Federal officials have asked a judge to re-open discussion about the 1981 consent decree regulating diversity at the Cincinnati Police Department.
The agreement mandates at least 25% of all officers promoted must be Black and/or female. Sergeant Eric Kohler is suing the city based on that requirement. His attorney Tom Bruns spoke with WCPO:
"He was actually bypassed for a promotion by a racial minority simply because Eric Kohler is white," Bruns said.
Now the U.S. Attorney General's Office has filed a motion to re-open the consent decree case because of the new lawsuit.
CPD Chief Eliot Isaac and Mayor John Cranley sent President Joe Biden a letter Wednesday, saying re-opening the agreement could set back decades of progress in minority inclusion. Isaac, who is Black, says without the consent decree, he would not be chief today.
Kohler's lawsuit also challenges a similar consent decree between the U.S. and the state of Ohio.
A hearing has not yet been scheduled for a federal judge to consider the motion.
Read the full letter from Cranley and Isaac below. After, read an order denying Kohler's request for an immediate injunction on the consent decree.
White House Consent Decree ... by WVXU News
Kohler v. City of Cincinnat... by WVXU News
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