CINCINNATI (WKRC) - The head of Cincinnati’s police union is asking the city manager to reevaluate certain members of the Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement. Dan Hils says Iris Roley, a program manager with the Cincinnati Black United Front, is damaging the relationship between the community and criminal justice system, but Roley is pushing back saying she’s not going anywhere.
Hils says there have been several issues that caused him to write a letter to City Manager Patrick Duhaney, but he says seeing Roley protest outside Judge Patrick Dinklelacker's home last week was the last straw.
“It’s more of a personal thing,” said Hils, president of the Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police. “There's been no vote taken with the FOP. It's sitting squarely with me saying that I personally don't feel this is truly a partner in collaboration. In fact, it's just the opposite."
Last week, Roley was one of two dozen protestors who picketed outside of Judge Patrick Dinklelacker's home in the wake of former judge Tracie Hunter's jail sentence. Hils says Roley's participation shows she dismisses due process and her actions are inflammatory.
“She does have a First Amendment right,” said Hils. “So do I. I have a First Amendment right to say I’m not going to sit with somebody who goes about their protest in that way."
Roley, a key player in the 2001 Collaborative Agreement between the police department, the FOP and the city, says the letter puts a target on her back.
“These types of letters are pretty divisive and the powers that be probably need to take a look at these letters and make some determination: Is this fair? Is this a personal attack against Iris Roley?” said Roley.
Despite feeling threatened, Roley says she'll continue speaking out.
“I am a taxpayer. I pay for a service, and if the service is unfair, I will speak out on that service, and if that's agitating to Dan Hils, then so be it, but I would expect Dan Hils to come to the table like an adult,” said Roley.
But Hils says as long as Roley is at that table, he won't be there.
“I don't think her aim is collaboration. I think her aim is self-promotion,” said Hils.
Cincinnati has voluntarily participated in the collaborative agreement after the federal oversight ended in 2007. That agreement came after the American Civil Liberties Union and the Cincinnati Black United Front sued the police department and FOP alleging racially biased policing.
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