CLEVELAND — This week, the city of Cleveland publicly released the first annual report on police traffic stop data, as required by the federal consent decree.

What You Need To Know

  • This week, the city of Cleveland publicly released the first annual report on police traffic stop data, as required by the federal consent decree

  • In a press briefing Wednesday morning, Mayor Justin Bibb and police leaders said they’re not jumping to any conclusions from the report until they’re able to hire a third party to analyze the data

  • When broken down by percentage, the report says 14% of traffic stops involving Black males resulted in a search, compared to 4% of the stops involving white males

  • Other data shows that during these traffic stops, officers were most likely to find contraband in searches involving white females, which happened 25% of the time

In a press briefing Wednesday morning, Mayor Justin Bibb and police leaders said they’re not jumping to any conclusions from the report until they’re able to hire a third party to analyze the data.

“There are a number of different factors that go into traffic stops,” Bibb said. “It would not only be unfair but also unethical for the city, as well as the public, to jump to conclusions and make rash, premature decisions just based on initial numbers.”

The city’s report shows that Black males make up the largest number of those searched during traffic stops.

When broken down by percentage, the report says 14% of traffic stops involving Black males resulted in a search, compared to 4% of the stops involving white males.

Other data shows that during these traffic stops, officers were most likely to find contraband in searches involving white females, which happened 25% of the time. Comparatively, when searching Black males, contraband was seized 17% of the time.

Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd said if the independent evaluation finds the department needs to make changes to their practices, they will, but for now, she wants officers to focus on continuing to serve the community.

“The report is data alone at this point, and my request to them is they continue the hard work they’re doing every day and their commitment to the community,” Todd said.

This report is the result of a requirement in the city’s consent decree.

It’s now been nearly ten years since Cleveland entered the agreement with the federal government, which means the department is under the watch of the Department of Justice until they get into compliance with constitutional policing. 

Now that the city has established an approved protocol to release this report, people can expect to see an updated one each year.

The city is expected to publicly release the independent analysis of the search and seizure data in the coming months.