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Speaker 1: It's six point thirty one fifty about fair CD talk station.

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Speaker 1: A very happy Friday EU to you. Welcome back to

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Speaker 1: the fifty five case morning. She always enjoy hearing from

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Speaker 1: FOP President Ken Cover. That of course is Chapter sixty

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Speaker 1: nine FOP representing the Cincinni Police Department. Ken, It's always

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Speaker 1: pleasure having you on the show. Welcome back, my friend.

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Speaker 2: Hey, good morning, Brian, Happy Friday.

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Speaker 1: Happy Friday Eve. Yeah. David Ferrara, reporting for The enquire

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Speaker 1: says the Cincinnati City of Cincinnati's now spending forty one

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Speaker 1: million dollars to obtain some new technology, all of which

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Speaker 1: comes from this company called Axon, which is the company

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Speaker 1: that started it started by manufacturing tasers, but apparently has

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Speaker 1: expanded its options to body cameras, drones, virtual reality training headsets,

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Speaker 1: and then a cloud based platform that this company operates itself,

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Speaker 1: where all of the data collected from this technology the

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Speaker 1: police officers have is stored basically under their corporate umbrella.

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Speaker 1: I'm going just first start by did you see the

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Speaker 1: reporting on this. Is there anything that you use the

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Speaker 1: police department generally object x two where things is unnecessary

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Speaker 1: or do you view this infusion of cash and technology

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Speaker 1: as a positive thing, Ken.

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Speaker 2: And honestly, I think it's positive. Actually, I was out

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Speaker 2: in Scottsdale at Axon's headquarters a couple of weeks ago.

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Speaker 2: They invited forty FOP leaders from around the country to

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Speaker 2: kind of it was just a forum to go over

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Speaker 2: the current technology. I don't know where they're planning ongoing

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Speaker 2: future technology, and I'm telling you advance some of this

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Speaker 2: stuff that they're creating is absolutely phenomenal. The CEO is

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Speaker 2: the one that put us on awesome guy who's geared

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Speaker 2: around making police jobs easier and safer.

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Speaker 1: Now you've got me intrigued. Can you just give us

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Speaker 1: a little thumbnail sketch of what might be coming down

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Speaker 1: the road from this company. I'm wildly curious.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So there's a lot of things that they want

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Speaker 2: to do. A lot of it's AI based to be

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Speaker 2: able to make cops jobs easier, like body cameras. You know,

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Speaker 2: there's technology already out there, and one of them they

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Speaker 2: showed a video where if if you're familiar with like

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Speaker 2: Google Translate with different languages, yeah, they have it on

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Speaker 2: body cameras. Oh so if you're talking, yeah, and actually

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Speaker 2: we're going to be getting that I'm understanding very soon

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Speaker 2: in the near future. I came back from this conference,

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Speaker 2: met with some leadership and they're like, yeah, this is coming.

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Speaker 2: So a video that they showed us from New Mexico

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Speaker 2: where an officer was dealing with somebody that had committed

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Speaker 2: a crime. He was Russian, literally puts a couple buttons.

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Speaker 2: It indicates on the body camera that you're now in Russian.

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Speaker 2: You speak in English. It spits it out to the

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Speaker 2: guy in Russian. Guys, here's it. He listens to it,

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Speaker 2: he responds, and then it translates from Russian to English

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Speaker 2: right back to you, and it does it an any

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Speaker 2: language in America or in the world.

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Speaker 1: That that is cool. And you know, obviously, you know,

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Speaker 1: say what you want about the illegal immigrant problem we

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Speaker 1: have coming in. I mean documented that people from countries

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Speaker 1: all over the globe, multiple different languages flowing on in.

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Speaker 1: That is that's an amazing development right there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, Like I said, those are those are some

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Speaker 2: of the things that that they're trying to create. And

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Speaker 2: like I said that the CEO of this company, he's

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Speaker 2: driven based off of trying to reduce police involved shootings

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Speaker 2: and if he can do that, like one of the ways.

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Speaker 2: They have a new taser that we're going to get.

