Mayor's Courts In Ohio Cities
A Mayors Court is a local-level court that hears cases about traffic violations, minor misdemeanors, and other offenses that cannot result in jail time, and they only operate in Ohio and Louisiana. Ohio has nearly 300 local mayor's courts. We investigated 14 courts in-depth by analyzing citations from each mayor's court.
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.
