By Herald Staff
Gabe Davis, a former federal prosecutor and candidate for Hamilton County prosecutor, will lead Cincinnati’s Citizens Complaint Authority, an agency viewed as key to the city’s police reforms outlined in federal/local Collaborative Agreement that followed the 2001 civil unrest.
The agency, known as Cincinnati’s police watchdog, has had no permanent leader for months.
Davis, will take over as the CAA director on September 6.
“Gabe brings uniquely impressive (and prestigious) credentials to this position,” said Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld wrote in a tweet announcing the hire.
The city manager, who has authority to appoint the agency’s director, has already made the decision to hire Davis.
The Citizen Complaint Authority is a civilian oversight agency that has legal authority to investigate complaints against Cincinnati Police Department officers, identify patterns in those complaints and issue training and policy recommendations to enhance policing and minimize future complaints.
Davis replaces Kim Neal, who earlier this year took a similar position in Fort Worth, Texas.
Gabe Davis is an attorney and former federal prosecutor who was born and raised in Cincinnati. He is the son of a retired Cincinnati Police Officer and Head Start Program manager. He is a product of Cincinnati Public Schools. He also attended high school at the Seven Hills School on a scholarship. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Yale University, and then went on to graduate from Harvard Law School.
After law school, he served as an assistant district attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and then as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice during President Barack Obama’s Administration. While at the Justice Department, he served as a prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division, where he prosecuted law enforcement misconduct cases, excessive force cases, and hate crimes.
After moving back to Cincinnati with his wife and daughter in 2018, Davis joined a prominent Cincinnati law firm, Frost Brown Todd, as a litigator. He is an alumnus of several Cincinnati area programs, including the SWEL program, which works with young professionals interested in becoming lawyers, and Public Allies Cincinnati.
Davis was a candidate this year in the Democratic primary for Hamilton County prosecutor, but was defeated by his opponent, former Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Fanon Rucker.