a safer way of doing things. And it's
it's the future of policing, whether we like it or not.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
And I'm glad you put that on the tail end,
because you know what I love about this is for
everything you pointed out, it's better for the officers, it's
better for us safer communities, but it also is a
orwell in reality that we are being video cameraed and
all the time. It's something we're all going to have
to guests get used to Ken Cobra pause. Apparently Charmee
mcuffey and others are going to be having a meeting today,
including the interim police chief, talk about how low the
(10:19):
crime rate is in the city of Cincinnati. Will get
your insights and thoughts about this upcoming meeting. One more
with FOP President Kencober after cover Sincy. What's six fifty
fifth about KARCD talk station Very Happy Thursday s Last
Friday EVU Brian Thomas with FOP President Cancober represented the
Cincinni's Police Department and doing a great job, and I
(10:40):
appreciate your willingness to come on the program to talk
about these vital issues. And of course over the summer
we had the July twenty six beat down. No one
forgets that it sort of set off alarm bells. Of course,
in the aftermath of Sarah Herringer getting her husband stabbed
to death in their over the Rhine apartment, we've got
a real problem with crime in the city. Everyone's screaming
about crime in the city and mayor have to have
provol After well years if not months, of saying there
(11:01):
is no problem with crime, finally acknowledge there is and
decided to move in a different direction with law enforcement,
taking the state up on some of the offers of
resources like the state patrols, and changing how law enforcement
operates downtown. They're going to have a press conference day,
Haven't and Kenny Sheriff Charmey McGuffey, Interim Police Chief Adam Henney,
and State Patrol Colonel Charles Jones are going to be
(11:22):
talking about this. Ken Cobert, is your perception that crime
is down since those turbulent months over the summertime?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Well yeah, I mean, obviously as soon as we go
into a colder weather, things do seem to calm down.
But you know, one of the things that I was
told yesterday from an officer that was happening to be
off duty up on Shortvine last Thursday night, it said,
you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a cop.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
And when that happens, they had the state patrol there,
they had the city there. When you start doing those
things and you flood areas with law enforcement, of crime's
gonna go down. I mean, that's just that's common sense.
That's what the horse have been trying to beat for
the last year and a half. Now, Well, hiring more officers.
Find they have to find creative ways to hire officers quicker,
(12:12):
but they have to be qualified officers, but hire them quicker,
and that just is yet to be done. But yeah,
I mean, we're seeing it that it's crime will be
reduced when you have a bigger presence. That's why they
have cops on Fountain Square every day.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
It just seems so like, no kidding, what do we
do to reduce crime. Let's put more cops out there,
a police presence. Wow, that'll work. Okay, not exactly revolutionary,
can but at least they're trying to do that now.
Whereas I guess police up until a moment and time ago,
were perceived as some soul somehow, I don't know, triggering
for residents of certain communities, like the presence of a
(12:45):
police officer, we're going to cause people to break down emotionally.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Well. And the reality is if you have that just
that presence is likely going to avoid having to take
any enforcement exactly no. And if one knucklehead wants to
act up, then you deal with that person, and everybody
else around sees them and goes I don't want to
go to jail today. I think I'll just not break
the law while the cops are around. I mean, it's
pretty simple concept.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Okay, back to the topic of well, the solution of
the problem more officers, more officer presence. We are down.
We are still down a couple of one hundred. Can
am I accurate on that? And the number is still dropping?
Are more people in the drop program or were people
taking early retirement?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Where are we on that? We are getting dangerously close
to being under nine hundred again, you know, with a
complement of almost one thousand and sixty, so I mean
we're pushing one hundred and sixty short. We're facing sixty
to eighty retirements a year, and the problem is we're
only hiring about fifty five a year. And I get
it with the we can only have one recruit class year.
(13:45):
I mean, the reality is our academy staff doesn't have
the means nor the space to be able to run
more than one recruit class at a time. So they
really have to start thinking about, you know, thinking outside
the box in unconventional ways new officers, and there are
ways out there, there are things that have been discussed
so far, none of it's been done, So I'm certainly
(14:07):
hoping that maybe here in the future they'll start listening
and find a way to get more people in the door,
especially when they see that if you have these extra cops,
you know, these things will calm down, crime will start
to go down if you have more of a presence.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Well, you have two options, new classes or lateral hires.
So let's real quick with the new classes, if you
could do more than one annually, let's say they had
unlimited training resources, would there be enough competent, warm bodies
that would sign up to want to join the classes.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I think you would, because what we're seeing now is
we have there are people going through like you see
Claremont has a police academy, Butler Tech has a police academy,
and they're filling their classes. And these are people that
are paying to go to these classes, and they're paying
upwards of ten thousand dollars, you know, to be certified
as police officers. Well, why can't the city of Cincinnati
(15:02):
be capitalizing on those folks?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Good point, excellent point. Insofar as lateral hires, since we're
almost out of time, you're in competition literally with every
other city that is looking for police officers, and you know,
going to a lower crime area. Maybe worth sacrificing a
bit of compensation. What is the biggest impediment to getting
lateral hires to choose the city of Cincinnati versus really
literally anyplace else.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Well, what we saw over the summer was was City
Hall and the things that were being said from City
Hall and the perceived lack of support. Let's be honest,
it wasn't perceived, it was just actual that constant believe
they're being supported because quite honestly, they weren't being forced
to sign charges on somebody they weren't comfortable doing. Who
would want to subject themselves to that. You know, we
(15:45):
have a new city council with the same mayor. Hopefully
their teams change, we can get that support back. I mean,
I look forward to working with them. Hopefully that comes
to fruition and you know, maybe we'll get back to
where you know, they want to support the police, are
going to show that they support the police, and that
will certainly have a major impact on recruiting. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah, something Christopher Smith has been saying for years, Where
is the administration, Where is their show of support for
the police. The silence is deafening. So maybe we have
turned a new page. I'm willing to remain optimistic about that, Ken,
and I wish you all the best in the hopes
that the city moves in that direction and we have
a safer city to show for it. Ken Cobra, FLP President.
Thank you so much, sir for joining us and talking
about these important topics. Looking forward to having you back
(16:27):
on again.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Thanks Brian, so it was a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Thank you brother,
Brian Thomas News
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