The Village of Lincoln Heights, a township in Hamilton County, Ohio, will be the focus of this Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) project. Lincoln Heights' population is 84.3 percent African American, 8.3 percent Caucasian, and 6.2 percent bi- or multi-racial. Lincoln Heights has a median household income of $24,055, roughly $50,000 less than the national level. The local economy employs approximately one-third of the village, thus maintaining its vital role in the village's future. Several news media outlets have published articles on the historic nature of Lincoln Heights, the devasting economic conditions, persistent drug dealing and violence, and the hope citizens have for revitalization, all of which were vetted and confirmed by community leaders in Lincoln Heights.

There has been consistent and increasing violent crime in Lincoln Heights for the last three consecutive years. Overall, Lincoln Heights accounted for 25-75 percent of homicides, 8-10 percent of rapes, 8-16 percent of assaults, and 4-13 percent of robberies across all of Hamilton County Sherriff's Office’s (HCSO) jurisdiction between 2017 and 2019.

After World War II, African Americans came to Lincoln Heights to find jobs and residency. During this time, racial tensions were high, and residents of Lincoln Heights felt vulnerable. Historically, Lincoln Heights residents' primary source of income was generated from Wright Aeronautical Plant and a neighboring chemical plant. An attempt was made to incorporate Lincoln Heights as a city to independently solve these problems since Lincoln Heights depended on Lockland and Woodlawn Village management. This move was met with competition from Lockland, thus obstructing the process. Later, Lincoln Heights sold the western and eastern parts of their village to Lockland and Evendale, which further adversely affected residents' source of income. The Wright Aeronautical Plant management was wary of being located in Lincoln Heights because of its economic state, and the plant was eventually built on the recently sold land. After the township boundaries were restructured, Lincoln Heights was left with no commercial tax base and faced problems with infrastructure and municipal amenities that have yet to be corrected. Today, Lincoln Heights still suffers the consequences and is unable to restructure its economic and social capital.

The goal of the project is to increase the number of prosocial interactions between HCSO deputies and residents, while addressing persistent violent crime focus areas. In alignment with BCJI principles, the HCSO will use a comprehensive place-based strategy to improve police-community relations and crime at crime focus areas. The strategy is designed to create a cross-sector partnership between the HCSO, the community, and the University of Cincinnati's Institute of Crime Science, and increase the number of prosocial interactions between HCSO deputies and residents, while addressing persistent violent crime focus areas. This program draws from a handful of evidence-based policing disciplines, including focused patrols, Community and Problem-Oriented Policing (CPOP), procedural justice principles, and community policing. The site's Planning Phase strategy contains nine components:

• Developing a cross-sector partnership;
• Identifying community engagement areas (CEAs);
• Launching a public notification campaign;
• Creating community engagement patrols;
• Developing CEA profiles;
• Identifying community assets;
• Holding community engagement events;
• Conducting CPOP projects; and 
• Developing HCSO-led crime prevention strategies.

HCSO is implementing a four-part response plan to combat crime in the project’s CEAs: 

Increasing Officer Presence – Extra patrols will be conducted around the CEAs, to gain rapport with community members, identify community programs, build relationships with residents, and gather intelligence on criminal operations. To facilitate community engagement, deputies will conduct foot patrols and bicycle patrols in the CEAs. Deputies will maintain an internal log of the number of interactions they have with the different members of the community, such as residents, street-level contacts, faith-based contacts, business organizations, and others.  

Public Notification Campaign – HCSO is conducting a two-step process to notify the public of BCJI activities. During the first phase, HCSO informed the public of the grant award through social media, local news, and Village council meetings. During the second phase, HCSO aims to inform community members of the shift toward community-oriented policing.  

Community Programs – The grantee site will use Community Programs to promote relationships between HCSO and residents. These will include “one-off” events, stood up In response to specific community needs, as well as recurring programs. HCSO is planning on hosting recurring monthly crime prevention meetings with Lincoln Heights residents. HCSO will brief community members on crime trends and patterns and solicit input from community members on their safety concerns and needs.  

Crime Prevention & Enforcement Activities – After approximately nine months of extra patrols, unique crime prevention responses will be crafted for each CEA. These responses will be geared towards changing the physical environment and improving place management.  

United States Attorney's Office, Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office