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Speaker 2: I know is in that report this taser ten and

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Speaker 2: it's these tasers have been pretty effective, you know. But

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Speaker 2: his goal, and he told us in the next like

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Speaker 2: five years, is to have these tasers where they're like

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Speaker 2: ninety nine percent effectively. Is. I know, I'm not going

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Speaker 2: to prevent all police shootings. Is, but we've done statistics

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Speaker 2: and where we've seen that there have been police shootings

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Speaker 2: where a taser was deployed and it failed and then

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Speaker 2: the end result was a police involved shooting. He is,

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Speaker 2: if I can, if I can keep that from happening.

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Speaker 2: He's like, obviously, if a god pulls out a gun

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Speaker 2: and he points out you, you're going to have to

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Speaker 2: do a ship. You can protect yourself. But if you

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Speaker 2: have somebody that's that's experiencing a mental crisis and they're

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Speaker 2: just standing in their front yard with a knife, and

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Speaker 2: an officer is able to find cover, you know, whether

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Speaker 2: they're behind a car or whatever else safely deploy a

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Speaker 2: taser to be able to take them into custody without

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Speaker 2: having to kill them. Although they do have the right

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Speaker 2: to protect themselves up to including deadly force. But if

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Speaker 2: they can prevent that. That's good for everybody. It's good

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Speaker 2: for society, it's good for cops, it's good for everybody.

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Speaker 1: Well, in the new design tasers, do they provide additional range?

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Speaker 2: Is that? Yes? Absolutely? Yeah, the taser ten Now that

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Speaker 2: like I said that the police department's going to be

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Speaker 2: getting here at the beginning of twenty six they will

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Speaker 2: shoot up to almost fifty feet wow.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and presently is what more like ten feet?

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Speaker 2: They're up to about twenty five feet roughly now. But

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Speaker 2: I mean just said just the whole design a lot

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Speaker 2: of things. It actually makes it safer for the person

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Speaker 2: that's being tasted because they've changed some of the internal technology.

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Speaker 2: So there's a lot of things that this company is

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Speaker 2: doing that is serving the And I know I saw

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Speaker 2: the article you know about how they have a corner

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Speaker 2: on the market, and yeah, if other companies want to

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Speaker 2: come up with stuff, I bet are just as good

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Speaker 2: that police department should buy it.

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Speaker 1: Keed. I just I thought that was rather comical. The

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Speaker 1: one person. Companies like ix On are very interested in

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Speaker 1: getting their customers and then keeping them. This will make

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Speaker 1: the effort it takes the transfer a different platform of

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Speaker 1: offload information so that customers don't try to do that. Well,

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Speaker 1: no kidding, welcome to capitalism. Yes, of course they want

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Speaker 1: to retain their customers. So what you're the boiled down

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Speaker 1: version of what I'm hearing is there is nothing wrong

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Speaker 1: with this Axon company. They're not evil in the farious

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Speaker 1: They're doing good for the people. And who can argue

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Speaker 1: with a less deadly form of dealing with someone who

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Speaker 1: represents a significant harm to the community. This is not

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Speaker 1: something that Iris Roll is going to come out and

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Speaker 1: scream about. This is something that someone like her has

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Speaker 1: to embrace. Ken Cover, we got more technology to talk about.

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Speaker 1: Plus the meeting today, Hamilton County Sheriff Charmei mcuffey emerging

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Speaker 1: from her cave to talk about how safe it is

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Speaker 1: in the city of Cincinnati. Get your comments on that

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Speaker 1: as well more with FOP president in Ken Cobra first speak.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's not Tech Friday, it's fopew President Ken

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Speaker 1: Kober Thursday talking about the new technology the Cincinnati The

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Speaker 1: City of Cincinnati spending forty one million dollars on over

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Speaker 1: the next several years access to the company providing the technology.

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Speaker 1: They apparently have not a monopoly so much, but they

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Speaker 1: are the leader in providing technology for law enforcement. Is

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Speaker 1: can explain altruistic designed to save lives. That's what they're

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Speaker 1: all about. And they are the largest provider of this

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Speaker 1: type of equipment. Ken Cobra, I got to ask you

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Speaker 1: because apparently we're buying and already have acquired some drones.

