The city of Cleveland released an “unprecedented” report on police stops, searches and arrests Wednesday, fulfilling a requirement of the Department of Justice Consent Decree the police department has been under since 2015.
The report dives into numbers from 2022, a delay that city officials attributed to the reporting requirement under the consent decree. During that year Cleveland police made 16,463 stops, 94% of which were traffic stops. The other 6% were investigatory stops, meaning an officer “must have reasonable suspicion that the stopped individual has, is, or is about to engage in criminal conduct.”
The number one reason for investigatory stops was the “individual matched description.” That made up 20.5% of stop forms officers filled out, followed by drugs (16.7%) and alcohol (13.3%) and dozens of other reasons.
Among investigatory stops, 51% of those stopped were Black males. 17% were White males, and 9% Hispanic males. But when you look at arrest rates, 34% of Hispanic males stopped were arrested, 28% of Black males, and a quarter of white males stopped were arrested.
“This particular report on the surface — on the surface — can potentially have a chilling effect,” Safety Director Dornat Drummond said during a press conference Wednesday morning.
Mayor Justin Bibb and other city leaders warned the public the numbers need context. Matt Rascon reports: —
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