They Said We Made It Up. One CPD CAD Report Says Otherwise

Article Summary:
A CPD CAD report documents a nearly five-hour response to large juvenile crowds moving between Smale Park, the Roebling Suspension Bridge, and Fountain Square. Signal 99 sources say the broader operation involved 31 officers, two drone officers, Central Business Section units, and SWAT—and the screenshots represent only one of the CAD records generated that night.

At 8:08 p.m. Friday, Cincinnati Police opened an incident near the Roebling Suspension Bridge.

Within minutes, our phones began blowing up with reports from officers and members of the CPD command staff about large groups of juveniles moving through downtown.

We warned people near Smale Park and Fountain Square that several juvenile crowds were roaming the area, fighting and attacking people. We also reported that CPD had more than 20 units assigned and was calling for additional help as the crowds moved between the riverfront and the Central Business District.

Then came the people who decided we made the whole thing up.

Cincinnati News called our report false because no other outlet had reported the attacks. NKY News Network publicly questioned our reporting because no videos were circulating online.

Even some members of the local media appeared ready to accept the city’s softer version of the night before, asking why officers from multiple districts, the Central Business Section, citywide assignments, and specialized units spent hours moving around downtown.

Those were serious accusations to make without seeing the records.

Fortunately, we usually keep the receipts.

This Is Only One CAD Report

Before anyone reads further, one point needs to be clear: the screenshots we received represent only one CAD incident report.

This is not the complete collection of police records generated during the response. According to the officers and members of the CPD command staff who contacted us, the broader operation involved 31 officers, two drone officers, all available units from the Central Business Section, and SWAT members.

Those officers and units would also have their own unit-level CAD activity, dispatch history, location changes, and status records connected to the response. What we are publishing here is one part of the paper trail, not the entire thing.

That distinction matters because this single report already documents nearly five hours of police activity across several downtown locations. The remaining records would provide an even broader picture of what individual officers and units were doing throughout the night.

The Incident Started Near the Roebling Bridge

A high-ranking member of the CPD command staff sent us screenshots from the department’s computer-aided dispatch system after other pages accused us of fabricating the story.

We redacted the names of officers and dispatchers because their identities are not relevant to what happened. Publishing their names would serve no legitimate public purpose and could discourage people inside the department from speaking honestly about future incidents.

The report identifies the incident as CPD260619001663. It opened at 8:08:31 p.m. near the Roebling Suspension Bridge and Smale Riverfront Park.

The initial problem involved a fight. Within seconds, the incident was changed to a crowd-related call as police began tracking juveniles moving through the area.

One early CAD comment reported a crowd moving east of the bridge. Another entry referenced the mother of a victim who had reportedly been “jumped by 30 suspects.” A later note estimated that approximately 100 juveniles were west of Fountain Square.

Those entries did not come from Signal 99. They appear in CPD’s own dispatch system.

The locations entered during the response included the Roebling Suspension Bridge, Smale Park Playground, Fountain Square, Government Square, and the area near Graeter’s at Fifth and Vine. The CAD also shows units changing locations as officers followed the crowds north from the riverfront.

That is exactly what we told our readers was happening.

Police Followed the Groups Across Downtown

This was not one stationary crowd standing around Fountain Square.

The CAD shows officers moving between the riverfront, the Roebling Bridge, Smale Park, Fountain Square, and nearby downtown streets. Officers who contacted us described the response as a game of whack-a-mole.

Police would arrive at one location; the juveniles would scatter, and groups would begin gathering elsewhere. Officers then had to reposition and restart the process.

That movement helps explain why someone standing on Fountain Square may not have witnessed every fight or attack reported elsewhere. Downtown Cincinnati covers more than one plaza, and a group can move from Smale Park toward Fountain Square within minutes.

The city’s public response focused heavily on whether arrests occurred directly on Fountain Square. That is a much narrower question than the one about what happened across the entire downtown corridor.

Saying nobody was arrested on Fountain Square does not answer what occurred near the bridge, at Smale Park, around Graeter’s or on the streets connecting those locations.

The Response Involved Far More Than a Few Officers

The CAD assignment pages show more than 30 unit entries associated with this incident.

