CLEVELAND — Cleveland police tell 3News an officer was hospitalized after being struck by a dirt bike Monday night in Ohio City.
According to police officials, the incident happened at approximately 9:20 p.m. at the intersection of West 25th Street and Detroit Avenue near the Detroit-Superior Bridge.
"While the officers were stopped at the traffic light, a large group of dirt bike riders approached the intersection behind the two police cars," police said in a statement to 3News. "As the officers activated their police lights, the dirt bikes proceeded to disregard the lights and attempted to drive around the police cars onto the Detroit-Superior Bridge."
As the dirt bikes drove onto the bridge, police say two of the bikes collided with each other, causing one to fall over.
According to Cleveland police, as officers approached, "the fallen dirt bike driver attempted to flee, striking the police car. A second dirt bike also struck the police car in the process. Officers attempted to detain the initial rider that struck the police car. During the attempt to evade arrest, an officer was injured."
The officer was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center to be treated and was later released.
The dirt bike driver, a 29-year-old Ashtabula man, was arrested. He has not yet been charged.
Officials believe the vehicle may have been part of a group of at least 50 dirt bikes and ATVs riding recklessly through the city. The incident remains under investigation.
"Definitely something that upsets us as a law enforcement agency," Cleveland Division of Police Sergeant Freddy Diaz told 3News. "It should upset the community, right? This should not be happening. The message we are sending is we're not going to tolerate this. This is not safe. Our patrol officers are working hard in the streets trying to keep our community safe. They don't need this added dangerous activity in our city."
We asked Cleveland City Council what they can do about these dirt bike and ATV riders illegally driving on the streets like this.
"We've passed every ordinance," Council President Blaine Griffin answered. "We've made stiffer penalties. We've given everybody the budgetary needs that they would like. We've created the innovative policy that people would like. We've even used ARPA dollars, American Rescue Plan Act dollars, in order to try to buy some of the technology that was requested in order to try to do better intelligence-led policing. Council, just like the rest of the public, wants to see results. We've given the administration every tool that they have asked for, and some.”
Griffin believes that cutting-edge technology like license plates and drones could help stop and catch these offenders.
"We have to use our technology, not just our human capital, in order to not just try to apprehend them through chases, which is very hard," he explained. "Because when you're using cars to try to chase these dirt bikes, it's like an elephant trying to chase a jackrabbit, but what we can use is our technology and do intelligence-led policing in order to try to apprehend these suspects."
Diaz tells us that while no charges have been filed against the suspect, possible charges could include traffic violations and felonious assault.