This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system, and News 5 Cleveland. Sign up for The Marshall Project’s Cleveland newsletter and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook.
Cleveland police officers stop thousands of people every year, mostly to hand out traffic tickets. In 2023, the department reported making nearly 17,000 stops — about 45 a day. More than 700 of those were Terry stops, where officers briefly question a person they suspect might be involved in a crime. Nationally, a Terry stop has become known as a stop-and-frisk.
This practice has always been controversial, especially in communities of color where the use of field interrogations has caused friction and eroded trust. A U.S. Supreme Court decision related to a Cleveland arrest, Terry v. Ohio, established the power of police to stop, question and search people they suspect of wrongdoing.
In 2014, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation found that Cleveland police officers were falling short of the court’s standard, which required them to have reasonable suspicion to stop people.
Officers weren’t noting why they stopped people in their reports, and Black residents told investigators they felt targeted by police. Federal officials stopped short of accusing the department of racial profiling.
After that, Cleveland officials signed a federal consent decree and agreed to update department policies on stops and searches. As a result, the department now tracks who is stopped and why, to keep officers accountable and make sure the department isn’t violating the Fourth Amendment, which protects against police searching people without reason.
That’s how we know that nearly 70% of the people involved in Terry stops in Cleveland in 2023 were Black — and that nearly half of the stops didn’t lead to any further police action.
For more on the history and rules of Terry stops and how Cleveland handles them today, we answered some common questions. We’d like to hear your related experiences: Have you been stopped and questioned or searched by Cleveland police? Share your experience with our team.
What happened in the case that led to the Ohio v. Terry decision?
In the early afternoon on Halloween 1963, Cleveland police Detective Martin McFadden said he saw John W. Terry, Richard Chilton and Carl Katz repeatedly looking into the windows of a downtown jewelry store.
McFadden said he suspected the men were casing the shop and stopped them. McFadden patted them down and found guns on Chilton and Terry. He arrested them.
At trial, Terry’s lawyer argued that McFadden’s search violated the Fourth Amendment. Cuyahoga County Judge Bernard Friedman ruled that Terry’s suspicious behavior was enough reason for the officer to search him. Terry was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and found guilty.
Terry’s case eventually worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. His attorney, Louis B Stokes, argued McFadden did not have enough evidence to search Terry and that McFadden’s self-professed “intuitive sixth sense” was not enough justification to stop and search the men. Stokes in 1968 became the first Black congressman elected from Ohio.
The Supreme Court issued a decision that gives police the power to stop, question and search people if officers suspect them of wrongdoing.
Justice William Douglas disagreed with the court’s majority opinion and forewarned of a power shift.
“To give police greater power than a magistrate is to take a long step down the totalitarian path,” he wrote.
The morning following the 1968 decision, then-Cleveland Police Chief Michael J. Blackwell told the Cleveland Press, “We are not going to use this privilege indiscriminately or abuse it. It will depend on the individual officer make the decision whether the circumstances warrant a stop and search.”
What makes it a Terry stop?
As police patrol city streets and neighborhoods, they approach and question people who are walking, driving or riding bicycles. In some cases, people chat with police voluntarily and move on.
Most police encounters are for a specific reason. Maybe a driver is speeding, or a vehicle has a broken tail light. The officer sees a traffic violation and pulls the car over. Or an officer uses a traffic violation — like illegally tinted windows — to stop someone they suspect of a more serious crime so they can gather more information. That is called a pretextual stop.
When police make what’s called a “Terry stop” — named after the Supreme Court case — they briefly detain a person while officers investigate whether they are involved in criminal activity. Police can also pat down a person for weapons.
Law enforcement officers can stop a person whom they suspect was involved — or is about to be involved — in a crime. To do so, they need to be able to point to specific facts or observations that lead them to that conclusion.
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