| RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Building a Bibliography on the Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement25th Anniversary Edition • April 2026. A framework for locating, evaluating, and organizing sources that discuss, debate, and explain why the Collaborative Agreement was necessary following the deaths of 15 unarmed Black men at the hands of Cincinnati police (1995–2001). |
Preface: Historical Context
On April 7, 2001, Cincinnati Police Officer Stephen Roach shot and killed 19-year-old Timothy Thomas in an Over-the-Rhine alley. Thomas was unarmed. He was also the 15th Black man killed by Cincinnati police since 1995—a statistic that crystallized decades of racial tension, discriminatory policing, and community grief into four days of civil unrest that became the largest urban uprising in the United States since the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
The unrest did not emerge from a vacuum. It erupted atop a pre-existing class-action lawsuit filed jointly by the ACLU of Ohio and the Cincinnati Black United Front, which alleged a decades-long pattern of racial profiling by the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD). Federal Judge Susan Dlott, who was already overseeing roughly 14 consolidated racial-profiling cases, called the parties to mediate rather than litigate. What followed was an unprecedented year-long civic process that engaged more than 3,500 residents and produced the Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement, signed on April 12, 2002—a document the U.S. Department of Justice has since cited as a national model.
This research methodology provides a structured framework for building a comprehensive, annotated bibliography of primary sources, secondary scholarship, journalistic accounts, legal documents, and community voices that collectively explain why the Collaborative Agreement was needed and how it came to be. It is designed for researchers, advocates, journalists, students, and community members marking the agreement’s 25th anniversary in April 2026.
Section 1: Research Questions Driving the Bibliography
- RQ1: The Pattern of Deaths. Who were the 15 unarmed Black men killed by Cincinnati police between 1995 and 2001, and what were the documented circumstances of each shooting?
- RQ2: Systemic Conditions. What structural, institutional, and historical conditions within the CPD produced this pattern of lethal force against Black residents?
- RQ3: Community Response. How did Cincinnati’s Black community—through advocacy, litigation, boycott, and civic organizing—respond to these deaths and the 2001 uprising?
- RQ4: Negotiation and Agreement. How was the Collaborative Agreement designed, negotiated, and contested, and who were the key actors on all sides?
- RQ5: Impact and Legacy. What measurable and qualitative changes has the agreement produced, and what does Cincinnati’s experience offer other cities?
Section 2: Source Typology
Researchers should seek materials across all seven categories below:
2.1 Primary Legal Documents
These are the official texts of the litigation, agreements, and monitoring reports that created and governed the Collaborative Agreement. They represent the most authoritative account of what was legally committed and by whom.
- Tyehimba v. City of Cincinnati (1999 federal lawsuit), the founding complaint alleging racial profiling over three decades
- The Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement (April 12, 2002)—the full text as filed in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio
- Memorandum of Agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice, the City of Cincinnati, and the CPD (2002)
- Federal monitor annual compliance reports (2002–2008), overseen by Judge Susan Dlott
- Citizen Complaint Authority (CCA) founding ordinance (City of Cincinnati Ordinance No. 0108-2002)
- The 2017 “Refresh” agreement and supporting documents filed in U.S. District Court
2.2 Scholarly and Academic Sources
Peer-reviewed and institutionally published work situates Cincinnati within broader literatures on race, policing, urban politics, and conflict resolution.
- John Eck and Jay Rothman (2006), “Police Community Conflict and Crime Prevention in Cincinnati, Ohio: The Collaborative Agreement,” in J. Bailey (ed.), Public Security and Police Reform in the Americas (University of Pittsburgh Press)
- Jay Rothman and colleagues, “Applying Action Evaluation on a Large Scale: Cincinnati Police-Community Relations Collaborative,” Springer (2012), documenting the participatory process that engaged 3,500+ residents
- University of Cincinnati traffic stop study (2003), commissioned under Paragraph 30 of the Collaborative Agreement, which found that CPD stopped, searched, and detained Black drivers at disproportionate rates
- Academic literature on “community problem-oriented policing” (CPOP) as a model, including work by Lawrence Sherman and Herman Goldstein
- Philip Obermiller and Thomas Wagner, The Cincinnati Human Relations Commission: A History, 1943–2013 (reviewed in Project MUSE), which contextualizes the Collaborative Agreement within 70 years of local civil rights history
- Sociological literature on urban uprisings as political events, including work by Sidney Tarrow, Charles Tilly, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
2.3 Governmental and Institutional Reports
Federal, state, and municipal bodies produced investigative and evaluative reports central to understanding CPD’s history and the agreement’s implementation.
