CINCINNATI FOP head to raise image of police

She is committed to being part of a new leadership team for the city.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- The new head of the city's police union is out to show how good her cops are.
The image of police officers and the city as a whole is still recovering from race riots that erupted in April 2001, after the shooting death of an unarmed black man who ran from a white police officer trying to arrest him.
The perception that emerged embarrassed Spc. Kathy Harrell, the first woman elected president of Queen City Lodge No. 69 of the Fraternal Order of Police.
"The whole city got a black eye from it," she said in an interview last week. "But did we grow from it? Yes. Have we proven we're still an excellent city? Yes. Are there concerns that have to be dealt with? Definitely."
She believes rank-and-file officers need a louder voice not only in negotiations with the city but as participants in the agreements that settled a racial profiling lawsuit and a Justice Department investigation of police procedures and practices.
Improved procedures
The federal court-mandated monitor appointed to oversee the settlements with the Justice Department and with black activist groups that brought the suit says the city and the police have improved their procedures and reduced the use of force.
The Rand Corp., hired to conduct a five-year study of police-community relations, says it has found no systematic pattern of targeting blacks, although many blacks still believe that race is a factor in their perceived poorer treatment.
"I think the citizens of Cincinnati do not understand the excellent police department they have," Harrell said.
Harrell is committed to including the Sentinels, a social group for black police officers, in union affairs, and to being part of a new leadership team that includes a new mayor and four members of the city council.
"I am encouraged by her comments about being willing to cooperate with the new mayor and council," Mayor Mark Mallory said. "I think it's critical that we put all the effort we can into improving that relationship."
Career
Harrell, 39, joined the Cincinnati Police Department as a recruit in 1987. She is the first female officer to head the FOP here, although Youngstown and Toledo -- among state big-city police departments -- and those in several smaller Ohio cities have had female presidents, FOP of Ohio spokesman Jay McDonald said.
Harrell beat her male opponent, the incumbent president, by a nearly 2-1 margin -- with a 75 percent turnout -- in this month's election to represent the city's approximately 1,050 police officers. Harrell, who once planned to be a nurse before becoming a police officer, said it's been hard for police to get away from an image she believes is undeserved.
"We keep going back to the riots and how we've been perceived since the riots," Harrell said. "The only thing I can say is because of the things that were put in place because of the riots, we have proven we do not racially profile, that we have officers who used so much restraint during those riots when they were being pelted with bottles and being yelled at with profanities. Our officers used extreme, extreme restraint."