After months of debate, the Cleveland Community Police Commission passed a new, stricter policy for when officers can chase suspects. But it removed a provision that would have forbidden high-speed pursuits around school dismissal time.
The new policy, which the commission has been working on for almost a year, places new restrictions on when Cleveland officers can chase suspects. In the past, officers had to have what’s called “reasonable suspicion” that a driver or passenger committed a felony crime. Under the new policy, pursuits are limited to instances in which officers had probable cause, a higher standard, that a driver or passenger had committed a violent crime, such as murder, rape, or assault with a deadly weapon, and that they are armed and dangerous.
Wednesday night’s meeting marked the second time that the policy committee brought the proposal to the full commission for a vote. And for the second time, some commissioners strongly objected to a section that would have barred chases between 2 and 5 p.m. on weekdays during the school year. The commission is the final authority on police policies, a power that voters gave the body when Issue 24 was passed in 2021.
Suggested Reading
Cut the chase: Cleveland Community Police Commission seeks new restrictions on police pursuits
Cleveland police would need more certainty that a fleeing suspect is dangerous before engaging in a high-speed chase under proposed revisions to the vehicle pursuit policy from the Cleveland Division of Police and the Cleveland Community Police Commission (CPC).
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you cannot put these restraints on these officers during that time,” said Commissioner Sheila Mason, a retired suburban police chief.
Commissioner James Chura, a retired Cleveland police commander, agreed. “If I go to a life of crime, that’s when I’m going to do my crimes,” he said.
Cleveland Division of Police officials had also argued against the dismissal-time prohibition at policy committee meetings. Commander Ian Mussell from the Bureau of Compliance and Technology told the committee earlier this month that “these decisions [to pursue] are happening in seconds,” and “it adds a layer of complexity that is very difficult to ascertain in the moment.”
After several minutes of debate during Wednesday’s meeting, Commissioner Piet van Lier proposed removing the line about the school-day restriction. That motion passed in a 6-4 vote. The amended policy was then approved 9-1.
“Disagreement can be frustrating,” van Lier, who chairs the policy committee, told Signal Cleveland. But it’s still “a better policy than the current one, and that’s what we’re going to go with.”
The lone vote against the new policy was cast by Co-Chair Sharena Zayed, whose cousin, Tamia Chappman, was killed when she was run down by a vehicle pursued by Cleveland police as she walked from her East Cleveland school to a nearby library in 2019. She was 13.
Zayed did not comment on the vote. But at previous meetings she argued passionately for the restriction.
“The only reason I am on this commission, the sole reason, is because my cousin was murdered as a result of a police chase that went wrong,” she said in February. “The impact that that has had on my family, I’m telling you right now, is not worth it.”
Before it takes effect, the policy must be reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice and Monitoring Team officials who oversee the city’s compliance with the consent decree.
