The New Blue Line

Police chief Teresa Theetge is embracing the city’s recent anti-slur policy for officers, but the police union may not be fully on board.

BY MADELINE FENING

Teresa Theetge is just starting to move into an office that’s been hers for almost a year.

“I didn’t want to jinx it,” she tells CityBeat while shuffling around papers to clear her desk.

The office at the Cincinnati Police Department’s district one headquarters was technically Theetge’s starting in February 2022 when she was appointed interim chief after former chief Eliot Isaac announced his retirement.

But now, after months of community feedback and careful consideration from city manager Sheryl Long, Theetge has transitioned from the temporary position to the official chief of CPD, the first woman to hold the job. And beyond picking a new paint color for her goldenrod office walls (she’s thinking gray), Theetge is looking ahead after a year plagued with headlines about officers saying slurs – particularly the n-word, the racist term for Black people – while on the job.

New policies, new views

It was the year of the reveal, it seemed. 2022 brought not only new cases of CPD officers saying the n-word at work, but also court cases about previous incidents in the not-so-distant past. According to a records request filed by CityBeat:

• Detective Joehonny Reese, who is Black, was briefly suspended of his police powers during an investigation into his use of the n-word while working an off-duty detail at Energy Nightclub in

September. Reese was dealing with a drunk teenager who was repeatedly calling him the n-word until Reese responded to the teen saying he “wouldn’t be an n-word.”

• Officer Rose Valentino, who is white, was fired in August after body camera footage from April caught her saying, “Fucking n******s, I fucking hate them!” while inside her cruiser outside Western Hills University High School. As interim chief, Theetge recommended her termination.

• Officer Kelly Drach, who is white, was suspended for yelling “Sand n****r!” to telemarketers on two known occasions in November 2021 while working the desk in CPD’s Real Time Crime Center. Drach’s case came to light in August. She was handed a sevenday suspension, which District Four commander Mark Burns had recommended to Isaac.

• In 2018, officers Donte Hill, who is Black, and Dennis Barnette, who is white, sued the city, saying Isaac disciplined them in different ways when they were both caught on video using the same racial slur. After a jury deadlocked in Hamilton County, the officer’s case ended up being settled out of court in December 2022. Each officer received $25,000 in the settlement.

According to records, these were the only documented cases of officers using slurs on the job since January 2013. There may be other instances that were undocumented.

Documented or not, slurs won’t fly in Theetge’s camp, she says.

“There are things that are maybe shocking but acceptable. If I drop the f-bomb because I’m stressed, that might be shocking to some people but it’s acceptable. If I were to drop a racial slur, that would be shocking and unacceptable,” says Theetge, who is white. “I’m proud to say I’ve never said the word.”

To help rein in slur usage and other misconduct, Theetge says the department employs a standard rigorous background check and implicit bias training for new officers. The CPD also is now working with a vendor to develop a new digital process for more quickly identifying officers who exhibit concerning behavior.

“We’re working on a system now – an early warning system,” Theetge tells CityBeat. “It will be more real time.”

CPD’s current system for tracking officer performance and concern focuses on categories such as use of force, citizens’ complaints, use of sick time, vehicle crashes, civil lawsuits and others. Not every activity in a category is misconduct on its face, but Theetge says keeping an eye on these areas helps to identify officers in need of intervention.

“We compare officers to their peers, and if somebody is above the threshold [of a high number of warning signs] compared to their peers, that sends a red flag to us. Then our inspections section monitors that type of activity and they then push out to the district commanders, ‘Hey, here’s somebody under your command that is above the threshold to their peers, you need to take a look at them,’” Theetge says. “And every quarter, we get together as a group – the command staff – and we talk about the outliers and what kind of an intervention plan we need to put them on.”

The new tracking tool, which will be developed after the CPD completes its vendor bidding process, will add a realtime layer to the department’s system that Theetge says will alert leadership to red flags as they appear, not just quarterly.

“This system would say, “Hey, captain, just FYI, officer Smith got involved in a use-of-force over the weekend and now he’s above his peers’ a little bit more real-time.”

Theetge also says she is embracing the city’s new policy that requires quick and consequential investigations into officers who say the n-word on the job.