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Speaker 1: Then to enquire crunch the numbers and they estimate for

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Speaker 1: if you care, they come out to be about sixty

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Speaker 1: two thousand dollars apiece. But they're also maintenance fees and

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Speaker 1: stuff like that. But in the final analysis, I guess

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Speaker 1: I'm kind of curious how the city is Cincinnati, the

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Speaker 1: police department rather utilizes the drone technology. I mean, there's

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Speaker 1: I envision, you know, sort of an Orwellian reality where

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Speaker 1: these things are flying around all the time everywhere. But

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Speaker 1: then I'm thinking, well, there aren't enough people really monitor

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Speaker 1: what the drones are viewing. So how does law enforcem

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Speaker 1: we utilize drone technology to the citizens advantage.

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Speaker 2: So the number one way that they use them outside

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Speaker 2: of like patrol, and I'll get to that is during

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Speaker 2: like swat situations. We've been using them for years, right

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Speaker 2: where instead of sending officers in, you know, if you

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Speaker 2: have a standoff in a building, they'll send a drone

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Speaker 2: in makes perfect which makes a hope, It makes absolutely

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Speaker 2: makes perfect sense, not only is to protecting the officers,

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Speaker 2: but as protecting someone there, especially if they're armed, then

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Speaker 2: they're able to see that in real time. And then

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Speaker 2: obviously the drone. Through the drone, they can communicate if

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Speaker 2: there's somebody in the building that's armed with a gun,

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Speaker 2: they can start giving them commands to drop the gun,

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Speaker 2: drop the gun. Once they finally drop the gun, they

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Speaker 2: can then give them commands to come to any door,

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Speaker 2: lay down whatever they want them to do. That way,

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Speaker 2: the officers can safely go in there and apprehend them

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Speaker 2: so nobody gets hurt. The way they're using them on

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Speaker 2: a daily basis are specific radio runs, you know, so

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Speaker 2: they're not just like flying around like you know, just

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Speaker 2: just waiting for some them to happen. You know, if

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Speaker 2: they get a specific radio run where an officer goes, hey,

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Speaker 2: a drone would be useful, you know, whether it's you know,

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Speaker 2: a fight in progress, you know, at a specific location,

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Speaker 2: they could say, let's send a drone and see what's

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Speaker 2: going on. Maybe there's no fight. If there's no fight,

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Speaker 2: then we don't need to worry about sending officers that

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Speaker 2: are on the ground to go there. They can be

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Speaker 2: focused towards other things interesting. But they also they also

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Speaker 2: use them. They'll use them flight a gun run. You know.

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Speaker 2: They get a description of a male wearing a purple

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Speaker 2: shirt at at third and Main Street, they can fly

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Speaker 2: a drone there find out first of all, is there

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Speaker 2: a mail with a purple shirt standing there? And number

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Speaker 2: two does he have a gun? And if he does, well,

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Speaker 2: then let's see how we can coordinate this effort. That way,

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Speaker 2: we can do this the safest way possible.

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Speaker 1: Well, I imagine they also have to be they'll arrive

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Speaker 1: on the scene probably a lot quicker than some officer

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Speaker 1: that's being dispatched from what District three or something has

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Speaker 1: got to drive halfway across town to get to the

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Speaker 1: actual scene. As the description says, these docks where the

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Speaker 1: drones are going to be stored are placed all across

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Speaker 1: the city. So is there one remote drone operation center

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Speaker 1: that could deploy a drone immediately and then have it

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Speaker 1: arrive at the scene even before the officers get.

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Speaker 2: There without a doubt? You know? But not only that,

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Speaker 2: it's like, you know, they're they're subject to being recalled

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Speaker 2: if there's not a current drone operator working and they

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Speaker 2: need one for something. All they need is an Internet

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Speaker 2: connection and they could fly a drone from anywhere. Oh wow.

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Speaker 2: So if they're at home and they go, hey, we

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Speaker 2: need a drone right now, they could go log into

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Speaker 2: a computer and they could have a drone in the

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Speaker 2: air going somewhere within a matter of minutes. Wow. Which

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Speaker 2: is it's incredible technology. That is Certainly it's going to

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Speaker 2: make officers a whole lot safer, which certainly is why

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Speaker 2: I'm the biggest proponent of this. But it's also going

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Speaker 2: to keep the community safer as well. When you look

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Speaker 2: at having to apprehend violent people that may be armed.

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Speaker 2: It's just a safer way of doing things. And it's

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Speaker 2: it's the future of policing, whether we like it or not.

