CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Police Department's District 5 has officially started the formal process of shutting down.
CPD ia holding a ceremony Friday to honor those who have served at the district and to celebrate its long history.
In May 2023, CPD announced that they were restructuring their districts. District 5 will be dissolved, split into two and merged with District 3 and 4. Other neighborhoods will also shift from one district to another to accommodate.
"We will shift from five total districts to four at the end of the year," said Sheryl Long, Cincinnati city manager. "This is the best permanent solution for the department."
The redestricting specifically affects 11 of Cincinnati's 52 neighborhoods:
- College Hill will move from D5 to D3
- Mt. Airy will move from D5 to D3
- Northside will move from D5 to D3
- Camp Washington will move from D5 to D3
- Winton Hills will move from D5 to D4
- Spring Grove Village will move from D5 to D4
- Clifton will move from D5 to D4
- CUF will move from D5 to D1
- Mt. Auburn will move from D4 to D1
- Walnut Hills will move from D4 to D2
- Mt. Adams will move from D1 to the Central Business District
Over the years, District 5 has struggled to find a permanent home since its move to a College Hill shopping center in 2018, which was supposed to be temporary. Prior to that, the district's headquarters were out of a building on Ludlow Avenue — another location that was intended to be temporary, but housed the district for more than 60 years.
In 2019, the city voted to re-allocate funding for a District 5 permanent location to an issue that city leadership felt was more pressing at the time: the hillside collapse on Columbia Parkway. After extensive debate, Cincinnati city council members of the time voted to take all $10 million dollars from the District 5 project and reallocate it for the parkway.
After CPD Chief Teresa Theetge announced the dissolution of District 5 in May, residents in College Hill expressed worry that police coverage would be spread thin since District 3 and 4 stations are much further away.
"I think if we remove the officers from the community, then we're going to see crime increase," said College Hill resident Laronda Thomas. "We have several schools that surround District 5 as well."
The dissolution plan was also not a popular option with many Cincinnati police officers. In July 2023, nearly 100 members of Cincinnati's chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police unanimously voted to demand CPD walk back District 5's dissolution.
Theetge has previously assured that services won't be disrupted during the transition.
"I will tell you, this is the plan," Theetge said. "This is the plan to go to four districts. We do not have the luxury of time or resources to do something on a grander scale like building a new District 5."