- U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division reports on CPD (2001–2002)
- Cincinnati City Council hearings and testimony (2001): records of Law and Public Safety Committee sessions immediately following Thomas’s death
- ACLU of Ohio, “Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement – Racial Bias and Policing” study guide, incorporating the 2003 traffic stop data
- Cincinnati Human Relations Commission annual reports (1995–2002)
- CPD internal use-of-force statistics (pre- and post-agreement comparative data showing the 69% reduction in force incidents by 2015)
- Citizen Complaint Authority annual reports from founding through present
2.4 Journalism and Long-Form Reporting
Contemporaneous reporting and retrospective investigations by local and national outlets capture the human dimensions of events in ways official records cannot.
- Cincinnati Enquirer coverage of the 15 shootings (1995–2001), the April 2001 uprising, and the agreement’s negotiation
- WCPO 9 News, “Voices of the Collaborative” (April 2021)—a multipart series of interviews with Judge Dlott, Rev. Damon Lynch III, Iris Roley, former Police Chief Tom Streicher, State Senator Cecil Thomas, and FOP president Keith Fangman
- WVXU/NPR, “It’s Been 20 Years Since the 2001 Civil Unrest in Cincinnati” (April 6, 2021), drawing on primary interviews
- Governing magazine, “How Cincinnati Got Its Cops to Support Community Policing” (2021), offering a national policy perspective
- NBC News, “Battle-Tested Cincinnati Applies Lessons from 2001 in Reaction to Samuel DuBose Death” (2015), connecting the Collaborative Agreement to its real-world test during the DuBose killing
- ABC Nightline (Ted Koppel, July 2001): archived broadcast capturing the heated debate between Rev. Lynch and FOP president Fangman
2.5 Community and Organizational Voice Documents
The perspectives of those most directly harmed, and those who organized for change, must be represented alongside official sources.
- Cincinnati Black United Front founding statements, organizational records, and Rev. Damon Lynch III’s public sermons and testimony (2000–2002)
- ACLU of Ohio organizational records related to the class-action litigation
- Oral history recordings and transcripts, including those held at the Cincinnati History Library and Archives and the African American Cultural Resources collection at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
- Statements and interviews from lead plaintiff Bomani Tyehimba (see WCPO Voices of the Collaborative series)
- Economic boycott records (2001–2002), documenting the estimated $10 million impact on cancelled conventions and performer appearances
- Iris Roley’s public statements and community engagement records spanning 2001 to the present
2.6 Comparative and National-Context Sources
Situating Cincinnati within national debates on police reform requires comparative literature.
- Department of Justice “pattern or practice” investigation reports for other cities (Los Angeles, New Orleans, Ferguson, Baltimore) to establish a comparative framework
- National research on racial disparities in police use of lethal force, including studies by Roland Fryer, Frank Edwards, and the Washington Post’s “Fatal Force” database
- Literature on consent decrees and collaborative agreements as reform mechanisms, including evaluations by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF)
- Post-George Floyd (2020) policy analyses that reference the Cincinnati model as a template
- Reports from the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (2015), which references community-oriented policing frameworks
2.7 Audiovisual and Digital Sources
Documentary, broadcast, and digital materials provide evidence forms unavailable in print.
- Archival news footage of the April 2001 uprising from local Cincinnati television stations
- Body camera and dashcam footage (where accessible via public records) from CPD incidents during and after the agreement
- Cincinnati CityBeat archives (alt-weekly coverage, especially 2001–2003)
- Social media discourse and hashtag documentation around the 10th, 15th, 20th, and 25th anniversaries
- Podcast and audio documentary coverage, including relevant episodes from national criminal justice journalism outlets
Section 3: Search Strategy by Database and Repository
The following table maps source types to the specific databases, archives, and institutions where researchers should conduct their searches:
| Source Type | Recommended Database / Repository |
|---|---|
| Legal filings & court orders | PACER (U.S. District Court, S.D. Ohio) • CourtListener • Cincinnati City Law Department |
| Peer-reviewed scholarship | JSTOR • Project MUSE • Web of Science • Google Scholar • HeinOnline (legal journals) |
| Federal government reports | DOJ Civil Rights Division website • Congress.gov • GovInfo.gov • OJP (Office of Justice Programs) |
| Local newspaper archives | Cincinnati Enquirer (Newspapers.com) • Cincinnati Post archives (UC Libraries) • ProQuest Historical Newspapers |
