Dan Hils, Cincinnati Fraternity of Police president, speaks during a press conference called by the FOP on Monday, June 22, 2020, in Over The Rhine. (Photo: Albert Cesare / The Enquirer)

Cincinnati's police union is expected to vote Monday on whether to set in motion a change to their legal counsel and perhaps take a more assertive stance on defending officers in the public sphere.

Police union president Sgt. Dan Hils told the Enquirer Monday that meeting, like all police union meetings, will not be open to the public.

"It is clear that police are under the microscope and under fire by radical organizations that wish to do us harm, and we are all working together to ensure that we have the best representation possible," he said.

Hils said he envisions a legal strategy that potentially involvessuingthe media and organizationsif they libel or slander police.

"I believe the FOP must respond when its members are defamed or harassed or put in danger by those who wish to do us harm," Hils said.

Hils said police officers have been targeted for harassment, false accusations and doxxing by"antifa and other similar Marxist organizations assisted by left-wing media."

"Being critical of your government, including police, is a first amendment right that we protect," Hils said. "But slandering our members deserves a response."

The union already has a contract withCincinnati lawyer Steve Lazarus and his firm, Lazarus and Lewis, who have represented the police union for 31 years.

The Enquirer reported last week thatHilsis pushing the FOP to hire a new Cincinnati firm, led by Zachary Gottesman and a former city attorney, Peter Stackpole, which he says will be more aggressive.

According to that report, the union's executive board disagrees with Hils and wants to keep its current representation, a contract that Hils signed off on.

Stackpole told The Enquirer Monday: "This is a big decision and I think the police officers deserve to be heard."

However, Monday's vote will not immediately change who handles the union's legal matters.

It is expected that the membership will vote on whether tooverturn the executive board's decision and the board's decision to disqualify Stackpole and Gottesman. The membership could then move to allow a department-wide vote on its legal counsel.

According to a Facebook post by Stackpole, that vote would then be held sometime in the next 45 days. He also invited officers to meet with him prior to Monday's meeting.

The decision on legal counsel could set the tone for how the union responds to calls for police reform.

The Sentinels, a group of Black officers who for 50 years have advocatedcommunity policing through diversity, want to keep Lazarus.

In a letter to Hils for the Sentinelsshared with The Enquirer, that group's leadership saidto replace Lazarus with Gottesman is "repugnant to the Sentinels and contrary to the interest of the entire membership."

Louis Arnold, a Cincinnati police officer and president of the Sentinels association, said his members are also members of the fraternal order of police. He said they aren't opposing this action to defend Lazarus, but to oppose Gottesman.

"We're fighting because Gottesmanhas sued the Sentinels and he has sued two members of the Sentinels police association," Arnold said.

On Facebook, Stackpole said the Sentinels were added to a lawsuit only so they could be a party to the result of the suit. He said Sentinels were dropped from the suit after they said they did not want to be a party.Arnold does not see it that way.

"How can he represent us when he has sued our organization and members of our organization?" Arnold said. "We don't think he can represent our members and we don't trust him to do that."

The Enquirer will update this story if information about the result of the vote is available Monday night.

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Police union expected to vote on legal representation - The Cincinnati Enquirer