The police division has had many changes in policy, hiring and training in the past 30 years, he says. Assuming there is a problem with profiling or general police misconduct, recent history seems to indicate a system that holds few officers accountable. Ray Ruberg, spokesman for the Cincinnati Police, says the division has never determined an officer stopped a driver primarily because of race. Blacks received 79 percent of all of jaywalking citations during the same period. The lawyers are pushing heavily for more data collection.
Greenwood says data programs elsewhere have discouraged profiling and other police misconduct.
Gerhardstein hopes the police division will cooperate with a proposed mediation process, which could be finished in June. The lawyers suggest hiring Jay Rothman, a mediator who helped settle the Confederate flag dispute in South Carolina. But if the police division and city resist mediation, Gerhardstein says, the legal team won't quit until it receives a court order or the case is dismissed. We need to have a set of promises that are enforceable. Residents demand action The same day the motion was filed, more than 100 people filled the Hirsch Recreation Center gym in Avondale for a public hearing on racial profiling.