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Speaker 1: And I'm glad you put that on the tail end,

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Speaker 1: because you know what I love about this is for

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Speaker 1: everything you pointed out, it's better for the officers, it's

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Speaker 1: better for us safer communities, but it also is a

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Speaker 1: orwell in reality that we are being video cameraed and

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Speaker 1: all the time. It's something we're all going to have

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Speaker 1: to guests get used to Ken Cobra pause. Apparently Charmee

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Speaker 1: mcuffey and others are going to be having a meeting today,

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Speaker 1: including the interim police chief, talk about how low the

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Speaker 1: crime rate is in the city of Cincinnati. Will get

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Speaker 1: your insights and thoughts about this upcoming meeting. One more

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Speaker 1: with FOP President Kencober after cover Sincy. What's six fifty

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Speaker 1: fifth about KARCD talk station Very Happy Thursday s Last

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Speaker 1: Friday EVU Brian Thomas with FOP President Cancober represented the

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Speaker 1: Cincinni's Police Department and doing a great job, and I

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Speaker 1: appreciate your willingness to come on the program to talk

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Speaker 1: about these vital issues. And of course over the summer

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Speaker 1: we had the July twenty six beat down. No one

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Speaker 1: forgets that it sort of set off alarm bells. Of course,

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Speaker 1: in the aftermath of Sarah Herringer getting her husband stabbed

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Speaker 1: to death in their over the Rhine apartment, we've got

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Speaker 1: a real problem with crime in the city. Everyone's screaming

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Speaker 1: about crime in the city and mayor have to have

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Speaker 1: provol After well years if not months, of saying there

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Speaker 1: is no problem with crime, finally acknowledge there is and

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Speaker 1: decided to move in a different direction with law enforcement,

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Speaker 1: taking the state up on some of the offers of

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Speaker 1: resources like the state patrols, and changing how law enforcement

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Speaker 1: operates downtown. They're going to have a press conference day,

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Speaker 1: Haven't and Kenny Sheriff Charmey McGuffey, Interim Police Chief Adam Henney,

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Speaker 1: and State Patrol Colonel Charles Jones are going to be

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Speaker 1: talking about this. Ken Cobert, is your perception that crime

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Speaker 1: is down since those turbulent months over the summertime?

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Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean, obviously as soon as we go

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Speaker 2: into a colder weather, things do seem to calm down.

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Speaker 2: But you know, one of the things that I was

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Speaker 2: told yesterday from an officer that was happening to be

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Speaker 2: off duty up on Shortvine last Thursday night, it said,

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Speaker 2: you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a cop.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow.

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Speaker 2: And when that happens, they had the state patrol there,

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Speaker 2: they had the city there. When you start doing those

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Speaker 2: things and you flood areas with law enforcement, of crime's

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Speaker 2: gonna go down. I mean, that's just that's common sense.

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Speaker 2: That's what the horse have been trying to beat for

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Speaker 2: the last year and a half. Now, Well, hiring more officers.

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Speaker 2: Find they have to find creative ways to hire officers quicker,

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Speaker 2: but they have to be qualified officers, but hire them quicker,

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Speaker 2: and that just is yet to be done. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: I mean, we're seeing it that it's crime will be

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Speaker 2: reduced when you have a bigger presence. That's why they

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Speaker 2: have cops on Fountain Square every day.

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Speaker 1: It just seems so like, no kidding, what do we

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Speaker 1: do to reduce crime. Let's put more cops out there,

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Speaker 1: a police presence. Wow, that'll work. Okay, not exactly revolutionary,

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Speaker 1: can but at least they're trying to do that now.

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Speaker 1: Whereas I guess police up until a moment and time ago,

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Speaker 1: were perceived as some soul somehow, I don't know, triggering

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Speaker 1: for residents of certain communities, like the presence of a

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Speaker 1: police officer, we're going to cause people to break down emotionally.

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Speaker 2: Well. And the reality is if you have that just

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Speaker 2: that presence is likely going to avoid having to take

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Speaker 2: any enforcement exactly no. And if one knucklehead wants to

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Speaker 2: act up, then you deal with that person, and everybody

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Speaker 2: else around sees them and goes I don't want to

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Speaker 2: go to jail today. I think I'll just not break

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Speaker 2: the law while the cops are around. I mean, it's

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Speaker 2: pretty simple concept.

