BuckeyeBlog

We blogged in May on Hamilton County Commissioner Pat DeWine’s efforts to establish a transparency database, and now we congratulate him for succeeding. DeWine’s office indicates that Hamilton County has passed its GASP resolution–Government Accountability in Spending Program–and will be establishing “a single, easily accessible website that allows the public to search and aggregate information on the expenditure of all appropriated or non-appropriated funds by any County department or agency.”

Cincinnati Councilman Chris Monzel is working too, with his own resolution to establish “a searchable database on the city’s website, all city expenditures broken down by department as well as aggregate totals,” modeled on the county’s GASP.

Apparently some residents of Cincinnati’s violence-prone Over-the-Rhine neighborhood are concerned that Cincinnati Police won’t be able to effectively patrol the area without the help of Hamilton County sheriff’s deputies, who ceased patrols in the area in December, although police officials insist that they “have the staffing, and the police presence is there.”

But the number of police present in the area means nothing if those officers are unable to properly enforce the law, a reality criminals seem to have figured out long ago. Last August, the Enquirer reported that deputies inspired a tougher environment for crime in a neighborhood accustomed to more passive law enforcement. As a result, violent crime decreased by twenty-three percent in the patrol zone.

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