For 20 years, the Cincinnati police were the “tip of the spear” for the Collaborative Agreement, a landmark pact that addresses issues of police-community relations and racial profiling in the city. But since 2022, the city manager and a hand-picked consultant seem to be in charge. Complaints have fueled the perception that the consultant, Iris Roley, exercises an oversized influence over police matters.
The city made three attempts between 2016 and 2020 to hire and retain a professional “Collaborative Agreement Sustainability Manager.” When a third manager left sometime after July 2019, the city ultimately decided to hire Roley, who was a member of the original Management Advisory Group under the Collaborative. The position is called the “Collaborative Agreement Sustainability Initiatives Consultant.”
The consultant’s original six-month contract, which has been extended, was described by the interim manager in a memo dated February 15, 2022. One of the five deliverables was to “provide advice regarding and facilitate community engagement with respect to the hiring of a new police chief, as requested by the city.”
If a consultant is qualified to provide advice on hiring a police chief, presumably they are also qualified to provide advice on firing a police chief, or perhaps other police managers, or even a street cop. Most people would agree that a consultant, with such a portfolio and ongoing access to the city’s leadership, is in a position to exercise undue influence over police matters, including personnel.
For example, footage from body-worn cameras is circulating on social media showing Roley inserting herself in police matters. In one, she is seen interfering with a police officer who was calmly seeking compliance from a citizen concerning the law against open containers. Roley is heard saying that she has a list of police officers and that the citizen needs to file a complaint if he wants to get that particular officer on her list. That sounds ominous and far from collaborative.
Roley’s conduct is a big indication that the Collaborative Agreement has been hollowed out. And there is more evidence of the Collaborative’s erosion.
The most recent entry on the city manager’s website about the Management Advisory Group is dated 2021. The Collaborative’s timeline on the police website was last updated in February 2020. In the list of police contacts on the Cincinnati Police Department’s website, the contact for “Collaborative Policing” is one of six positions, out of a listing of 66, with no contact named. That makes it look like no one is assigned to those responsibilities.
Together, these things make it appear that the Collaborative Agreement is dead.
Violence reduction programs borne from the Collaborative have also “evolved.” The Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence, for example, has gone by the wayside. In a report on Feb. 1, 2024, the city manager told WCPO that the initiative had “evolved.” Indeed, the city announced the “reimagining of CIRV,” six months earlier, on July 30, 2023. WCPO described CIRV as “the primary violence reduction program in Cincinnati from 2007-2015.”
The videos of Roley are evidence that the city manager has a toxic situation on her hands. It is probably one of the leading factors affecting employee morale and represents a serious organizational risk on other levels as well. Whether Roley stays or goes, the city should reach out to someone like Saul Green, who served as the Collaborative’s court-appointed monitor.
An independent and credible authority on law enforcement management is urgently needed to make an assessment and advise the mayor and the City Council on possible solutions to this toxic situation and its aftermath.
Todd J. Zinser is a Cincinnati native and resides in West Price Hill. He retired as the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Commerce after 31 years of conducting audits and investigations of federal officials, programs, and operations. He remains a certified fraud examiner. He is a member of the Charter Committee of Cincinnati and hosts a podcast on YouTube, “Citizen Watchdog with Todd Zinser.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Roley’s grip on Cincinnati police grows as the Collaborative Agreement fades | Opinion
Reporting by Todd Zinser / Cincinnati Enquirer
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