Mayor's Courts In Ohio Cities

Ohio has nearly 300 local mayor's courts. We investigated 14 courts in-depth by analyzing citations from each mayor's court. These maps show citations issued to residents within a 12 mile radius of each mayor's court. They are color coded to show the race of the person cited and the racial composition of the municipalities on the map. For more information on these individual studies, please click on the name of a municipality.

Amberley, Arlington Heights, Canal Winchester, Cuyahoga Falls, Fairfax, Lockland, Newburgh Heights, North Olmsted, Norwood, Parma Heights, Pataskala, Silverton, Springboro, Woodmere.

The following municipalities demonstrated distinct patterns of racial bias and profit-oriented policing:

Amberley issued 56 percent of citations to Black community members, the highest proportion of all 14 mayor's courts pictured. Newburgh Heights and Lockland also issued nearly 50 percent of citations to Black community members.

The city of North Olmsted netted $1,017,747 from their court in 2016, the highest amount of all 14 municipalities, followed by Lockland which made $728,479 and Parma Heights which made $353,638.57.

Full-time police officers in Lockland issued an average of 386 traffic tickets each in 2016. This is over ten times the average rate of full-time police officers in the nearby city of Cincinnati, who issued an average of 38 tickets each in 2016. Police officers in North Olmsted and Newburgh Heights also issued high rates of traffic tickets.

Municipal citation maps were produced by Jacob Waggoner, Consulting Data Analyst and Empirical Research Fellow, Yale Law School.

DISCLAIMER – The information on this website is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. Every case depends on the specific facts and circumstances involved. To submit a complaint for review, please go to our Legal Help page.