Cleveland Police Chief: 'Culture' of Ignoring Traffic Laws Rampant while Officers Can't Chase

CLEVELAND, OH—Police Chief Dorothy Todd says a “culture” of ignoring traffic laws has taken hold in Cleveland, so brazen that drivers do it right in front of officers. The reason: cops often can’t chase.

Facing questions about officer shortages and lack of traffic enforcement during city council’s budget hearings, Todd said officers are just as frustrated as residents. When they turn on the sirens and try to initiate traffic stops, “there’s a good portion of them where the driver won’t stop.”

“I’m not complaining about our pursuit policy because it does keep our citizens safe, but traffic violations alone is not a reason for pursuits,” Todd said during the police department’s budget hearing Feb. 18.

Asked if officers take down driver’s license plates to charge them with fleeing, Cleveland police spokesman Sgt. Wilfredo Diaz told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that it’s not a “straight yes or no” answer. He said a summons may be issued, depending on the circumstances.

Cleveland police created new pursuit rules in 2014, following the highly scrutinized “137 shots” case in 2012. After a prolonged chase through the city involving many police vehicles, officers fired 137 shots and killed Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, who were unarmed.

The policy allows officers to chase people for violent crimes or drunken driving. Officers need permission from supervisors to start a pursuit, and it can be called off if the chase poses a greater threat to the public than letting the suspect flee.

Todd said that over time, the pursuit policy emboldened drivers to break the law, even in front of officers.

“There has been a culture that has been established within the city of a lack of care for anything related to traffic,” Todd said.

Traffic enforcement is a constant and often repeated concern from council members. It isn’t going 5 mph too fast or rolling stops at stop signs. It’s blowing past red lights in broad daylight.

Most say it’s gotten worse since the COVID-19 pandemic. And it’s why they say residents are pleading for speed tables and cameras in their neighborhoods.

“It’s noticeable to everyone who spent a decade driving before COVID,” Councilman Kris Harsh told cleveland.com. “My constituents who are complaining about this are not exaggerating. They are not making this up.”

Harsh probed the lack of traffic tickets amid budget hearings, saying that seeing other drivers pulled over is what deters speeders and red-light runners. But getting a clear picture of how far enforcement has fallen is difficult.

According to the 2026 budget, Cleveland police wrote 39,679 tickets in 2025, not including parking, down 11% from 2023. But the city’s budget documents from years before the COVID-19 pandemic don’t list ticket figures.

Diaz said he was unable to provide ticket figures from 2018 to now. Cleveland.com has since requested those records.

However, Cleveland Municipal Court has seen a sharp decline in traffic cases, according to Ohio Supreme Court data. The court handles cases from any agency that writes a ticket within the borders of Cleveland and Bratenahl.

The court saw 75,442 traffic cases in 2015. From 2016 through 2019, the court saw an average of 54,316 traffic cases each year. From 2022 through 2025, the average has been 25,131.

Council President Blaine Griffin called the quality of driving in Cleveland “unacceptable.”

“Since COVID there has been a brazen disregard for stoplights, stop signs and everything else,” Griffin said. “Quite frankly, a lot of these people do have a disregard for the law because they have a theory that Cleveland can’t chase.”

If the pursuit policy is the culprit of lax enforcement, Griffin said it should be revisited.

Piet van Lier, who heads the Community Police Commission’s policy committee, said Todd is likely correct that Cleveland police policy wouldn’t allow cops to chase for traffic violations. But he said that’s a good thing: Catching a speeding driver isn’t worth putting bystanders at risk.

He pointed to 13-year-old Tamia Chapman, who was killed in late-2019 when a car fleeing Cleveland police struck her in East Cleveland. Officers chased the stolen vehicle without authorization.

“Should we be more concerned with traffic citations or people’s lives if a police chase went wrong?” Van Lier said.

Van Lier said the traffic enforcement needs to be handled in other ways, whether that’s built-environment solutions like speed tables, or getting a driver’s license plate and issuing a summons.

Harsh points to a lack of officers as a core issue.

From 2016 to 2019, Cleveland police always had more than 1,400 uniformed officers, according to past budgets. The department has been below 1,300 since 2022.

“We have far fewer police cars on the street than we did just 10 years ago,” Harsh said. “When you have fewer cars on the street, you have fewer people to do traffic enforcement.”

Todd told council that each of the police districts has two traffic cars, and the department has a separate traffic unit. Every patrol officer can enforce traffic violations if time allows.

The police department’s vacancies have been another pain point for council, who just Wednesday brought in Todd and Safety Director Wayne Drummond to explain how overtime has cost the department $26 million or more the past three years.

Todd told council that patrols are always staffed first, with the highest overtime earners on special assignments like staffing the airport or details focused on vehicle break-ins.

Councilman Mike Polensek said the lack of available officers is noticed by residents.

“I must have two dozen streets, if not more, that are requesting speed tables because they don’t believe there’s adequate traffic enforcement in our city,” Polensek said during Wednesday’s committee hearing.

Harsh said there’s been a breaking of the social contract. While everyone gets a ticket occasionally, that threat of being pulled over is what keeps most drivers following the law.

He understands that some drivers will flee. Others will stop, and Cleveland can’t afford to have a “defeatist attitude.”

“Unfortunately, those people need to be seen on the side of the road getting their tickets by others,” Harsh said. “Every driver that sees that, it reminds them that it could be them.”

________________

©2026 Advance Local Media LLC.

Visit cleveland.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.