A newspaper analysis has uncovered funding, staffing and operational difficulties at the independent agency created to help settle citizen complaints against Cincinnati police.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports the Cincinnati Citizen Complaint Authority no longer complies with a collaborative agreement between the community and the police that was struck after the city's 2001 riots.
Among the paper's findings were that the authority's inflation-adjusted budget is less than half what it was in 2003; it employs only two of five required investigators; and it's running a case backlog as complaints against police rise.
Al Gerhardstein, an attorney who helped write the collaborative agreement, says the agency needs to be "ready at all times."
Mayor John Cranley says he's committed to meeting the agreement, though it's not being legally binding.
