Would a CPD substation in OTR help battle area crime? Some say yes
The Over-the-Rhine Community Council and residents think they may have found a better solution to lowering crime in the area.
One week ago, Cincinnati police installed water barricades at Green and Republic streets, an area they say is a hot spot for drug deals and crime. The barricades were only up for three days before Aja Pryor said she realized they had to find a better solution.
“Day one, no one was out there,” Pryor said. “Day two, they start trickling back. Day three, they were laying across the barricades, so that’s not a solution we have to come up with something better.”
Pryor works for Property Acquisition Group, which owns multiple Over-the-Rhine properties, like the one at 1701 Vine Street.
“It was Hookah on The Rhine, and they were shut down by the City of Cincinnati and declared a nuisance,” Pryor says of the Vine Street property.
With the building sitting vacant, Pryor says more people are gathering there.
Pryor says she took her concerns and a suggestion to the Over-the-Rhine Community Council in April.
Her suggestion is to lease 1701 Vine Street to the Cincinnati Police Department as a police substation.
“Everyone agrees that their (police) presence is needed more,” said Pryor. “We could only do so much as a business, property owners to thwart the crime.”
Members of the OTR Community Council supported the idea and crafted a letter addressed to City Council and the police department.
“Substations are a little old-fashioned because that’s where officers used to have to go to download data, write reports, but now, they do all that from their car,” said Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney.
The vice mayor says other tactics already in place include increasing police foot and bike patrols.
“The question is, ‘Do you want the officers sitting in a station or do you want them out on the street, walking the street?’” Kearney said.
Despite these concerns, Kearney said, “There hasn’t been a ‘no’ to substations. It’s probably a little old-fashioned, but let’s take a look and see. It’s on the table.”
Kearney says they will be discussing the police substations in a meeting which happens every other Tuesday, to help address crime in the area.
The department's Pivot program, which focuses on the territory of violent offenders, along with technology like gunshot detectors and license plate readers have been credited with helping keep violent crime trending down.
Enquirer media partner Fox 19 provided this report.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Council considers Over-the-Rhine substation to address area crime