In August, the uptick of slur-use cases prompted city leaders to announce that they would seek to amend Administrative Regulation 25, the city’s nondiscrimination policy, to move toward a zero-tolerance policy for racial slurs. Before this, the city’s policy gave supervisors the leeway to discipline employees who used slurs based on the circumstance of the slur and the history of the employee. Supervisors considered things like prolonged stress or a clean disciplinary record.

The new policy reads:

“If any employee uses the n-word, the department shall conduct a fair and thorough investigation and determine whether the employee used the n-word or a version of the n-word. For usage of the n-word, the presumptive penalty is termination, except in those very rare circumstances where mitigating circumstances are evident. City Officials involved in the disciplinary process (i.e., the hearing officer, agency head, Human Resources Director, and City Solicitor) issuing a recommendation to an Appointing Authority that is for a penalty less than termination should document the mitigating circumstances in writing at all steps of the disciplinary process and why such usage should not result in termination of employment.”

If caught using the n-word, most officers will be terminated from their jobs, pending an investigation. For other slurs, it’s the city’s policy to place the employee on leave while an internal investigation is conducted, and the employee could possibly be fired.

Theetge, who says she welcomes fair and thorough investigations into officer conduct, emphasizes that circumstances could dictate the outcome.

“First and foremost, I think it’s important to understand, from my perspective, that context matters – what they said, when they said it, who they said it to,” Theetge says.

But Dan Hils, the president of the local Fraternal Order of Police union that represents Cincinnati police officers, has been critical of Theetge during internal investigations. In the case of Reese, Hils says he was outraged that the officer was relegated to desk duty while the department conducted an internal investigation regarding his use of the n-word. In September, Hils told local media outlets that Reese should never have been suspended for “longer than an hour,” calling on Theetge to immediately reinstate the officer or face a vote of no confidence from the union. Reese’s suspension ultimately ran Sept. 2-20.

“I don’t think it’s fair at all. I don’t like racial slurs, I don’t use racial slurs,” Hils, who is white, tells CityBeat. “It’s wrong, but I can tell you in the real world and how police officers work – they hear the most damning word of all. We know what it is – the n-word. That’s the one that seems to create the greatest reaction with people.”

But Hils may be forced to reckon with the fact that, should an officer find themselves caught saying a slur on the job again, a formal investigation process will be required by the city manager’s office because of the revised policy. According to Theetge, officers who conduct themselves well won’t have anything to worry about.

“I think the people who might be upset about the [investigation] length are probably not well versed in what the process entails,” Theetge says.

Theetge says that contrary to assumptions, internal investigators do not approach one case at a time, instead often balancing multiple cases at once, which slows the process down.

“I know some people think, well, they saw the video, and it is what it is, here’s what should happen to the officer. There’s more to it than just watching a video,” she says. “But what I have done with each one of them is when it’s brought to my attention that these occur, [I] suspend the officer’s powers, send it to internal, tell internal to fast-track it, make it a priority, and bring me all the facts.”

Searching for reasons

Being a member of law enforcement can be difficult. But does that play into why an officer might say forbidden, racist words or phrases?

Hils tells CityBeat that the union agrees that none of the officers who were caught saying slurs on the job in 2022 should have been fired. He also says stress and exposure to the n-word need to be considered when deciding potential punishment.

“[Officers] might hear that word a dozen times on a single radio call,” Hils says. “And, you know, I can’t speak scientifically about how the brain reacts in crisis or in anger, but as a lay person, I think there is this momentary thing that happens to all sorts of people, you know?”

The excuses of stress and exposure dominated the defense for officers Drach and Valentino in 2022. According to internal documents, Drach told investigators that “the effects of the pandemic, health issues with her father, the loss of two children, her husband losing his job, and her eldest son who suffers from mental health problems,” caused her to say a word she says she doesn’t believe.

Valentino also cited stress as the reason for her outburst but added that she’d become “desensitized” to the n-word from interacting with citizens on the job.

Theetge says she doesn’t see stress as justification for using slurs.

“I do believe this is a stressful job. There is no doubt about it. That’s why we focus so much today on officer wellness, because society as a whole now recognizes law enforcement is a very stressful profession,” Theetge says. “But I know officers who have been in extremely more stressful situations than some of these officers who used racial slurs and they never used it, so I’m not buying stress as a reason.”