| Broadcast journalism | WCPO 9 / WLWT / WXIX digital archives • WVXU archive • C-SPAN • Vanderbilt Television News Archive |
| Community documents & oral history | Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County • Cincinnati History Library & Archives • Cincinnati Museum Center |
| Academic theses & dissertations | ProQuest Dissertations & Theses • OhioLINK ETD Center • University of Cincinnati Libraries |
| Organizational records | ACLU of Ohio (acluohio.org) • Cincinnati Black United Front records (via CHRC) • Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge 69 archives |
| National policing data | FBI Uniform Crime Reporting • Bureau of Justice Statistics • Mapping Police Violence database • Washington Post Fatal Force |
| City government documents | Cincinnati Legislative Information System (CLIS) • City of Cincinnati archives • Citizen Complaint Authority annual reports |
Section 4: Search Terms and Boolean Strategies
4.1 Core Identifier Terms
- “Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement”
- “Timothy Thomas” AND Cincinnati
- “Cincinnati Black United Front”
- “Cincinnati Police Department” AND (“racial profiling” OR “use of force” OR “police brutality”)
- “Over-the-Rhine” AND (uprising OR riot OR unrest OR protest)
- “Fraternal Order of Police” AND Cincinnati AND agreement
4.2 Thematic Expansion Terms
- “community-oriented policing” OR “community problem-oriented policing” AND Cincinnati
- “consent decree” AND “police reform” AND Ohio
- “civilian oversight” AND “police accountability” AND Cincinnati
- “racial disparities” AND “police killings” AND Cincinnati
- “action evaluation” AND “police” AND “community relations”
- “Department of Justice” AND “pattern or practice” AND Cincinnati
4.3 Comparative Context Terms
- “police reform model” AND “national” AND Cincinnati
- “collaborative policing” AND (“George Floyd” OR “Black Lives Matter”) AND Cincinnati
- “Samuel DuBose” AND Cincinnati AND “Collaborative Agreement”
- “urban uprising” AND “political response” AND 2001
4.4 Historical Depth Terms
- “Cincinnati Human Relations Commission” AND policing
- “racial violence” AND Cincinnati AND (1967 OR 1968 OR 2001)
- “Over-the-Rhine” AND “poverty” AND “policing”
- Cincinnati AND “police killings” AND (“Black men” OR “unarmed”) AND (1995 OR 1996 OR 1997 OR 1998 OR 1999 OR 2000 OR 2001)
Section 5: Source Evaluation Criteria
| Criterion | What to Assess |
|---|---|
| Evidentiary Basis | Does the source draw on primary evidence (documents, data, interviews, firsthand accounts)? Or does it rely entirely on secondary sources without citation? |
| Positionality & Perspective | Who produced this source and from what institutional or community position? A CPD internal report, an ACLU brief, and a community oral history each have distinct vantage points—all valuable, none sufficient alone. |
| Chronological Proximity | Is the source contemporaneous (2001–2002), retrospective (10th or 20th anniversary), or analytical (scholarly)? Each temporal position offers different kinds of insight and different risks of distortion. |
| Corroboration | Do multiple independent sources confirm the same claims? Cross-reference is especially important for contested facts (e.g., the exact number and names of the 15 men killed; the circumstances of individual shootings). |
| Completeness & Omissions | What does the source leave out? Early CPD reports omit community perspectives; some community accounts omit institutional complexity. The bibliography should flag significant gaps. |
Section 6: Recommended Annotation Format
Each bibliography entry should carry a structured annotation. A standard annotation for this project should include four elements:
| CITATION Author Last, First. Title. Publisher, Year. [DOI or URL if applicable]SUMMARY (2–3 SENTENCES)A concise, accurate summary of the source’s argument, evidence, or content—in the researcher’s own words.RELEVANCE TO BIBLIOGRAPHY: Which research question(s) does this source address? What specific aspect of the Collaborative Agreement’s necessity or context does it illuminate? CRITICAL NOTE: What are this source’s limits, biases, or omissions? What perspective is missing or underweighted? |
Section 7: Organizational Framework for the Bibliography
The bibliography should be organized into thematic sections that mirror the chronological and causal logic of the events themselves. The following architecture is recommended:
Part I: The Historical Foundation (1943–1995)
Sources establishing the long arc of Black-police relations in Cincinnati, from the founding of the Mayor’s Friendly Relations Commission (1943) through the patterns of policing in Over-the-Rhine and other Black neighborhoods prior to the specific pattern of shootings.
Part II: The 15 Deaths (1995–2001)
Primary sources and contemporaneous journalism documenting each of the 15 men killed, including the circumstances of each shooting, official departmental responses, and community reactions at the time. This section should attempt to name each individual—treating them as historical subjects, not statistics.
