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Interim police chief warns 5% cut would force personnel changes and curb services
Summary
Interim Chief Henney told the council that a proposed 5% cut to the Cincinnati Police Department budget could be met partly by delaying a recruit class and pausing vacancy fills but would require additional personnel reductions that would harm patrol, investigations and neighborhood services.
Interim Chief Henney told the Cincinnati City Council committee that the police department aims to refocus on five core performance areas—patrol, investigations, citizen satisfaction, traffic enforcement and adherence to the city—ollaborative agreement—and outlined how a proposed 5% budget cut would affect those priorities.
Henney said the department—urrently averages 11 minutes 42 seconds for response time to calls and has set an initial improvement goal of 30 seconds. He described proposed savings of roughly $6.6 million that include not filling position‑vacancy allowances (about $3.8 million) and $2.6 million from postponing a recruit class, and said those moves could be packaged to meet a portion of the requested reduction. "We have provided you the ability for that 5% decrease," Henney said, adding that closing the remainder of the reduction (another roughly $4.3 million) would require personnel changes that "would pretty much shut the police department down" for some functions.
Henney cautioned that because roughly 90% of the department—udget is personnel, deep cuts would reduce visibility and investigative capacity. "If you ask for the visibility, don't ever think that we can then keep it within the original budget," he told the committee. He said technology investments such as the department's crime center, drones and video monitoring have helped deploy resources more efficiently, but those systems also carry ongoing costs.
Council members pressed on overtime and recruitment. One council member noted the budget monitoring report identified a potential overtime need for CPD of $13.9 million by fiscal year end and warned that delaying a recruit class would likely increase overtime. Henney said the department recently graduated a lateral class and is budgeting another class, but moving or cancelling the class would have operational consequences.
On technology, Henney described a growing drone program, saying dispatch drones now average "a little over 30 flights a day" and that drones can arrive faster than patrol units in many instances. He framed technology as a force multiplier but said it does not fully substitute for sworn staff.
The committee filed the police presentation; Henney announced the 25th anniversary of the collaborative agreement will be celebrated July 16–18. The council will continue budget deliberations in upcoming sessions.
Ending: The committee did not take a vote on a policing budget reduction in this session; the presentation and related budget options were filed for the council's consideration as the budget process continues.
