Cuyahoga County leaders deserve blistering criticism for their tepid response to deadly high-speed chases that have left innocent civilians dead, with Today in Ohio podcast hosts condemning a proposed chase police reform as an inadequate “face-saving half measure.”
At issue is the controversial downtown sheriff’s patrol unit established by County Executive Chris Ronayne, which has come under intense scrutiny following two separate 100-mph chases that resulted in three deaths, including two innocent bystanders. Rather than disbanding the expensive unit outright, county officials merely propose to tighten chase rules.
“County council people are a bunch of cowards. They will not stand up to the executive,” said cleveland.com editor Chris Quinn during the podcast. “This should be disbanded immediately. It should have been disbanded months ago. And they play these games and make it look like they’re trying to be judicious. There’s nothing judicious about it.”
The proposed policy changes would limit pursuits to violent felonies or obvious cases of impaired driving, with additional training and oversight. But for victims’ families and the Cleveland NAACP—who have called for deputies to be fired and the entire unit disbanded—these measures fall woefully short.
Podcast host Leila Atassi highlighted a particularly alarming aspect of the new policy: “One of the most baffling parts of this so-called new policy is that it still allows chases when a driver is impaired. Think about that. You’re going to let someone who’s already a ticking time bomb behind the wheel, drunk or high, push the pedal to a hundred miles an hour through crowded city streets with deputies right on their tail. That is guaranteed to end in a crash.”
The podcast discussion also raised concerns about racial bias in the unit’s operations. “Everything about this unit is crooked,” Quinn stated. “They target black people. They don’t want black people downtown. They want to preserve downtown for white people, I guess.” This echoes complaints from the Cleveland NAACP, which has pointed out that the unit disproportionately targets Black drivers with citations and traffic stops.
Beyond the human toll, Quinn highlighted the financial burden on taxpayers: “At the very heart of this is we can’t afford it. The county is in the red. This unit didn’t exist until Chris Ronayne came in and he created it. It was an unfunded mandate. There was no money for it. And it’s putting us deeper into the red.”
The podcast team also questioned the necessity of high-speed pursuits in an era of advanced technology. Quinn pointed out that modern police work offers numerous alternatives: “We showed yesterday that there are many methods now, modern technology methods to track people down… They could put drones in the air, follow them to where they are, pick them up then, and avoid the 100-mile-an-hour chase.”
Atassi added a damning assessment of the real motivation behind police chases: “Honestly, the only reason officers want to chase at all is so they can pretend they’re a hero in an action movie. Or… it’s because the adrenaline gets the best of them and they’re not backing down. It’s like road rage, but completely sanctioned.”
Today in Ohio will continue to call out the failures of county leaders to do the right thing. Listen to the latest discussion here.
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