Top Cincinnati university cop urged aggressive traffic stops: report
By Justin Madden
(Reuters) - The former chief of the University of Cincinnati police force encouraged aggressive use of traffic stops to look for guns and drugs, according to a report by a consultant reviewing the department after a white officer shot and killed an unarmed black man during a traffic stop last year.
Former University of Cincinnati Police Chief Jason Goodrich, who resigned in February amid an internal review, pushed the department's officers to make more traffic stops, according to the report by consulting firm Exiger released this week.
Goodrich and the department's No. 2 official, Major Tim Thornton, who also resigned, said they were unaware of the reason for the surge in traffic stops, the review said.
Goodrich and Thornton could not immediately be reached for comment.
The officers' resignations came during the review of an off-campus traffic stop last July 19 during which former officer Raymond Tensing shot and killed Samuel DuBose.
Tensing claimed he was being dragged by DuBose's car during an attempted escape but Tensing’s body camera footage as well as an investigation concluded the car was barely moving, if at all, when Tensing fired.
A grand jury later indicted Tensing for murder. He pleaded not guilty and is free on $1 million bond. His trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 24.
Police use of lethal force, especially by white officers against unarmed African-Americans and other minorities, has been the focus of nationwide protests and the killing of DuBose also fueled demonstrations.
An independent report on DuBose's shooting released last September called it "entirely preventable."
Robin Engel, the university's vice president for safety and reform, said on Friday that traffic stops can be an effective policing tool but only when used with proper oversight and data review.
Exiger said Goodrich and Thornton were untruthful with both Exiger and the university administration, "misrepresenting their knowledge as to significant increased use of off-campus traffic stops by UCPD officers during the chief’s tenure.
"It was clear that Chief Goodrich embraced the aggressive use of such stops as part of his policing philosophy," Exiger added.
Exiger found traffic stops and traffic citations increased by almost 400 percent after Goodrich took over as chief in November 2014.
It said traffic stops prior to Goodrich's arrival averaged about 86 a month but then hit about 271 a month. In the two months before DuBose's death, stops and citations were at all-time average highs of 412 and 392, respectively.
(Reporting by Justin Madden in Chicago; Editing by Bill Trott and Matthew Lewis)
