A top black female cop's complaint against union chief Dan Hils is investigated

Cincinnati police union President Dan Hils disparaged a supervisor to her officers and bragged that he "kicked her a--" when he arrested her 25 years ago, an officer has alleged.

The Cincinnati Police Department is conducting an internal investigation, department officials confirmed.

Lt. Danita Pettis is the third-shift commander at District 4 in Avondale and was off this past Sunday night when Hils, the sergeant who leads the local Fraternal Order of Police, spoke at roll call. About 13 officers were present.

Among them was Sgt. Daniel O'Malley, who told Pettis about the meeting. O'Malley also wrote a memo to Police Chief Eliot Isaac that quotes Hils as having said, "I do not know how she became a police officer. She was able to manage working her way up and became a lieutenant only because she will kick, scream, b---h and yell it was race, sexism, or whatever. I never would have imagined she would be my superior."

O'Malley's statement, obtained by The Enquirer, said Hils was at roll call to show officers how to collectively make a unified complaint about a hostile work environment against Pettis.

"He abused his role as FOP president," Pettis told The Enquirer on Friday.

Hils declined to comment Friday when contacted by The Enquirer but subsequently posted on Facebook that an officer asked him to attend a roll call. 

"There several officers met me and complained about the treatment from a certain supervisor," Hils wrote in the Support the Blue in Cincy group. "Their accounts were disappointing if not disturbing."

O'Malley's statement also alleges that Hils said to District 4 officers that working for Pettis made a difficult job even more difficult: "You already have it tough policing in an urban ghetto environment." 

Hils' statements are drawing fire from the Sentinels Police Association, an internal advocacy group made up almost exclusively of African-American officers.

"President Hils' comments referencing the communities we serve as `urban ghettoes' were highly insensitive, inappropriate and calls into question his ability to police communities for which he has absolutely no respect," said Officer Eddie Hawkins, president of the Sentinels, who grew up in Avondale.

"Bragging about using force against a then-citizen — and now an African-American police lieutenant — was improper and showed a complete lack of understanding of the role of policing. We should never be bragging about using force against anyone."

Pettis made a complaint to Isaac on Tuesday regarding Hils' comments. Among her objections: that Hils told the officers he arrested her on a domestic violence charge in 1992 — seven years before Pettis joined the department.

"That is false," Pettis said. "It was disorderly conduct for a family problem."

O'Malley's statement also said that Hils told officers Sunday night to use body cameras to record roll calls "or anything else that will protect you."

Pettis, an African-American, said she suspects that Hils was at District 4 at the request of a white female police specialist in her command. Pettis said the white officer criticized Pettis' promotion in 2015 as affirmative action.

 "Sgt. Hils is taking sides," Pettis said. "I am an FOP member. I pay dues every two weeks to him."

In her complaint, she wrote that Hils' comments to her officers and sergeants violate police regulations. She said they were inflammatory and derogatory," an attempt to undermine her authority and made "with reckless disregard for truth."

Hils said in the Facebook post: "It should not matter, but I know that it does currently, so I will tell that the officers were both white and black and both senior officers and junior officers. All had complaints about this supervisor. Some had been demeaned and humiliated in front of co-workers."

The situation comes on the heels of other conflicts between Hils and the Sentinels. Earlier this year, Hils said that union members voted for him to not participate in efforts to update the Collaborative Agreement, police reforms agreed upon in 2002.

The Sentinels support the Collaborative "refresh," and FOP membership supported it in a second vote. 

Hils also was criticized by Sentinels leadership in 2016 for the Cincinnati FOP's endorsement of Donald Trump for president. Hawkins said then that the FOP had no business endorsing political candidates.