CINCINNATI — Current Ohio gun laws are making policing tougher and more dangerous for law enforcement officers in the state, Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge told city council during a special council meeting on Wednesday.
The special meeting was called to discuss whether to more aggressively enforce the city's curfew on youth amid increases in violent and non-violent crimes committed by Cincinnati's juveniles, but the nearly three-hour-long meeting covered a multitude of topics.
Mayor Aftab Pureval said during the meeting that it seemed as if there are more guns on the streets and in people's possession now more than ever before — specifically, since Ohio eliminated it's concealed-carry licensing, voted to allow teachers to have guns in schools with just 24 hours of training and expanded stand-your-ground laws.
Those laws have all been enacted in Ohio in just the past four years.
Theetge told city council on Wednesday those laws have made working as a police officer tougher since they were passed.
"I support the people's right to bear arms," said Theetge. "However, when you have parameters around that, the advantage of having those parameters is ensuring the officer's safety when they're dealing with somebody with a firearm, when they are carrying it legally."
Theetge said one of the impacts felt by Cincinnati officers has been a result of Ohio's elimination of concealed-carry permits.
"When we had the permit carry, part of that requirement was an individual had to go through training to be able to get a permit. There was requirements where if they encountered an officer, say at a traffic stop, they had to tell an officer that they were a permitted firearm possessor," said Theetge. "And those things have now been taken away. So now we have people even, sometimes legally, carrying firearms with no training and now they do not have to tell an officer that they are carrying a firearm."
Hear this exchange between Theetge and council members below:
She said that's added uncertainty to policing in Ohio, creating a gray area where officers no longer know whether they're dealing with a legally armed person or an illegally armed person when police are called to an incident.
"So now the officer's mindset shifts from being on the offense quite often before they know what they're dealing with," said Theetge.
The lack of training requirements creates uncertainty for officers who may be dealing with someone who is armed — even legally. Theetge said CPD officers have to undergo consistent firearm training that ensures if and when they have to use their weapon, they hit their targets.
"What we're seeing now, because nobody has to go through training, even in a self-defense type of a situation, they do not have training on using that firearm," said Theetge. "I do not have confidence that leads any citizen to hit their target if they are put in a position where they feel like they have to defend their life and discharge their weapon. So, while a lot of those things may seem like minor nuances to the law, it does create an environment where it makes policing much more difficult for our officers."
Pureval and other council members pointed out a lack of support from the state legislature in Cincinnati's efforts to pass gun reform measures in recent years.
“What we do know at the administration level is that there are things that we need for our police officers to be able to navigate this world safely,” said City Manager Sheryl Long. “There are common-sense gun laws that should be on the book for us to be able to enforce, to be able to do our job more effectively, and there are certain people that shouldn’t have guns.”
Cincinnati joined other Ohio cities in a lawsuit in 2019, after Ohio passed a law that allowed the state to preempt gun regulations passed at the local level that could conflict with state laws already in place. Since that law was passed, the state has struck down most of Cincinnati's attempts to curb gun violence through passing gun reform laws.
"Unfortunately every time we try to enact meaningful and reasonable — in my view — gun reform, the state legislature has preempted us and the Supreme Court has backed up the state legislature," said Pureval. "So, it's a very challenging political landscape for getting sensible gun reform passed at the state level, which is what is sorely needed."
In 2023, Cincinnati attempted to tackle issues of gun violence in Cincinnati — which spiked in 2021 — by passing multiple ordinances. One ordinance would have required the safe storage of guns in a safe, lock box, or with another device that prevents them from being accessed or used — particularly by children. Another ordinance passed would have made possessing a gun illegal for anyone convicted of domestic violence or subject to a court order restraining them from harassing, stalking or threatening an intimate partner.
Both of those laws would have been misdemeanor offenses for any violations. Both were barred from going into effect by the Ohio Supreme Court.
In December 2023, city council passed legislation instead that requires gun owners to immediately report a lost or stolen firearm. Then-council member Liz Keating — the only Republican serving on Cincinnati's city council at the time — championed the law. Keating said many times gun owners share their guns with family members and friends and that it is only once the firearms are confiscated by police or turn up at a crime scene that the gun owners claim it was stolen and ask to have it returned.
