COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — In the wake of a triple shooting and what some are calling a rash of violence in recent months, Colerain Township community members came together at a Thursday night meeting with WCPO 9 to try and find solutions.
At the meeting, Colerain Police Chief Edwin Cordie said his department has been strapped.
“I cannot tell you how hard it is to be an officer working these streets and having to go from call to call to call to call to call,” said Cordie.
He said the township receives 45,000 calls for service per year, about half of what the City of Cincinnati sees with only 58 officers.
“They might see it (a traffic violation) too but not be able to stop to make that traffic stop because they’re going to a more serious call,” said Cordie.
Micole Dunn grew up in Colerain Township, she believes it has gotten more dangerous since she was a child, now having to worry about who may have a weapon.
Dunn and others in the community want to see more officers on the streets. A survey distributed at Thursday night’s meeting showed it is the second-most wanted solution by residents.
“The public demands a visible police presence according to the survey that we did,” said Carrie Davis, a facilitator for Colerain Council of Neighborhoods. “They want to see their officers, they want to see them pulling people over, they want to see them in their neighborhoods.”
Cordie said it comes down to staffing. The department is only allowed to fund staffing through property taxes, and two failed tax levies have left them short.
“Having less officers is never the answer,” Cordie said at Thursday’s meeting.
We asked Davis if she thought residents would pass a levy to hire more officers. She said no. Davis added that residents want to see change before hiring more officers, but they do have a solution to help officers in the meantime.
“The biggest number of people support getting FLOCK and other technology in Colerain Township,” said Davis according to the survey results.
FLOCK cameras read the license plates of every car passing by, helping track the movement of potential criminals.
The Colerain Board of Trustees has killed the proposal of FLOCK cameras in Colerain Township twice. Davis and others are pushing for the Board of Trustees to vote and approve FLOCK cameras, for the safety of all residents, at their next meeting on Tuesday.
The survey distributed at Thursday’s meeting is still available to fill out at the Groesbeck Library in Colerain. Davis and the Colerain Council of Neighborhoods will share the results of all surveys at the next board of trustees meeting.
