Police Practices

Less than a decade after concluding their last Cleveland police probe, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that they will return to the city to conduct a new investigation.

The ACLU of Ohio requested this federal investigation after a 2012 incident in which dozens of police cars participated in a three-city police chase. The chase ended with 13 officers firing 137 rounds and killing two unarmed suspects.

DOJ last investigated the Cleveland Police Department in 2000, responding to complaints that city police were routinely violating the constitutional rights of citizens. When this investigation finally closed in 2004, it had uncovered numerous problems and extracted a promise from the department to make changes. Sadly, by the end of the next year, five more police suspects had already died under questionable circumstances.

The problems have continued unabated into this decade. Viewed as a timeline, a sad pattern emerges: a spiral of policy violations, violence, and eventually blood in the streets.

This pattern must be addressed.

On November 29, 2012, dozens of police cars from multiple law enforcement jurisdictions participated in a 26-minute police chase through three northeastern Ohio cities. The chase ended on a dead-end street in East Cleveland, where 13 Cleveland police officers fired at least 137 rounds into one trapped vehicle, killing two unarmed suspects.

In the weeks that followed, there were far more questions than answers.

On February 5, 2013, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine released the results of a state investigation into the shooting, calling the events of that night a “systemic failure” of Cleveland police policies.

Click here to access the AG’s report.

The Cleveland Police Department has recently been criticized for several officers’ prolific use of non-deadly force and for failing to review incident reports fully. This criticism after two officers were charged with assault for beating a man during an arrest.

In addition, the ACLU of Ohio is concerned the Cleveland Police Department may employ some racially biases policing methods. A June 2011 report, “Overcharging, Overspending, Overlooking: Cuyahoga County’s Costly War on Drugs“, describes the targeting of African American communities for patrols and sweeps, resulting in disproportionate rates of arrest and incarceration for people of color.

The ACLU of Ohio also represented two Clevelanders who were victims of racially biased policing in July 2010 in City of Cleveland v. Alvin Williams and City of Cleveland v. Chanel Christian. As a result of the incident, the Mayor agreed to permit federal mediators to provide training to business owners and police to avoid any similar incidents.

Police departments around the state have begun to use web sites like Facebook and MySpace to monitor people’s online profiles and identify individuals whom they believe engage in illegal activities.

Unfortunately, many innocent individuals are wrongfully identified as criminals because police have relied only on flawed profiling techniques rather than generating clear evidence that the person is engaged in illegal activity

The Ohio General Assembly is considering Senate Bill 98, which would allow local police to enforce immigration laws. The ACLU of Ohio opposes such efforts because they encourage racial profiling and causes resources to be diverted from dealing with local crime. More information is available on our Immigrant Rights page.

On February 26, 2012, Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a man who purportedly worked with a local neighborhood watch association. Zimmerman claimed Martin assaulted him, while other witnesses and 911 tapes suggested that Zimmerman stalked and confronted Martin. Sanford Police Department officials investigated the incident but did not arrest Zimmerman because of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which gives individuals wide latitude to claim self-defense for shootings.

Tends of thousands of people nationwide have protested Trayvon Martin’s death and the subsequent investigation by local law enforcement officers. The ACLU of Florida has publicly questioned the mismanagement of the police investigation. Locally, the ACLU of Ohio rallied with students and activists to call for greater discussion of race and justice issues. One local student wrote a poem in honor of Trayvon Martin.