About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

22 Ohio St. J. on Disp. Resol. 105 (2006-2007)
Identity and Conflict: Collaboratively Addressing Policy-Community Conflict in Cincinnati, Ohio

handle is hein.journals/ohjdpr22 and id is 113 raw text is: Identity and Conflict: Collaboratively Addressing Police-Community Conflict in Cincinnati, Ohio JAY ROTHMAN, PH.D.* THE ARIA GROUP, INC. History was made on April 12, 2002, when a collaborative agreement to try to transform policing and police-community relations was signed in Cincinnati, Ohio. Signatories included the Mayor of Cincinnati, the president of the local police union, the head of the Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the president of the Cincinnati Black United Front (BUF). Even the Attorney General of the United States was there to witness the occasion. This unprecedented agreement was based on goals encapsulated by the citizens of Cincinnati as well as the police, and included the most advanced social science research on police effectiveness. It called for improved relationships and a new problem-solving policing strategy in Cincinnati that could simultaneously transform troubled police-community relations while reducing crime. The Collaborative Agreement (CA) was the result of nine months of participatory problem assessment and goal setting by almost 3,500 citizens of Cincinnati, followed by three months of intense negotiations among representatives of the city, the police, the BUF, and the ACLU. The CA was launched by a proposed federal lawsuit alleging racial profiling and misuse of force by police against African-Americans. In March 2001, Federal Judge Susan Dlott decided to seek a new way to address these issues through alternative dispute resolution (ADR). On April 7th, just weeks after Judge Dlott made this decision to pursue ADR and asked me to serve as her special master to design and guide the process; it was catapulted ahead after three days of protests and confrontations by African-American citizens against the police following the shooting death of an unarmed African-American. Where there was previously a willing but somewhat resistant attitude on the part of many of the parties toward the CA, now there was great enthusiasm that it could indeed pave a desperately needed new path to healing this open wound. The conflict, previously expressed largely through outrage (punctuated by lawsuits over a number of years) by African-American citizens at what they viewed as disparate and racist treatment by police, with equally outraged denial of it by police, was now powerfully symbolized and expressed by the protests and police response. As media images and descriptions of the riots--also referred to locally as unrest, * I am grateful to Randi Land for her editorial assistance and to Steve Kelban and the Board of the Andrus Family Fund for its vision in catalyzing this effort.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most