OpsLens recently published an eyebrow-raising piece regarding an April 10, 2018 police pursuit in which a Cleveland police sergeant was shot at and gave chase. He was called-off by a district supervisor. The bad guy was granted a free pass because the supervisor was somehow in the dark while everyone else was lit-up on the same police page. As anyone may suspect, attempted murder of a cop equals Go get ’em! for police officers working the streets…except the three-striped police supervisor who was presumably riding a desk at District Five HQ.
Local media in Cleveland heard about it and submitted their own confusion and queries. Consequently, it was time for Cleveland police brass to address the What the heck! tone on Fox 8 News Cleveland. The station broadcast a copy of the actual police communications audio recording. If after listening to the sparring match on the police audio you have no idea how the media became privy to such an ordeal, please ponder some more. Other than law enforcement personnel, who could have known? No, it is not likely the suspect had anything to do with it.
In short, sometimes police find the media legitimately useful.
A follow-up story posted on OpsLens analyzed the post-pursuit clarification from Cleveland Division of Police Chief Calvin D. Williams. He sort of bobbled the inexplicable pursuit termination—fusion of embarrassed/annoyed—and largely expressed his dismay by reiterating the Cleveland PD chase policy and what/when the rank-and-file are permitted to go after criminals. I’m certain there was more to it behind closed doors at HQ, but that is how it was addressed publicly.
Now, five days after the aforementioned terminated police pursuit, another open-season on cops story out of Cleveland emerges. This latest felonious horror is brought to us by body-cam footage portraying police officers grabbing the earth and ditching for cover as a van sped by and unleashed a drive-by shooting at cops as they were investigating complaints of a drive-by shooting minutes earlier. That seems like a mouthful of Hollywood melodramatics, but it is real, in Cleveland, Ohio where an Obama-era federal consent decree to impose police reform was signed by CPD executives and then-AG Eric Holder. We’ll entertain that factor in a moment.
For a clear picture as well as to underscore the point, several uniformed Cleveland cops and a cluster of fully-marked Cleveland police cruisers—to include SUVs—stood idle and unobscured while the shooter(s) brazenly plugged shots on a residential street.
According to ABC News 5 in Cleveland, police believe the person in the van which sprayed bullets into a home occupied by a grandmother and children is the same one which returned and took shots at them in open-air brazenness at 03:23 a.m. on April 15, 2018.
You can actually hear one of the Cleveland cops taking the female victim’s description of the drive-by suspect’s vehicle while suddenly interjecting “Is this it right here?” It was. A fusillade of gunshots crack through the relative serenity of a residential street during midnight hours.
Listening and watching acutely, notice the sort of unexcited calm and seemingly reserved reactions of the police officers on scene. Perhaps conditioned to the surreal nature of policing Cleveland—just another hail of bullets slung our way—cops jockeyed to cruisers and gave chase. This time they weren’t called-off, but the shooter(s) got away.
Excited delirium didn’t set in, professional posture did.
Obama-Era Consent Decree
Called the Police Settlement Agreement, the Obama-era Department of Justice federal consent decree formed between then-Attorney General Eric Holder and police executives running the Cleveland PD at that time. Entering into a police reform covenant, all parties stipulated changes focusing on “building community trust, creating a culture of community and problem-oriented policing, officer safety and training, officer accountability and technological upgrades. In addition, a Mental Health Response Advisory Committee will be formed to foster relationships and build support between police, the community and mental health providers.”
Although that federal consent decree was signed on May 25, 2016, almost two years ago and after DoJ started an “investigation of Cleveland Division of Police” on December 4, 2014, these latest few examples of how anarchistic it seems in Cleveland may appear uncanny and counterintuitive.
Especially when the agreed-upon language mentions “community” several times, we are seeing disunity and disinterest from those clearly armed and hell-bent on taking pot shots at grannies, children, and cops. What does that say of the overall climate in Cleveland? Yet the police keep showing up for duty. What does it say about them?
I’ve never been to Cleveland but the audacious fusillades aimed at cops is beyond a fair barometer indicating an ill-tempered environment. And the flood of gun violence is not coming from service weapons. At least reports do not indicate that.
On April 26, 2018, Cleveland.com published some data pertaining to the criminal pulse in the city. Statistics regarding shootings are staggering and, shamefully, seem to highlight a city culture whose resort to firearms is kind of commonplace: “At least 900 people have been shot or shot at every year since 2015. In 2015 there were 923 incidents reported where someone was shot or shot at [that is 2.52 victims per day]. There were 993 in 2016 [close to three victims per day] and 914 in 2017 [2.5 victims a day].” Those numbers are grotesque.