According to the command sources who contacted us, the full response included 31 officers, two drone officers, Central Business Section personnel, and SWAT. Units from Districts 2 and 3 were also pulled into the operation.

That does not mean every listed officer stood in one place at the same time. Some units were reassigned, some were canceled, and others were cleared at different points during the night.

It does mean CPD committed substantial resources to the situation for several hours.

The incident opened shortly after 8 p.m. and remained active until 1:01 a.m. Saturday. The report lists a total incident duration of four hours, 52 minutes, and 37 seconds.

Cities do not tie up dozens of officers, drone personnel, and specialized units for nearly five hours because somebody on Facebook imagined a crowd.

The CAD Supports the Core of Our Reporting

Our original warning said that large groups of juveniles were moving through downtown and that people had been attacked.

This CAD report supports the core of that warning.

It documents a large crowd of juveniles moving through several downtown locations. It contains a report that someone had been attacked by approximately 30 suspects. It shows the incident beginning as a fight call before expanding into a major crowd response.

It also shows that Fountain Square was only one part of the operation.

The screenshots do not independently confirm every claim reported during a chaotic night. A CAD record contains information from callers, dispatchers, and officers while an incident is unfolding. It is not the same thing as a completed criminal investigation.

The pages we received do not clearly document every alleged attack, every reported fire, or every incident of property damage. They also do not contain transportation records showing exactly how many juveniles may have been detained or taken into custody.

We reported Friday night that officers had apprehended several juveniles and requested a prisoner transport vehicle near Graeter’s. Officers provided that information to us during the incident. The screenshots we received do not include the complete transport records, so this one CAD report cannot independently prove that detail.

That is the difference between asking for clarification and declaring the entire story false.

Our critics did not say one detail remained unconfirmed. They said the incident itself was fabricated because Signal 99 was the only page reporting it at the time.

The CAD makes that position difficult to defend.

No Viral Video Does Not Mean Nothing Happened

Critics argued that a major downtown disturbance would have flooded social media with videos. That assumes victims stop to film while groups move quickly, police break up one crowd, and some participants regroup several blocks away.

People near the riverfront may see only a small part of an incident that stretches from Smale Park to Fountain Square. Visitors focused on a concert, game, or family outing may not realize that officers responding nearby are tracking the same group they saw minutes earlier.

The Savannah Bananas also drew a large crowd downtown that night. City officials had a clear incentive to reassure visitors and describe the evening as routine event management rather than emphasize a prolonged response to juvenile groups moving through the Central Business District.

That incentive does not prove that anyone deliberately hid what happened. The CAD gives readers a police record they can compare with the city’s public description of the night.

The Other CAD Records Matter

The document we received raises an obvious question: what do the remaining records show? This single CAD report covers nearly five hours, dozens of unit entries, several downtown locations, and a report that approximately 30 suspects attacked one person.

According to the officers and command staff who contacted us, the broader response involved 31 officers, two drone officers, Central Business Section units, and SWAT personnel. CPD’s dispatch system should contain additional activity showing where those units went, when they arrived, and what officers encountered.

Those records could establish how many fights police investigated, how many victims officers located and whether officers detained juveniles near Graeter’s or elsewhere downtown. They could also show whether police documented fires, property damage or additional incidents under separate report numbers. Signal 99 received one CAD report; CPD and the City of Cincinnati hold the records that could answer the remaining questions.

We Did Not Make This Up

Signal 99 did not invent Friday night’s incident. We did not fabricate the locations, the police response, or the information officers shared with us from the street. People directly involved in the operation contacted us in real time, and we warned the public because Cincinnati residents and visitors deserved to know what officers were handling near some of downtown’s busiest gathering places.

Readers can question our wording, request more documentation, or challenge a specific detail. That comes with public reporting. Declaring the entire incident false before obtaining the police records does not.

The people criticizing us wanted proof, and one CAD report now provides part of it. The record opens near the Roebling Suspension Bridge at 8:08:31 p.m., tracks police activity through Smale Park and Fountain Square, and closes at 1:01:08 Saturday morning. That single report documents nearly five hours of police response.

According to the officers and command staff who contacted us, the broader operation also involved 31 officers, two drone officers, Central Business Section units, and SWAT. This CAD report offers one piece of the record. The city still holds the rest.