63 suspended? I realize most of the suspensions where fairly short but is it normal to suspend that many and not just the officer/s in charge of the chase? According to the story it sounds like they are not done with the punishments either as they are still looking into the ones involved in the shooting.
Anyone have any additional information on this?
CLEVELAND – Cleveland’s police chief says 63 officers have been suspended for breaking rules during a deadly chase last November
Chief Michael McGrath says the suspensions announced Tuesday are the result of disciplinary hearings. The officers were involved in the 23-minute chase that wove through a neighborhood before ending in gunfire. Officers fired 137 shots, and the fleeing driver and passenger were killed.
The hearings didn’t include officers involved in the shooting. Those will come after prosecutors finish reviewing what happened.
It is difficult to envision a 23 minute chase involving 63 officers and 137 shots fired, in an urban PD AOR in which the public wasn’t excessively and needlessly endangered at some point(s).
I’m not saying it’s impossible, or that all 63 suspensions were warranted, but…damn…
Don’t know how it works in hellville (aka Cleveland) but around here if a chase gets iffy, the on duty supervisor calls it off (if the primary Officer in the chase doesn’t do so).
I would be looking for the Supervisor on duty and the primary Officer to start, and then go from there. But if all those Officers went against policy, they should be held accountable.
I couldn’t agree with you more. The driver and passenger were shot 47 times cumulatively. So, that leaves 90 pieces of lead, flying at about 1200 feet per second, that presumably didn’t hit their unarmed, intended target. That’s a lot of potential opportunities to hit an innocent bystander and that’s without any officers having received fire in the process.
Police previously announced punishments for 12 supervisors stemming from the chase. One sergeant was fired. A captain and lieutenant were demoted, and nine sergeants were suspended.
CLEVELAND, Ohio – A Cuyahoga County grand jury Friday indicted six Cleveland police officers for their roles in a 2012 police chase and shooting that left two people dead and carved deep schisms into the community.
The grand jury charged Patrolman Michael Brelo with two counts of voluntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony. The panel also accused five supervisors of dereliction of duty: sergeants Randolph Dailey, Patricia Coleman, Jason Edens, Michael Donegan and Lt. Paul Wilson, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said.
‘This is a historic event,’ he continued. ‘Prosecutors have indicted an officer for manslaughter in an excessive force case. That just doesn’t happen.’
This story has been on the Cleveland TV stations off and on since it happened. Sadly this is one of those situations where the deeper you dig into what happened, the more stupid it gets. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t suspend the officers, supervisors involved… I’d FIRE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM. None of these officers, not one, deserves to keep his job, and not one deserves to be in law enforcement after displaying this level of stupidity…
