Cincinnati police union urges firing of consultant over alleged interference

By Karin Johnson

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    CINCINNATI (WLWT) — The Cincinnati police union is urging city leaders to fire consultant Iris Roley, accusing her of interfering with police work and harassing officers during incidents in Over-the-Rhine.

Roley’s interactions with officers were captured on police body cameras.

In one of the clips, Roley can be seen intervening as a CPD officer is asking a man to pour out a beer he is consuming on the sidewalk. The man repeatedly refuses to comply. Soon, Roley can be seen walking up to the scene.

“Do you know my name?” Roley asks the female officer as she approaches her. “I’m Iris Roley.”

Roley then proceeds to communicate with both the officer and the man, asking the officer about the situation and whether the man wanted to file a complaint against the officer while the officer stands nearby and listens.

“Here’s what we do in Cincinnati,” Roley can be heard saying at one point to the man. “If… (the officer) is as horrible as you say, then there’s a process for me to know that. She ain’t on my list. Now, if she’s as bad as you say she is to you, and you don’t put it on my list, I can’t help her get better and/or get fired.”

In another clip, Roley can be seen intervening as a CPD officer is talking about giving a traffic ticket to a woman on a street near Findlay Market. Roley appears to dissuade the officer from issuing the ticket and seems to suggest that she views it as her responsibility to intervene in police responses around her neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine.

“I’ve actually been living here,” says Roley to the officer. “So if we could just be a little bit more — Cause this is hard. So I’m living here. I’m not just — I don’t go away. I’m here every day. So my role is to ensure that there’s equity down here and try to problem-solve to figure out how to handle it. So the best that we can do together, and the more that you all can do to help me in ensuring them that we’re trying to work together, then that is what we need. Everybody is high-level intensity — everybody. And so, I know that there’s strategies that you all have to do here. So if we can get some community (unintelligible) so that people feel like they are included. As I said, I’ll be living here. I’ve been living down here since last Thursday.”

Throughout the course of the conversation, the female officer also appears to indicate that she had met Roley on a prior occasion where she had intervened in the middle of her work.

Roley can also be seen following an officer down the street, saying that she “does not trust” the officer to be left alone as she proceeds to issue another citation to a man on the street. Roley also says that she doesn’t “have to listen to” the officer when directed to back up as she attempts to physically put herself in-between the officer and the man being cited.

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) claims these interactions are examples of Roley interfering with police work.

Ken Kober, president of the Cincinnati FOP, said, “What we saw in that video was not collaboration. That was agitation.”

He also expressed his desire for City Manager Sheryl Long to publicly condemn Roley’s behavior, stating, “It’s absolutely inappropriate that you would have somebody that’s being paid with taxpayer dollars that are harassing cops.”

The union has started a petition urging city leaders to fire Roley, while Roley’s supporters are collecting signatures to keep her as an advocate for police reform.

Roley, who was hired by the city to consult on policing matters, said, “I’m grateful for the petition, but I have no comment on anything else.”

Roley’s attorney stated that her actions are within her rights to free speech and advocacy outside of her formal services for the city.

City manager Sheryl Long declined an interview but issued a statement calling Roley an essential community and civic leader.

Long emphasized that anyone working on behalf of the city must hold themselves to a higher standard and confirmed that she is reviewing the incident.

Roley receives an annual salary of $105,000 from the city for her consulting services.

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