Stress can be a factor in outbursts, but experts say it’s not necessarily the only one. During her postdoctoral fellowship in social neuroscience at New York University, Jennifer Kubota worked on projects related to the neural foundations of racial bias. She is now an assistant professor and co-director of the Impression Formation Social Neuroscience Lab at the University of Delaware, where she routinely publishes research about interracial interactions between police officers and civilians.

Kubota tells CityBeat that stress doesn’t change a person’s character overnight, but it can impact their ability to make clear, thoughtful decisions.

“Not all people react to stressful situations in the same way. Over time, we become used to it – what is called habituated – and perform just fine,” Kubota says. “To that person – say an emergency responder – they may not view that situation as stressful but rather as part of their job.

“The exception is when they feel directly threatened, which is a day-today experience for some,” Kubota continues. “Extreme stress from a direct threat on your life can undermine expertise and training, and people may not react optimally.”

Kubota says racial biases can leak out with stress, especially when someone doesn’t have control of their environment, but she adds that these biases are picked up from their environments.

“It is important to note that implicit racial biases are cultural associations that people soak up from their environment. They are not necessarily representative of what someone would typically do or say or even what they truly believe,” Kubota says.

For officers who have been fired – including for using slurs – The Fraternal Order of Police’s grievance board provides a chance to appeal the firing with the help of the union’s resources. Hils says Valentino will seek reinstatement “very soon” from a three-person panel of independent arbitrators from the American Arbitrators Association, adding that the arbitrators have the ultimate authority to reinstate Valentino through the FOP’s labor agreement. The city manager’s office and Cincinnati

Police Department do not have a say in the reinstatement decision.

“I am not commenting on what I believe officer Valentino should receive because we’re still in progress in that, but obviously the union feels that – and has voted that – the across-the-board dismissal on that case was not justified,” Hils says.

Iris Roley has some thoughts on that. A founding leader of the Cincinnati Black United Front, Roley is the city’s consultant for issues related to the Collaborative Agreement, a set of policecommunity relationship values outlined between the Cincinnati Police Department, Cincinnati Black United Front, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and community members in 2002. The agreement was created after the 2001 shooting death of 19-year-old Timothy Thomas, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of a CPD officer.

Roley, who is Black, tells CityBeat that she’s concerned about Hils’ view that Valentino’s firing wasn’t justified.

“It says a lot about who he is. It says a lot about who votes him in,” Roley tells CityBeat. “You have half of the population of this town that can be identified by a racial slur. It is unacceptable. It is so critical that we understand who these people are because your language will dictate your behavior.”

Roley was at the forefront of revising Administrative Regulation 25, working closely with the city to submit the first round of proposed edits. For Roley, there is no gray area for using slurs on the force, and no circumstance is worthy of exception.

“When you use a racial slur, it is not in the context of teaching or the context of a term of endearment. A racial slur is a racial slur is a racial slur,” Roley says. “If you use a racial slur, everyone should be held to the same standard. There should be no exceptions in the process of figuring out what exactly happened. That is giving people the due process.”

“I’m just glad Dan Hils isn’t the one who makes decisions around policies that dictate behaviors of city employees,” says Roley, whose work includes watchdog advocacy for the CPD and its union.

Roley won’t have to worry about Hils much longer. In December, Hils will wind down his fourth and final term as president of Cincinnati’s Fraternal Order of Police having served eight years total. He says he’s cautiously optimistic about the year ahead with Theetge, despite having preferred a different candidate for chief, but adds that he’s being realistic.

“The decision’s been made. I want to go into every relationship I have with an administrator with a glass half full. It’s a relationship between labor and management and it’s going to have hiccups,” Hils says. “It’s not in my best interest to say we’re going to get along great – it would be a false prediction. It’s not in my best interest to say that we will fail to get along because that would be negative. There will be highs and there will be lows.”

Theetge, herself, is prepared for the highs and lows of her new role, including the possibility of another officer revealing some form of racial bias.

“Do I think some of that exists? Yeah, we would be naive to think that it doesn’t exist. I’m not that naive,” the new chief says. “This year was rough for us with these racial slurs, but I’m optimistic that out of that, maybe came – something where maybe people are more aware of what they’re doing, what they’re saying and how they’re being perceived.”