In the context of gunfire in Cleveland’s first-quarter in 2018, stats sprint at the sound of a gun. “From the beginning of this year through March 21, there were 137 people shot or shot at in Cleveland” and “statistics provided by the city do not distinguish between shootings where someone is hurt and where someone is not,” wrote Cleveland reporter Adam Ferrise.
I’m gonna guess there is no categorical data regarding cops being shot at by civilians. Why? I wonder about police officers being shot at and told to retreat. That was highly publicized. How do such circumstances look in the eyes of those evil-minded motorists slinging guns out windows and spewing rounds? Is a police agency’s ostensible soft-handed touch interpreted by criminals as everything is fair game? Hijacking society just a way of life in the Ohio metropolis?
Although no plausible excuse can exist for not doing police work, it seems a faltering department plays a role in malaise and atrophy as antithetical catalysts failing police missions. This may be one example whereby a DoJ consent decree and a federal monitor overseeing a police entity rebirthing and shedding pangs is rightly placed.
As reporter Adam Ferrise noted, a 91-page Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) study implicated Cleveland’s deficit in several areas, most notably a severely understaffed police force. Instead of straining the entre breadth of the PERF findings, let’s stick to gun violence and what is being done or, rather, what is not being done.
Cleveland PD’s woes are to the point where “detectives in all of the five city police districts don’t respond to non-fatal shootings and typically begin investigations days after they take place.” As a cop I’d feel embarrassed by that dismal response. As a citizen/victim, I’d harbor resentment and I may even want tax breaks. As a criminal, I’d feel as if every day was Mardi Gras for gun-toting, marauding, and doing my own thing with impunity.
Could such statistics equate to too much hands-off policing thereby surrendering the city to criminal elements?
Analysts with PERF claimed they were stupefied by the seeming lackadaisical approach to shootings in Cleveland, especially after learning district detectives “are not required to respond to the scene of non-deadly shootings, and in most cases are discouraged from doing so by supervisors.” I can not begin to comprehend that. If chronic staffing shortages are the root, then bleed brassy knuckles to fix it! There is no valid excuse for letting a department get so depleted, only to suffer dire consequences up to and including taking shots at the police.
The PERF study went on to say that not all beat cops are adequately trained to gather evidence at shooting scenes. Absent competency and minus a detective to ensure evidence collection, cases are literally lost at cops’ hands/feet. Such factors are glaringly unacceptable in 2018, let alone any other time. Again, I can see why a police reform decree was emplaced, given reprehensible circumstances in a modern-day society policed by a force of roughly 1,600 overseeing a populace of approximately 400,000.
In recent years, Cleveland PD started to invest in technology to better its chances of catching bad guys and closing cases and communicating with each other. The federal monitor found that detectives were not even communicating with each other. Not sharing intelligence is tantamount to taking the ball and going elsewhere; there is no play, no strategy, no victory. In actuality, CPD was mandated to invest funds in tech-related wares. Pursuant to the DoJ consent decree, the federal monitor’s FY-2016 report harped on the fact that “Cleveland does not yet benefit from many of the basic technological innovations associated with contemporary, urban policing.” In my mind, that begs the question Why not? For a large agency to stay stuck with Morse code or smoke signals or two cups and string is inexplicable.
Where have city tax dollars gone if not for adequate investments in its law enforcement arm?
Evan MacDonald wrote that in November 2015, the Cleveland Police Department pushed away from the Stone Age and “upgraded its software system for the first time since 1998.” Cleveland cops without in-car technology resorted to using their own cell phones to correspond (coordinate tactical responses) with other cops. He also reported that Cleveland police cruisers were in such disrepair that cops were using their own personal vehicles for patrol. That is not only absurd and unheard of but it is also illegal; there are statutes which govern police personnel, police vehicles, and law enforcement equipment required by law.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of an all-encompassing view I gleaned from material reports in the last few years. Sadly, allowing a police entity to decay and publicly reporting on the rot, rust, and tarnish will surely transmit to eyes/ears of illicit-minded bad-asses taking advantage…perhaps even shooting at cops for no reason other than to see if they are back up to snuff. That is a typical criminal mindset. In all this, I pin the tail on the agency management.
