The City of Cincinnati and Progress Ohio are trying to put an incident behind them involving police confiscation of cameras at a Steve Chabot Town Hall meeting in Avondale last year.
Two political activists at the North Avondale Community Center last year wanted to record the Republican Representative and his position on various issues. Cincinnati Police wrongly took their cameras at the instruction of Chabot's staff-members. The City has apologized.
Solicitor John Curp is grateful Progress Ohio has accepted the apology and looks forward to moving on.
"We educate our police officers everyday and how to conduct themselves in those gatherings and we'll take it as a learning experience and move forward."
Progress Ohio says the city recognized the confiscation was a clear constitutional violation of rights. Spokesman David Little says the incident called into question what citizens rights are to document a public official in a public place.
"It's taken one year of negotiations but we got what we wanted. Frankly it is a ringing endorsement of citizen free speech rights."
Since the incident Chabot's office has modified its policy. A statement says the policy gives constituents the access they want and the privacy they deserve.
