While crime overall this year has been at its lowest levels in a decade, this summer has seen a particularly brutal spike in shootings, including the deadliest month in nearly two decades this June.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters has an aggressive idea to address the spike in violence — but not everyone is on board.
Deters told The Cincinnati Enquirer yesterday that he asked Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to call out the National Guard to try to tamp down the shootings in Cincinnati.
"When you can't have your little kid go out in your yard and play out of fear of a stray gunshot, that is bullshit," Deters told The Enquirer. "Why not put them out on street corners and say, 'OK, they have their body armor on, they got their helmets on, they got their automatic weapons. You want to do this stuff?' "
Deters specifically mentioned Price Hill. The three neighborhoods — East, West and Lower — had seen six of the city's 32 murders as of earlier this month.
Despite a deadly month-and-a-half stretch that saw 20 deadly shootings, gun violence is on pace to be roughly the same as 2018, a year that saw the lowest number of shootings in a decade.
Police Chief Eliot Isaac has said that the National Guard is not necessary. CPD and Cincinnati City Council have initiated a number of emergency efforts to try and reduce the violence, from keeping recreation centers open later to pulling officers from administrative duties onto patrols to hiring two new community engagement workers through the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence.
The Ohio ACLU blasted the approach on Twitter.
"Let’s be clear: Cincinnati & surrounding communities are NOT 'war zones' and residents should not be treated like wartime adversaries," the chapter tweeted today. "Enhanced, aggressive, militarized policing will only erode public trust & safety in the @CityofCincy."
"It is absurd that Prosecutor Deters wants 'armed soldiers on street corners,' the group said in another tweet. "This will no doubt have a drastically disproportionate impact on communities of color, low-income individuals, individuals experiencing homelessness, LGBTQ people, & immigrant communities."
Some members of council scoffed at Deters' suggestion.
"We don't need to militarize our city streets," council member P.G. Sittenfeld tweeted. "We need to address root causes & ensure people have opportunity, not desperation & hopelessness."
Roughly one in three people in Cincinnati live in poverty, according to Census data — conditions that experts say leave communities vulnerable to violent crime. At least 27 of the city's 32 killings as of the middle of July took place in communities where median household incomes were well below the city's median.
Most criminal justice experts believe that most violent crime has roots in socioeconomic conditions and psychological trauma, issues that they say are not well-addressed by simply adding more law enforcement personnel.
Studies show little correlation between an increase in police presence, for example, and crime rates. And Cincinnati's peer cities illustrate the cloudy relationship between the two.
The Queen City has roughly 1,000 officers, or one per every 300 residents. That is more than many other nearby mid-sized municipalities with lower crime rates. Meanwhile, Cleveland, with 1,600 officers (one officer per every 243 residents), and St. Louis, with 1,300 officers (one officer per every 244 residents), both have more officers per person than Cincinnati. But both also have had higher crime rates in recent years.
Deters, who is running for reelection next year, said that he thinks Chief Isaac is doing all he can to curb the shooting spike this summer. But he says that CPD lacks the resources and personnel to address the issue.
DeWine reportedly took Deters' idea seriously, though he has made no comment about the proposal.
"If I was the governor, I would put the National Guard on the streets of Price Hill right now," Deters told The Enquirer. "I would not put up with this anymore."
