CINCINNATI — The day after two teenagers were shot in downtown Cincinnati, the Hamilton County Association of Chiefs of Police held their second town hall at Bond Hill Corinthian Church alongside county judges and community members.
The meeting is the second in a series geared toward finding long-term solutions to crime and addressing long-standing issues within the region's criminal justice system.
"There's been some issues involving safety in the criminal justice system here in Hamilton County that have extended for years, sometimes dozens of years or more," said HCACP President Tim Holloway. "We have all watched it, and, quite frankly, we in the criminal justice system, we haven't done enough to fix those problems."
Delhi Township Police Chief Jeff Braun said he, along with the seven other police chiefs and two judges on the panel, came to hear from people about how they can better serve and protect the community.
"All of us are here because we want to look internally with what we can do and what we can do better," Braun said.
WATCH: We heard from people at the event about why they decided to attend
The crowd was disappointed to see Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge absent from the panel despite the Greater Cincinnati Faith Leaders billing her as the main guest.
Holloway apologized for the mix-up and explained Theetge was traveling to a national police chiefs conference.
"I will take complete and total ownership of her not being here tonight," Holloway said. "We did not check with her before we scheduled this. She already had plans to go to the Major Chief's Conference."
Beyond Theetge's absence, much of the conversation revolved around diversity in department leadership across Hamilton County and funding for services beyond police protection.
The latter of the two is the reason Children of Incarcerated Parents Initiative Founder Erica Farris came to the event and sat through nearly two and a half hours of testimony and questioning.
"All children that have a parent incarcerated are suffering from some sort of trauma," Farris said.
Farris said these town halls at the very least put interested parties in contact with one another.
"We can talk about different solutions or how we can work together, where, if we hadn't had this opportunity tonight, that probably would not have happened," Farris said.
The next town hall is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Bond Hill Corinthian Baptist Church. Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney Connie Pillich is slated to attend the event.
