Cincinnati and Hamilton County will pay millions in settlement dollars to protesters arrested in Cincinnati in 2020, but Cincinnati’s police union is not happy about the price tag.
What happened?
The $8.14 million settlement announced Friday concludes the civil case Kenney vs. City of Cincinnati. The 479 plaintiffs were among those arrested during the summer 2020 protests following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor earlier that year. Rhetoric surrounding the protests also encompassed police killings of Black citizens broadly.
Like many U.S. cities, thousands turned out for protests in Cincinnati’s core neighborhoods while police responded in riot gear, deploying pepper spray and flash bang explosives. In addition to statewide COVID-19 restrictions, protesters were expected to follow several curfews implemented by then-Mayor John Cranley after a few individuals caused property damage following the protests.
As the demonstrations continued from May to June, more than 500 people were arrested for violating curfew and charged with “Misconduct at Emergency,” a first-degree misdemeanor which carried the possibility of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
As CityBeat reported during the aftermath, many arrested protesters claimed they were made to wait in an open-air courtyard at the Hamilton County Justice Center for upwards of 10 hours without access to restrooms, water or food. The Mass Defense Coalition, a legal group that represented many protesters, said the arrests constituted a violation of the First Amendment, but the city claimed it was keeping the peace.
“This curfew didn’t happen because everything was going great,” then-Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac told Cincinnati City Council following the arrests. “We had to do this because of the amount of damage. We have over 100 businesses that have been damaged, looted, shots fired into them.”
For context, the city said 513 of the arrested protesters did not face charges related to those incidents, just charges for violating curfew. One Hamilton County judge dismissed dozens of the cases later in 2020, ruling Cranley’s curfew was unconstitutionally vague.
Settlement details
Now, five years later, Hamilton County will pay $65,000 of the settlement amount and the City of Cincinnati will pay the remaining $8,078,000, which includes $2,035,750 in attorney fees.
Changes to CPD policy are also being attributed to the settlement, the city said, including:
- The creation of a Civil Disturbance Operation Procedure (CDOP) Guidebook, which standardizes and formalizes CPD operations during protests and similar events
- The creation of a standard Dispersal Order officers shall use during civil disturbances
- Updated procedures to notify and collaborate with Hamilton County Municipal Court, the Hamilton County Justice Center, the Hamilton County Juvenile Court, and Hamilton County Juvenile Detention Center when CPD anticipates mass arrests
“I am glad to have reached a settlement and am especially proud of our CPD officers and their willingness to continuously improve policies and procedures,” said City Manager Sheryl Long. “While the incidents that led to this case predate the current administration, we as city leaders must do everything we can to address the issues passed on to us so that they can be prevented in the future. Thank you to Solicitor [Emily Smart] Woerner and the entire law department for their years of hard work to achieve this conclusion.”
Police union backlash
CPD union president Ken Kober slammed the city’s law department in a statement following the settlement.
“The city asked our officers to enforce the curfew they imposed by arresting individuals causing chaos and destruction during the riots of 2020,” Kober said. “And then, out of ideological persuasions, the law department dismissed hundreds of charges and brought a multi-million dollar civil suit against the good people of Cincinnati.”
The city is expected to pay the settlement using judgment bonds; an ordinance to approve the settlement will go before City Council’s Public Safety and Governance Committee on Dec. 9.