Feds, city still at odds over use-of-force reporting

CINCINNATI (AP) -- The Justice Department's insistence that police further document use of force by officers would unnecessarily burden the police and divert them from fighting crime, Mayor Charlie Luken said in a letter to the government.
The letter calls on Attorney General John Ashcroft to help resolve the issue, which the mayor said could otherwise lead to a court fight and detract from an agreement Cincinnati reached with Ashcroft in 2002 to reform police operations.
The overall agreement resulted from a Justice Department investigation that Luken requested after a white police officer fatally shot a fleeing, unarmed black man wanted on charges in 2001. The shooting prompted three nights of rioting.
The disagreement involves "hard hands" incidents in which police use physical pressure to force a person against an object or onto the ground, or inflict pain in order to force a suspect to comply with a police order, Luken wrote.
He said the Justice Department wants a police supervisor to investigate these incidents and tape-record the statements of suspects, officers and witnesses. "If the police are burdened by reporting processes that add no value and take officers and supervisors off of the streets, the police contribution to the fight against violent crime is severely hampered," Luken wrote to Ashcroft last week, in a letter City Hall released Friday. "I am requesting that you become involved in this issue and assist us in reaching a resolution."