Part III: The Legal Architecture (1999–2002)
Court filings, legal briefs, and scholarly analyses documenting the racial profiling class-action lawsuit, the role of Judge Susan Dlott, the negotiation process involving the ACLU, the Black United Front, the City, and the FOP, and the text of the resulting agreements.
Part IV: The April 2001 Uprising
Contemporaneous journalism, official incident reports, community accounts, and retrospective oral histories of the four days of civil unrest following Timothy Thomas’s death, including the economic boycott that followed.
Part V: Designing the Agreement (2001–2002)
Sources documenting the participatory design process: the public feedback sessions attended by more than 700 residents, the “action evaluation” methodology used by the ARIA Group, the five shared goals that emerged, and the stakeholder negotiations.
Part VI: Implementation and Monitoring (2002–2008)
Federal monitoring reports, CCA founding documents, CPD use-of-force data, and journalistic coverage of the agreement’s first contested years, including the FOP’s 2003 attempt to withdraw.
Part VII: Ongoing Evaluation and Debate (2008–Present)
Sources assessing the agreement’s durability: the 2015 Samuel DuBose case, the 2017 “refresh,” the George Floyd moment, the 25th anniversary in 2026, and ongoing debates about what remains unfinished.
Part VIII: The National Context and Comparative Models
Scholarship and policy documents situating Cincinnati within national debates, drawing comparisons with consent decrees in other cities, and assessing the Collaborative Agreement as a replicable model.
Section 8: Ethical Considerations and Research Integrity
Given the subject matter—the deaths of Black men at the hands of police and the long-term organizing of a community seeking accountability—researchers must approach this work with particular attention to ethics:
- Name the individuals. The 15 men killed between 1995 and 2001 are sometimes reduced to a number. Researchers should endeavor to identify each by name, age, and circumstance. To the extent records are accessible, their humanity should be centered, not their deaths alone.
- Privilege community voice. Official and legal documents are well-preserved. Community oral histories, neighborhood memory, and grassroots organizing records are often fragile or underdocumented. Researchers should actively seek out and credit community-generated knowledge.
- Acknowledge contested facts. The precise circumstances of individual shootings were disputed at the time and remain so. Where official and community accounts diverge, the bibliography should annotate both, clearly identifying the source of each claim.
- Avoid false balance. Acknowledging multiple perspectives does not require treating all perspectives as equally supported by evidence. A bibliography that documents systemic racial disparity should say so clearly, while still including FOP and CPD perspectives.
- Respect living subjects. Several key figures in the Collaborative Agreement’s history—Iris Roley, Rev. Damon Lynch III, Al Gerhardstein, and others—are living community members. Their oral statements and ongoing work should be cited with care and, where possible, with their knowledge.
Section 9: Key Figures and Their Primary Roles
Understanding who the key actors were will help researchers identify where to look for their testimony, writings, and records:
| Individual / Organization | Role in the Collaborative Agreement’s History |
|---|---|
| Timothy Thomas (1982–2001) | 19-year-old Black man whose killing by CPD Officer Stephen Roach on April 7, 2001 catalyzed the uprising; the 15th unarmed Black man killed by CPD since 1995 |
| Bomani Tyehimba | Lead plaintiff in the 1999 racial profiling class-action lawsuit that preceded and ultimately shaped the Collaborative Agreement |
| Rev. Damon Lynch III | Head of the Cincinnati Black United Front; central organizer of the boycott and a key negotiator on behalf of the community |
| Iris Roley | Co-founder of the Black United Front; community consultant on the agreement; continues as a public accountability voice through the 2020s |
| Judge Susan Dlott | Federal District Court Judge, Southern District of Ohio; consolidated racial profiling cases; oversaw negotiations and formal monitoring (2001–2008) |
| Al Gerhardstein | Civil rights attorney; lead plaintiffs’ counsel in the racial profiling litigation; co-architect of the agreement’s legal structure |
| Chief Tom Streicher | Cincinnati Police Chief during the 2001 uprising; initially resistant, ultimately a co-architect of the agreement; acknowledged CPD’s patterns of discrimination |
| Keith Fangman | FOP Lodge 69 president; vocally opposed the agreement; his eventual participation was essential to the FOP’s formal role as signatory |
| Cecil Thomas | Head of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission in 2001; former CPD officer; later Ohio State Senator; crucial bridge figure |
| ACLU of Ohio | Co-plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit; provided legal infrastructure and the Racial Bias and Policing study guide under the agreement’s terms |
| ARIA Group | Conflict resolution organization that designed and facilitated the participatory “action evaluation” process engaging 3,500+ residents |
