By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune contributor
A Northern Kentucky Forum event at the Joseph U. Meyer Center for Workforce Development in Covington Thursday focused on community-police relations in the region.
Forum panelists included Covington Police Chief Spike Jones, Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffery Blackwell, Jerome Bowles, president of the Northern Kentucky NAACP and retired Newport police officer Robert McCray. Titled, “To Protect and Serve?” the forum focused on the relationship between area police departments and the communities they patrol.
Panelists offered a brief introduction, which was followed by a discussion of questions submitted by the audience or posed by moderator Ericka King-Betts, executive director, Cincinnati Human Rights Commission.
Topics included discussion of minority profiling and whether local police departments are equipped to handle protests and demonstrations. Panelists also talked about measures local police have enacted to build trust in the community in light of the recent spate of officer-involved shootings of minorities nationwide.
Blackwell said one way to help prevent incidents such as last year’s shooting of a young black man in Ferguson, Missouri, which sparked protests across the country, is to make sure there is diversity in the police force.
“The agency should reflect the community that it serves and that’s common sense,” Blackwell said. “The officers and firefighters should look like the rest of the community and there’s a problem when it doesn’t.”
A diverse workforce, Blackwell said, allows police to better serve the public because the type of conduct and attitudes that can create conflict in a community will be suppressed internally.
“The diverse officers will not stand for some of the shenanigans that we’ve seen in other parts of the country,” he said.
Jones said it has been difficult to recruit minority officers in Covington, partly because the compensation in Cincinnati is significantly higher.
“The carrot on the stick is so much better in Cincinnati,” Jones said. “Starting out, I think their salary darn near doubles the salary of one of our officers. When you are a young person getting into this career path, that’s a consideration.”
Bowles said that because Northern Kentucky law enforcement agencies may not have the resources available in Cincinnati, they have to police smarter. He cited the collaborative approach used to battle the heroin epidemic as an example.
“My suggestion is to try to do some of these things on a regional level (and create) partnerships with other agencies to develop a resource base,” Bowles said. “Many stakeholders came together to address the heroin situation in Northern Kentucky… and they started to look at the serious impact of heroin in our region. From that, state laws began to change.”
Jones said that while collaboration among law enforcement officials can help prepare tactically for the fallout of an incident such as the shooting in Ferguson, community dialogue might actually prevent it from occurring.
“I don’t think any community is emotionally ready for something like that,” Jones said. “That’s why forums of this type are so important. I believe had this type of engagement occurred in Ferguson, we wouldn’t even have known where Ferguson, Missouri, was, but now everybody knows.”
The audience of more than 50 Northern Kentuckians asked more questions than the panel could answer in the 90-minute session, but most were encouraged by the dialogue.
Candace Witte of Covington said the forum was very informative.
“It gives you an understanding that you didn’t have,” Witte said. “Cincinnati is five times bigger than us and they have a lot more money, but we do the best we can with what we have and we have a good department in Covington.”
Bernadette Hall of Covington said the forum was way overdue and that such events should take place more often.
“We can open up a lot of lines of communication,” Hall said. “We are the eyes and the ears of the police department. We can be out there in the community advising them about what we see and getting feedback from them.”
Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders attended the forum to show support for law enforcement.
“Spike Jones and I work very closely together, and I’m a big fan of his efforts to improve the community he has lived his whole life in,” Sanders said. “I also wanted to hear what everyone had to say, because if you don’t step outside the courthouse once in while you might miss some things going on in the community. It’s fantastic to see the number of folks in Covington that are heavily involved in their community and work well with their police department.”
The Northern Kentucky Forum is a joint project of Legacy, Vision 2015 and Northern Kentucky University’s Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement. Its goal is to promote a nonpartisan, education-focused dialogue on regional issues.