UC police resume off-campus patrols

University of Cincinnati police are back on patrol in neighborhoods surrounding the Uptown campuses -- and Sam DuBose's family isn't happy about it.

DuBose, 43, was fatally shot by then-Officer Ray Tensing, who faces a murder charge and was fired from his job. The controversial killing prompted UC officials to suspend off-campus patrols as it promised a top-to-bottom review of the department.

Mark O'Mara, the high-profile lawyer who represents DuBose family members, told The Enquirer on Friday that they were surprised and disheartened to learn that the patrols had been resumed, albeit in curtailed fashion. UC police are still restricted from conducting the types of traffic stops that led to DuBose's death.

"The family is concerned that UC is going back to its old ways, without the appropriate retraining and monitoring that was promised," O'Mara said. "It's way too early to be rushing back."

UC President Santa Ono said in a statement that he's fielded many requests for UC patrols to restart in time for the academic year, which begins Aug. 24.

"UC Police play an important and effective role in maintaining a safe campus environment for our students, faculty and staff," Ono said. "Resumption of our UC patrols will be a reassurance to many members of our community, including parents, as we prepare for another academic year to begin."

The agreement came after university leaders discussed new details of the plan with city leaders, including the city solicitor and Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell. O'Mara said that DuBose's family wasn't included in those discussions.

DuBose was killed July 19 about a half-mile from campus. UC police officials say that Tensing spotted DuBose driving a car without a front license plate, prompting the traffic stop.

Video footage from Tensing's body camera shows that DuBose protested when the officer ordered him to step out of the car. Tensing fired a single shot into DuBose's head, killing him. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters announced a murder charge against Tensing less than two weeks after the death. During that announcement, Deters said that the UC department should be disbanded altogether.

In the wake of the death, UC released data that showed it had nearly doubled its ranks by hiring 32 new police officers. It also shifted the department's focus from campus patrols to more aggressive traffic enforcement in neighborhoods bordering the campus. UC cops have issued more traffic tickets so far this year than in all of 2014, and more than three times as many tickets as in 2012, according to an Enquirer analysis of data from UC researchers.

The traffic emphasis has hit black motorists especially hard, as they got more tickets than whites and were arrested more often as a result of traffic stops. Tensing gave 81 percent of the tickets he wrote this year to blacks.

UC Police Chief Jason Goodrich said earlier this week that he was "horrified" to learn of the increase in tickets issued to blacks. "That number is not acceptable," he said.

The mentality that led to the racial disparity hasn't simply vanished, O'Mara said, and there hasn't been enough time for officers to be retrained.

"How can UC guarantee those biases are gone? They're not gone yet," he said.

He added that by resuming the patrols, UC is sending a clear message: "We're OK with the way we were policing before, and we're going to keep doing it."

Ono has said that UC officers are working alongside Cincinnati officers as the patrolling issues are sorted.

The interim plan puts more of an emphasis on visibility than traffic enforcement. The plan calls for UC police to: