I-Team: Why don’t Cleveland officers use this common crimefighting tool?

Cleveland (WJW) – The FOX 8 I-Team investigated to find out why Cleveland police do not use a common piece of equipment to fight crime.

It’s something that could be used to help officers battling street takeovers.

We found Cleveland police do not have stop sticks to puncture tires of suspects, and do not count on that changing. Even if Cleveland police wanted to start using stop sticks right now, they couldn’t.

A week and a half ago, crowds and stunt drivers took over city streets and the innerbelt. Some drivers also did “donuts” around police cars.

Cleveland officers do not have stop sticks to disable vehicles, yet the Ohio State Highway Patrol and many other police departments use stop sticks, especially as suspects try to speed away.

“With the proper training, we would definitely want to use the new tool,” said Cleveland police union president Andy Gasiewski. “Definitely could assist us by disabling the vehicle and not getting into a pursuit, or even having that vehicle run off even when we’re not pursuing it.”

More than a decade ago, questions came up about Cleveland police and stop sticks after a long chase and major incident. At that time, one district police station had stop sticks in a closet.

Now, new questions after the street takeovers. At a city council hearing, last week, council members asked the chief about stop sticks in light of the takeovers.

“The Division of Police does not currently use spike strips. You know, this is something that we did talk about. We are trying to determine, as much as you are, how best we can combat this,” police chief Dorothy Todd said.

But even if Cleveland police wanted to use that equipment, the city couldn’t just buy it and put it in patrol cars for officers.

Remember, Cleveland police are under federal monitoring.

Sgt. Freddy Diaz wrote in by email, “we could review and present this option to the DOJ (Department of Justice)… policy changes would also have to be reviewed by the CPC (community police commission).”

As a result, it would likely take a very long time for Cleveland police to buy stop sticks and get approval to use them.

Police say they’re looking at the best way overall to deal with street takeovers. A task force is investigating the series of takeovers on the last weekend of last month.

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