The boundaries of the Cincinnati Police Department’s districts are changing. City officials announced plans on May 9 to eliminate the District 5 headquarters in College Hill, reducing the number of police districts in the city from five to four, plus the Central Business Section.
“I know there’s probably a little bit of anxiety, both internally and externally, I expect that,” said CPD Chief Teresa Theetge during a press conference. “You have my commitment that we will make this as flawless of a transition as we possibly can.”
District 5 headquarters, staffed by about 90 officers and other CPD employees, has occupied a former Talbert House building on Hamilton Avenue in College Hill since 2018. The headquarters moved from a building on Ludlow Avenue that Theetge said was also designed to be a temporary headquarters starting in 1957. The move came after six officers died of cancer in the span of two years working at the Ludlow Avenue location. At the time, the city said tests for air quality, mold and radon all failed to explain the high rates of cancer among those who worked in the building, but members of council at the time pushed a motion to get District 5 officers into a new home.
“I owe it to them to give them some stability in their workday and give them a permanent assignment and permanent district to work from,” Theetge said.
Incoming changes
By the end of the year, College Hill, Mt. Airy, Northside, and Camp Washington will be reassigned to District 3. Winton Hills, Spring Grove Village, and Clifton will be reassigned to District 4. CUF will move to District 1.
Other adjustments will include moving Mt. Auburn from District 4 to District 1, Walnut Hills will be reassigned from District 4 to District 2, and Mt. Adams will be reassigned from District 1 to the Central Business Section.
City Manager Sheryl Long said the changes come at the intersection of long-term planning based on crime data analysis, and the immediate need to improve conditions for District 5 officers before the $110,000-per-year lease for the College Hill building expires in December.
“What we’re trying to do is just be very strategic and get an idea of where the city is going long term from a public safety standpoint,” she said. “The conditions [of District 5] from a safety point are you either need to make a decision and put additional resources in it, or you pull back and you distribute.”
Long said the change is what District 5 officers have been asking for.
“When I went to patrols [for roll calls], one of the first things they told me was ‘we would like to have a permanent house,’” Long said.
Who goes where?
Theetge said officers who will need to be reassigned can make requests for certain districts based on seniority at the department.
“It’s all about tenure,” Theetge said. “An officer with 20 years of service will get their first choice over an officer with one year of service.”
Diversity of the force will be the only caveat to the seniority system, Theetge said.
“We try to make sure we maintain diversity at each of our districts. We want to make sure we have diversity in ethnicity, gender, all of that, for each of the four districts and the Central Business Section,” she said.
Theetge said the department will also attempt to reassign its neighborhood liaison officers to keep them in the neighborhoods where they’ve built community rapport.
Shrunken opportunities, added stress
Theetge said there will be one less captain’s position because of the restructuring, but that she told District 5 captain Amanda Caton that she won’t be out of a job. Same goes for the 19 sergeants at District 5 and five other sergeants whose jobs will be reduced through attrition, meaning as one sergeant retires, another won’t be hired.
“Yes, unfortunately reducing the amount of sergeants does take promotional opportunities at the immediate time away, but as those 24 are treated out, those opportunities will come back,” Theetge said.
Theetge said she did not consult directly with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), CPD’s union, ahead of the District 5 decision, but said they still agreed it was the right thing to do.
“When it came to what is the right solution, I did not have conversations with the [Fraternal Order of Police] prior to this morning when I revealed the plan to them,” she said. “I had members of the FOP executive board in my staff meeting this morning when I rolled this out and all of them told me it’s a good plan.”
FOP president Dan Hils told CityBeat he agrees it was necessary to do something about District 5, but he worries the stress of the restructuring change will hurt already struggling retention rates for CPD officers.
“They need some sort of retention bonuses,” Hils said. “They have not done a good job of accessing the Governor’s money that he put out there for police retention. This is going to be a difficult transition for the rank and file. District 5 is going to be disbursed, it’s going to be hard work, it’s time to reward these policemen.”
No impacts to police services or call times
The restructuring plan is not expected to impact police services or wait times for officer response, Theetge emphasized during the conference. She said patrol officers mostly work from their patrol cars and only need to be in the physical headquarters for roll call and station runs for bathroom breaks or evidence drop-off.
“There will not be a disruption in the police services to any of the 52 neighborhoods. Our response time will continually be monitored,” she said. “Several years ago when we left Ludlow Avenue and moved up to Hamilton Avenue, a year after doing that, we went back and looked at response time […] and that data analysis showed us it had zero impact on the response time by moving the location of the physical building itself, because the officers are out in the areas of their assignment.”
Still, Theetge said she wants to hear directly from community members who might be concerned about the new CPD district changes. The city will host two town hall discussions where guests can ask questions about police resources in their neighborhoods.
The first will take place on June 7 at the College Hill Recreation Center Gym at 5545 Belmont Ave. from 6-7:30 p.m. The second will be on June 27 at Winton Hills Recreation Center Gym at 5170 Winneste Ave. from 6-7:30 p.m.
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This article appears in May 3-16, 2023.