| U.S. Department of Justice | Executed a parallel Memorandum of Agreement with CPD; provided additional oversight through the Civil Rights Division |
Section 10: Timeline of Key Events for Contextual Anchoring
Researchers should anchor sources to the following timeline to ensure their bibliography covers all critical moments:
| Date / Period | Event |
|---|---|
| 1943 | Cincinnati Mayor’s Friendly Relations Commission founded—the oldest such body in the U.S. |
| 1967–1968 | Urban uprisings in Cincinnati Black neighborhoods; police-community tensions escalate |
| 1995–2001 | 15 unarmed Black men killed by CPD over six years; community trust collapses |
| 1999 | Bomani Tyehimba files federal racial profiling lawsuit |
| March 2001 | ACLU and Black United Front join the lawsuit; Chief Streicher acknowledges CPD discrimination |
| April 7, 2001 | CPD Officer Roach shoots and kills Timothy Thomas; uprising begins |
| April 9–13, 2001 | Four days of civil unrest in Over-the-Rhine and downtown Cincinnati |
| Summer 2001 | Black United Front economic boycott; estimated $10 million impact |
| July 2001 | ABC Nightline (Ted Koppel) broadcast; national attention on Cincinnati |
| 2001–2002 | Participatory design process; 700+ residents attend community sessions; 3,500+ contribute goals |
| April 5, 2002 | Collaborative Agreement signed; U.S. Attorney General witnesses the signing |
| 2002–2008 | Federal monitoring period; CCA established; CPD implements CPOP strategy |
| 2003 | FOP attempts to withdraw from the agreement; federal magistrate refuses |
| 2003 | University of Cincinnati traffic stop study released, confirming racial disparities in CPD stops |
| 2007 | DOJ federal oversight concludes; Collaborative Agreement continues |
| 2015 | Use-of-force incidents reduced 69% from 2001 baseline; Samuel DuBose killed by UC police |
| 2017 | Agreement “Refresh” process; parties voluntarily update the framework |
| 2020 | George Floyd’s death renews national focus on Cincinnati as a model |
| April 2022 | 20th anniversary commemorations; open house at Cincinnati City Hall |
| April 2026 | 25th anniversary; this bibliography commissioned |
Section 11: Recommended Steps to Build the Bibliography
The following sequence is recommended for researchers undertaking this project:
- Step 1: Obtain the primary legal texts. Begin with the Collaborative Agreement itself, the original racial profiling complaint, the federal monitoring reports, and the CCA founding ordinance. These documents define the terrain everything else responds to.
- Step 2: Identify the 15 individuals. Conduct targeted searches in the Cincinnati Enquirer archives (1995–2001) to compile a named record of each of the 15 men killed. Cross-reference with ACLU of Ohio documents and Cincinnati Black United Front records.
- Step 3: Search academic databases. Run all Boolean search clusters from Section 4 in JSTOR, Project MUSE, Google Scholar, and HeinOnline. Download and assess relevance for all results.
- Step 4: Access local archives. Visit or contact the Cincinnati History Library & Archives and the Public Library of Cincinnati’s African American Cultural Resources collection to identify uncatalogued primary materials.
- Step 5: Compile retrospective journalism. Use the WCPO, WVXU, Governing, and NBC News retrospectives as starting points. Request full broadcast archives from WCPO for 2001 and 2021 anniversary coverage.
- Step 6: Identify living voices. Where possible, request interviews or written statements from key living participants, including Iris Roley, Rev. Lynch, Al Gerhardstein, and Bomani Tyehimba.
- Step 7: Apply comparative lens. Identify at least three comparable city-level police reform processes (e.g., Los Angeles, New Orleans, Baltimore) and locate the scholarly comparisons.
- Step 8: Annotate and organize. Write annotations for each source using the format in Section 6. Organize entries into the eight-part framework described in Section 7.
- Step 9: Audit for gaps. Review the completed bibliography against the five research questions in Section 1. Identify which questions remain underserved and conduct targeted supplemental searches.
- Step 10: Peer review. Share the draft bibliography with at least one community stakeholder (e.g., a member of the Black United Front or CCA) and at least one academic scholar for review before finalizing.
| A Note on the 25th AnniversaryThe Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement represents one of the most sustained, institutionally embedded experiments in police reform in American history. It was born of grief, outrage, and extraordinary civic determination—the determination of a community that had buried 15 sons in six years and refused to bury its demands for accountability alongside them. A bibliography that honors the 25th anniversary of that agreement must be as unflinching in documenting what made it necessary as it is in celebrating what it achieved. The 15 names should be as recoverable as the policy provisions. The community’s voice should be as legible as the judge’s orders. That is the task this methodology is designed to support. |
Prepared for the 25th Anniversary of the Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement • April 2026