City leaders cooperating to get repeat offenders behind bars

Overall crime was down, but serious crime was up last year.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Most of the worst crimes in this city are committed by a relatively small number of repeat offenders, city officials say, and they're mounting a concerted effort to get those people off the street.
From targeting 50 "most-wanted" criminals to using text messaging to communicate more with street kids, the city is taking new approaches to fighting what's considered the biggest issue in Ohio's third-largest city.
In an unprecedented display of unity among city leaders, Mayor Mark Mallory announced a new crime-fighting program last week while surrounded by the city council, police and fire chiefs, the superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools, the county coroner and leaders of neighborhood community councils.
"This is a mandate for cooperation," Mallory said.
He challenged residents to help reduce crime by identifying criminals.
How bad it is
Some crime witnesses have been so reluctant to testify that prosecutors threatened them with contempt citations. Mallory, a former state senator in his third month of office, said the example set by the unity of city leaders will help change that mind-set.
"Society is very responsive to political leadership, and we are showing the political will and leadership," Mallory said.
Officials say recent crime figures are misleading. Although violent crime in Cincinnati was up last year, including a 34-year high and near-record 79 homicides, overall crime was down.
What matters
But civic leaders agree it is serious crime that is driving residents and businesses to the suburbs, and keeping suburban residents from coming downtown.
"Ninety percent of homicides have a vice or drug component," Mallory said. So police will merge their vice and drug units and put together a "most-wanted" list of the 50 most active and violent offenders in the city.
"We're going to identify those individuals and make every effort to arrest them" Mallory said. "We're attempting to break the cycle of the drug culture and violence."
The city will make more extensive use of forfeiture laws to seize property obtained through drug sales, and will urge the U.S. attorney to prosecute more cases in federal court, which usually results in more jail time.
Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. called the mayor's mandate an "inspiration to the officer on the street," and said he expected police to respond enthusiastically.
"You've heard cops complain in the past that they don't feel supported by the political leadership," Streicher said. "This is a critical factor; it's true in New York, it's true in Los Angeles, it's true across the country. Police agencies will respond to the political will of the leadership.
"If the political will of the political leadership says 'That's enough, we want you to do what you do best, and that's control behavior,' then that's what cops will do and that's what we intend to do."
Links to drugs
Dr. O'dell Owens, the Hamilton County coroner, noted that most recent homicide victims did not finish high school, and that one-third of the city's homicides in 2004 occurred in a known drug and prostitution neighborhood near downtown, although only four of 22 victims lived there.
"The message is that if you're buying or selling drugs, or hanging with people who do that, you've got a good chance of coming to see me" in the morgue, Dr. Owens said.
Police will conduct regular sweeps for truants in targeted areas, and schools will expand after-school activities for pupils, said Superintendent Rosa Blackwell.
"The work that we do has to be done in a collective manner," she said. "It is essential that we work together as a caring community to keep young people of our city safe and involved in healthy activities."
Violent crime was a hot issue in the November election, when Mallory, a Democrat, was elected. Councilman Chris Monzel, a Republican, lauded the mayor's new approach and said the city council was united behind it.
"It's not just all on the Cincinnati Police Department's shoulders, it's on the whole city's shoulders," Monzel said.
"We're going to give them the resources, but also demand the community come forward and give their resources, too, to get it done."
Melvin Williams, who manages a CVS pharmacy in the Walnut Hills neighborhood just east of downtown, said he and other community activists welcome the initiative.
"It's time we all get on board to solve this problem," Williams said. "It's clear to me it's not just an inner city problem; it's spreading."
Chuck Kreimer, who runs the local chapter of Crimestoppers, said he had never seen the level of support assembled behind Mallory.
"Never in my 38 years of law enforcement," he said.