Johnson drew comparisons between Hamilton and the Missouri city that has prompted national discussions on race and police shootings since a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, a black teen, on Aug. 9. A candlelight vigil turned violent after it was revealed that Brown, 18, was unarmed when Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson shot him, and escalated into weeks of protests and confrontations with police.
Scrimizzi wrote in a letter to Smith obtained by the Journal-News that he has worked “relentlessly from the day I became police chief to improve the relationship between the minority community and the police department.”
“I have a relationship with these people,” he said later, and added that he attends monthly meetings at the Booker T. Washington Community Center in the Second Ward with the City-Wide Faith Based Alliance and religious and community leaders, and has gotten nothing but positive feedback from those meetings.
“We didn’t just start doing this yesterday,” he said.
South East Civic Association President Bob Harris said he could see a incident similar to what is occurring in Ferguson happening in Hamilton, because it almost happened over 14 years ago when Russell Rodgers died in police custody of a drug overdose.
Second Ward residents erupted in violence on Aug. 7, 1997, after Rodgers died in police custody after ingesting crack cocaine. He was stopped by officers on Aug. 1 for a traffic violation. The officers noticed a white substance on his lips. He was arrested after attempting to swallow the substance that he denied was cocaine. Police suspected that he had ingested the drug, but because he denied it, they didn’t bring him to the hospital, Harris said. He died six days later at Mercy Hospital, and rumors of police brutality incited Second Ward citizens to riot outside of the police station.
“We had to keep people from going to the streets and getting hurt, black and white,” he said. “People were throwing rocks at cars, and police came out with riot cars and guns and dogs, and it was just ugly.”
“Anything that deals with race discrimination, we do not want to deal with as a city,” he added.
An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and an internal Hamilton Police Department investigation cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing, but Johnson said those memories still linger in the Second Ward.
“People think these conversations are dead, that they don’t happen here,” he said. “But there are issues.”
NAACP President Gary Hines supported Johnson’s comments, referring to a diversity study conducted by the city in early 2011, and said that those efforts had not been sufficient to address the tensions in the city.
“It’s a whole culture that has to be challenged,” he said. “Our kids tend not to come back here (to Hamilton), because there are very few opportunities for them unless they’re connected.”
Hamilton Mayor Pat Moeller said that while the city tries to make notices of job openings available throughout the city, “the applicant has to jump in the pool.”
Director of Civil Service and Personnel Nadine Hill said that she has personally distributed notices of job openings in minority churches, schools, and at events.
“We make extra efforts to ensure they apply,” she said. She added that personal efforts she has made to direct African-American jobseekers to the police and fire exams have been in vain.
“They just say no, they’re not interested,” she said.
According to documents provided by the Hamilton Police Department, black officers make up 4.7 percent of the department, Hispanic officers make up 1.9 percent, and female officers make up 4.7 percent. Male white officers make up 94.3 percent of the police force.
The city of Hamilton’s 2012 demographic statistics provided by the city’s department of planning denote the city’s workforce split up as 48.9 percent female, 89 percent white, 6 percent black, and 7.1 percent Hispanic.
Scrimizzi said that since he became head of the department in March of 2012, he has hired every minority and female candidate that has been certified for employment to any position within the organization.
“I can say without question that we have never passed over anyone,” Scrimizzi said.
He added that the department makes multiple recruitment efforts throughout the year and in varied locations to bring notice to openings within the organization. They recruit at several educational institutions, including Miami University, Xavier University, Central State University in Wilburforce, Eastern Kentucky University, and Sinclair University. They have a presence at community events such as Operation Pumpkin and Sense of Place meetings because “that’s what community policing is all about,” he said.
Earlier in the meeting during the audience of citizens, Bishop Gary Chance of Kingdom Ministries House of Prayer, 128 N. Second St., said he was “pleased, appreciative, and honored to be part of the city,” and recognized Scrimizzi for his efforts to reach out to the community and attend the monthly Unity meetings organized by the City-Wide Faith Based Alliance.
“What’s happening in Hamilton was not happening in the past,” he said. “We want our city better.”
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