Mark Oprea
Safety Director Karrie Howard and Chief Wayne Drummond at Wednesday’s Safety Committee meeting, where Mayor Bibb’s RISE initiative was scrutinized in light of Cleveland’s latest crime spike.
In the wake of the string of recent shootings and car thefts across the city, Council convened Wednesday morning for special meeting of the Safety Committee, a gathering fraught with frustration, distressing data and demands for answers.
An information tennis match between promise and reality engulfed the Council Chambers, one fueled by the recent mass shooting on West 6th Street and the neverending calls for a remedy to CPD’s hiring woes.
As members scrutinized Mayor Justin RISE Initiative, a policy suite that amps up technology to help solve crimes and re-up CPD’s ranks, and relayed concerned comments from residents, Police Chief Wayne Drummond revealed data behind the already pummeled department that only seemed to snowball the need for concrete ideas.
“The anger and frustration in our community is palpable,” Council President Blaine Griffin told Drummond and Safety Director Karrie Howard. “I get calls and texts every day from officers. They’re at a breaking point. Morale is down. ‘We’re very frustrated. We’re understaffed.’ I have to ask the question. When and where are we gonna take the gloves off?”
Griffin’s passionate response stems primarily from the reality of Drummond and Howard’s data presented to Council that day. Data, that is, that confirms Councilman Polensek’s perception of a crime wave, and sort of justified the councilman’s call for a roundtable discussion.
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Mark Oprea
Safety Director Howard was adamant to defend the mayor’s RISE plan, which, other than increase officer pay by 11 percent, could assist in carjacking crackdowns. “It’s not just an adjustment,” Howard said. “It’s what’s needed to make this city safe.”
In every major crime category—homicide, robbery, car theft and assault—there’s been an overall increase in incidents from 2022 to 2023. (Save for burglary, which mostly dropped in incidents.) The most glaring may be cases of murder and grand theft auto: Except for District 1, which includes Cleveland’s far west side, murders spiked by, on average, 10 to 20 percent.
And in Districts 2 and 3, which include the city’s inner west and east sides, cars stolen nearly tripled. (Mostly, Drummond confirmed, Kias and Hyundais.) Drummond relayed a recent report: A Kia was stolen on the far east side. It crashed; the thieves “bailed” from the car. Officers were surprised to find tweens as culprits.
“I’m talking ages 12 to 17. That should shock you, folks!” Drummond told Council. “We’re talking about 12 year olds here. A 12-year-old girl involved in this.”
Council tapped into their own frustration at the apparent gap between the promise of the RISE Initiative and what they see as its current failures.
Out of the 18 stratagems in RISE, or Raising Investment in Safety for Everyone, six of those have been approved by Council. Those include a massive Shotspotter expansion, a hiring of crime analysts to pinpoint criminal hotspots and, back in October, an 11-percent pay increase for CPD’s 985 patrol officers.
But, as Griffin and Polensek were clear to point out, there’s a chasm between the current approved budget for the hiring of 180 officers and the number of incoming recruits—it’s actually pretty far from it. For example, 152 potential recruits applied for the latest class at the academy; yet, due to botched drug exams, failed aptitude tests, declined offers and withdrawals, only 11 graduated.
“We’ve hired 36 out of the 180 budgeted,” Griffin noted. “But we anticipated that if we increase the actual salary, we anticipated a larger class.”
“That’s an approximation,” Howard said.
“So, out of the 180, we’re probably not going to get there?” Griffin said.
“No.”
“We’re not even going to get close to that,” Polensek added.
Mark Oprea
Chief Drummond invited five members of his department as sort of back up for his presentation.
Drummond, an optimist with a proactive approach to policing, reasserted the need for sympathy for CPD’s make-do-of-what-we-have mentality, despite the implausibility of hiring enough officers to patrol. “I know these numbers are startling,” Drummond said, calmly. “Again, you have to have perspective. We’re doing whatever we can to reach those numbers.”
Along with a $1 million campaign to beef up downtown lighting, or hiring marketing firm Little Jacket to make the blue uniform more appealing to Clevelanders, Bibb’s RISE has quite a bit to go before it’s fully set in legislative stone.
Probably the most dire, and relevant, parts of RISE to consider are the massive expansion of the Violence Reduction Task Force, along with formalizing a carjacking prevention program currently in its test phase.
While City Council waits to approve more tactical aspects of RISE, the county has stepped in to clear some of the residual shock from the West 6th shooting, along with three other shootings in late July, which left one killed.
“I am assigning a team of eight deputies, one sergeant, and additional resources to assist the Cleveland police patrolling the downtown core,” Cuyahoga County Sheriff Pretel wrote in a press release last week. “This collaboration will put a much-needed focus on deterring crime and building trust.”
Bibb will also host a Public Safety Summit on August 23rd, as to further discuss how CPD can up its recruitment numbers.
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