Cincinnati Enquirer
March 21, 2005
By Gregory Korte
Enquirer staff writer

Cincinnati has added 75 police officers in the past four years, even while reducing employment in almost every other department. Councilman David Pepper says it's still not enough.

Pepper, a Democratic mayoral candidate and chairman of the Law & Public Safety Committee, said he will announce his crime-fighting platform this afternoon in a speech in Avondale.

Pepper doesn't commit to a specific number of new officers, but calls for a comprehensive study of police manpower. He said Cincinnati's 14 officers per square mile is low compared with other, older Midwestern cities.

"That per-square-mile number means a lot in terms of response time, in terms of visibility, and - if you're a cop - in your confidence in being backed up," Pepper said.

He also wants a study of police pay to make sure the city isn't losing its best officers to other jurisdictions.

Other highlights of his 23-page crime platform to be released today:

An improved crime-mapping system and more crime analysts, so police can better deploy officers to crime "hotspots."

An initiative to make police more visible and efficient by updating computers and using more civilians for jobs that don't require a badge and a gun.

A "zero tolerance" policy for crime-ridden properties - including a controversial measure to make absentee landlords pay to register their rental properties with the city.

Pepper is trying to make crime his signature issue in a campaign that so far includes fellow Democrats Alicia Reece and Mark L. Mallory. Both said they, too, would announce public safety platforms during the campaign.

Reece said she's already proposed her crime-fighting plan on City Council, which would re-establish a gang unit in the police department and called for a "Homicide Task Force."

"My crime plan is in the Law Committee waiting for the vote," she said. "This issue of homicides can't wait until 2006. It has to be done now. People are dying now."

Reece blamed Pepper for holding her plan up, but Pepper said he was waiting on a police department report.

Pepper called the Reece plan too vague.