Cleveland needs a laser focus on people who repeatedly commit violent crimes, not a surge of National Guard troops, Gov. Mike DeWine and Mayor Justin Bibb argued at a news conference Monday.
The Democratic mayor and Republican governor called the conference to highlight the results of a two-year partnership between city, state and federal law enforcement. By following data and focusing on shootings, homicides and carjackings, authorities have made more than 1,400 felony arrests and seized 1,000 guns since the summer of July 2023, DeWine said.
As an example of a city-state partnership in action, the mayor and governor played footage of an Ohio Highway Patrol helicopter and Cleveland police pursuing suspects who skipped a traffic stop and then attempted a carjacking. The footage ended with an arrest at gunpoint.
“Our teams don’t blanket the entire city looking for anyone, everyone that they can arrest,” DeWine said. “This is a targeted operation.”
Asked about the possibility of President Donald Trump deploying troops to Cleveland, Bibb and DeWine said that sending in the guard wasn’t necessary.
“What we are talking about today is the best way to deal with crime,” DeWine said, flanked by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley and representatives from the Cleveland police, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
DeWine noted that he had called the guard up to Cleveland in 2020 at the request of then-Mayor Frank Jackson to respond to downtown vandalism and arson following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The National Guard was skilled in pulling off major logistical undertakings, such as running vaccination sites during the coronavirus pandemic, he said.
But for violent crime, the best resources were the law enforcement agencies represented at Monday’s news conference, the governor argued. The mayor agreed, saying he wanted support from federal law enforcement such as the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“I want more investments in the FBI. I want more investments in U.S. Marshals. I want more investments in the ATF and DEA to get violent offenders off our street, to get illegal guns off our streets,” Bibb said. “The National Guard, in my opinion, is not the solution.”
Trump has deployed the National Guard to such cities as Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tenn. U.S. Rep. Max Miller, a Republican, wrote in a September op-ed that his suburban constituents were afraid to come to Cleveland and that the National Guard should be deployed to the city.
Earlier in the news conference, DeWine walked through statistics showing that the number of people arrested on violent crime and weapons charges statewide over the last 50 years made up just 1% of the Ohio population. Many of those arrested were repeat offenders, he said.
Monday’s press conference was held just a day before Election Day, when Cleveland voters will decide whether to give Bibb a second term. The mayor has been emphasizing pay raises for police and a drop in violent crime as he runs for reelection.
The number of homicides in Cleveland has fallen 41% since reaching a peak of 189 killings in 2020, according to Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner data, a trend cities across the country are seeing. Last year, there were 111 homicides in the city, and there have been 99 homicides as of Oct. 27 this year, by the medical examiner’s count.