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Speaker 1: Okay, back to the topic of well, the solution of

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Speaker 1: the problem more officers, more officer presence. We are down.

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Speaker 1: We are still down a couple of one hundred. Can

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Speaker 1: am I accurate on that? And the number is still dropping?

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Speaker 1: Are more people in the drop program or were people

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Speaker 1: taking early retirement?

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Speaker 2: Where are we on that? We are getting dangerously close

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Speaker 2: to being under nine hundred again, you know, with a

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Speaker 2: complement of almost one thousand and sixty, so I mean

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Speaker 2: we're pushing one hundred and sixty short. We're facing sixty

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Speaker 2: to eighty retirements a year, and the problem is we're

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Speaker 2: only hiring about fifty five a year. And I get

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Speaker 2: it with the we can only have one recruit class year.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the reality is our academy staff doesn't have

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Speaker 2: the means nor the space to be able to run

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Speaker 2: more than one recruit class at a time. So they

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Speaker 2: really have to start thinking about, you know, thinking outside

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Speaker 2: the box in unconventional ways new officers, and there are

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Speaker 2: ways out there, there are things that have been discussed

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Speaker 2: so far, none of it's been done, So I'm certainly

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Speaker 2: hoping that maybe here in the future they'll start listening

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Speaker 2: and find a way to get more people in the door,

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Speaker 2: especially when they see that if you have these extra cops,

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Speaker 2: you know, these things will calm down, crime will start

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Speaker 2: to go down if you have more of a presence.

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Speaker 1: Well, you have two options, new classes or lateral hires.

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Speaker 1: So let's real quick with the new classes, if you

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Speaker 1: could do more than one annually, let's say they had

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Speaker 1: unlimited training resources, would there be enough competent, warm bodies

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Speaker 1: that would sign up to want to join the classes.

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Speaker 2: I think you would, because what we're seeing now is

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Speaker 2: we have there are people going through like you see

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Speaker 2: Claremont has a police academy, Butler Tech has a police academy,

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Speaker 2: and they're filling their classes. And these are people that

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Speaker 2: are paying to go to these classes, and they're paying

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Speaker 2: upwards of ten thousand dollars, you know, to be certified

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Speaker 2: as police officers. Well, why can't the city of Cincinnati

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Speaker 2: be capitalizing on those folks?

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Speaker 1: Good point, excellent point. Insofar as lateral hires, since we're

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Speaker 1: almost out of time, you're in competition literally with every

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Speaker 1: other city that is looking for police officers, and you know,

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Speaker 1: going to a lower crime area. Maybe worth sacrificing a

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Speaker 1: bit of compensation. What is the biggest impediment to getting

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Speaker 1: lateral hires to choose the city of Cincinnati versus really

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Speaker 1: literally anyplace else.

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Speaker 2: Well, what we saw over the summer was was City

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Speaker 2: Hall and the things that were being said from City

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Speaker 2: Hall and the perceived lack of support. Let's be honest,

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Speaker 2: it wasn't perceived, it was just actual that constant believe

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Speaker 2: they're being supported because quite honestly, they weren't being forced

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Speaker 2: to sign charges on somebody they weren't comfortable doing. Who

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Speaker 2: would want to subject themselves to that. You know, we

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Speaker 2: have a new city council with the same mayor. Hopefully

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Speaker 2: their teams change, we can get that support back. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I look forward to working with them. Hopefully that comes

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Speaker 2: to fruition and you know, maybe we'll get back to

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Speaker 2: where you know, they want to support the police, are

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Speaker 2: going to show that they support the police, and that

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Speaker 2: will certainly have a major impact on recruiting. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, something Christopher Smith has been saying for years, Where

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Speaker 1: is the administration, Where is their show of support for

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Speaker 1: the police. The silence is deafening. So maybe we have

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Speaker 1: turned a new page. I'm willing to remain optimistic about that, Ken,

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Speaker 1: and I wish you all the best in the hopes

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Speaker 1: that the city moves in that direction and we have

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Speaker 1: a safer city to show for it. Ken Cobra, FLP President.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much, sir for joining us and talking

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Speaker 1: about these important topics. Looking forward to having you back

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Speaker 1: on again.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Brian, so it was a pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Thank you brother,