CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Division of Police is facing continued scrutiny for its response to a chaotic weekend of “street takeovers” across the city.
Wednesday morning, Cleveland City Council’s Public Safety Committee held a special hearing to ask Cleveland Police Chief Annie Todd and other safety officials for clarity on key details of the police response.
“Our citizens are irate. What are we doing to deal with this lawlessness in order to make sure that we have a plan?” asked Council President Blaine Griffin. “Because I will tell you that I have multiple citizens, multiple businesses, multiple stakeholders saying ‘Blaine, we’re leaving.’”
The council president and other council members asked Todd what the police department knew ahead of the street takeovers.
Todd told them police received an email from Cincinnati on Saturday afternoon that revealed social media posts from groups coordinating the takeovers. She said the posts contained charged language including, ‘we will not run from a cop. If you can’t stand your ground, this isn’t your meetup.”
In response to that warning, Todd says police launched a helicopter to get eyes on the streets Saturday night, they notified all five police districts, and reached out to Ohio State Highway Patrol asking for help in monitoring roadways.
Todd says the first report of activity came from E. 55th and Woodland at around 11:30 p.m., and then more and more street takeovers started popping up, dividing police resources.
“To sit back and judge after the fact is easy,” said Chief Todd. “We look back at the videos after the fact and can tell what they should have done, what they could have done better, but to face this head on in real time is extremely challenging.”
Todd went on to tell the council members that police have identified multiple persons of interest connected to the takeovers, but drivers removed car license plates before the activity, which is creating increased challenges in tracking suspects down.
She says the department assembled a task force to gather data from all street incidents and work to make arrests. Police are also looking at milling portions of intersections which would disable vehicles that attempt stunt driving.
According to Todd, police have also reached out to owners of parking lots where groups are doing donuts and stunts. She says police are recommending those individuals to put up barriers or elements to obstruct portions of the parking lot so cars don’t have free reign of the area.
However, city council members strongly urged police to take further action.
“There’s gonna be back and forth, and it will escalate to major gun battles,” said Griffin.
Griffin said he’s fearful these street takeovers are going to morph into significant violence. During the takeovers, multiple suspects had airsoft guns, and Griffin said he’s concerned citizens may believe they are real guns and shoot to kill to protect themselves.
Griffin and other council members said they wanted police to get far more diligent and aggressive with daily traffic enforcement. They argue a lax approach to enforcing traffic infractions is leading citizens and outsiders to believe lawlessness can go on unchecked in the city.
The full Cleveland City Council hearing can be watched below: