EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — East Cleveland's embattled police force has a new leader who hopes to bring some stability to the troubled department.

What You Need To Know

  • Chief Brian Gerhard is now leading the department after 27 years of service

  • The three square-mile city currently has 44 active police officers at a time when the previous police chief and eight other current and former officers are facing criminal charges
  • City Councilor-at-Large Patricia Blochowiak says previous chief should have been disqualified due to an earlier conviction

The department's previous chief is facing more than a dozen tax charges. Several other current and former members of the department face a host of other charges. According to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, officers Kyle Wood, Tyler Mundson, Brian Stoll and Daniel Toomer are accused of ramming into vehicles and assaulting the drivers while arresting them in March and April of this year.

Two other now former officers, Alfonzo Cole and Willie Warner-Sims, are alleged to have stolen money, drugs and firearms from multiple people while on duty from July 2020 to July 2021.

In the summer of 2018, two former East Cleveland police officers, Von Harris and Demarkco Johnson, are accused of falsifying police reports and accepting bribes.

But the city’s new chief of police, Brian Gerhard, said those officers don't represent the department. He said he knows he has to work to change public perception of the department.

“I don’t have a magic wand to (fix) things overnight, but I’m going to do my best," Gerhard said. “We have to gain the public’s trust by being good officers. Treating the public with respect.”

He knows that’s a tall task considering the previous police chief, Scott Gardner, is also facing criminal charges. Gardner has been suspended as he faces 13 tax-related charges. Prior to becoming chief, he was convicted of similar charges in 2014.

If you ask City Councilor-at-Large Patricia Blochowiak, those convictions should have kept Mayor Brandon King from supporting Gardner in the first place.

“The mayor is responsible for his unconditional support of the police chief, previous police chief, even though he had a conviction and should never have been supported," Blochowiak said. "The problem starts at the top."

Mayor King released the following statement after the most recent indictments of police officers on Oct. 4, 2022.

“The No. 1 focus of the King Administration is safety for residents and visitors. Building a credible police force is paramount to an effective department. It is my mission to clean up the police department officer by officer; and, upon the identification of compromised officers within the police department, to remove them from active duty immediately as well as assist in the prosecution," King wrote. "In pursuit of that goal, Acting Chief Brian Gerhard will be sworn in as Chief of the East Cleveland Police Department on Friday, October 7th at City Hall. Acting Chief Gerhard has an impeccable record within the department with roots in the city from childhood. He has been cooperating with the County Prosecutor’s Office to ensure that the East Cleveland Police Department is purged of all bad officers and to restore confidence in the police department.”

According to the East Cleveland Police Department, Wood, Mundson, Stoll and Toomer are presently employed with the department but are suspended. Cole and Warner-Sims were terminated in 2021 and Johnson resigned in 2021. Harris was terminated in 2017.

“We don’t have the mob working here," Gerhard said. "We don’t have like some deep underbelly. These are some young officers that at one time were good officers."

Mariah Crenshaw is a community advocate who lives in Cleveland but said she's been keeping an eye on the situation in neighboring East Cleveland for a long time.

She said the current investigations into officer misconduct are overdue. Her passion for police accountability led her to create Chasing Justice, LLC, where she works as the lead researcher and analyst, compiling public records related to police training. 

She has this hope for East Cleveland:

“Start to invest in their community and build the community up in a way that people can be proud and have a community that they’re happy to live in and not be fearful of not just the criminals, but also the police," she said.

Gerhard said he wants to lead with transparency and a sense of discipline.

One way he plans to do that is by cutting back on police pursuits. 

“I’m not going to tolerate it," he said. "They will be suspended. I’ve already suspended a guy for wrecking a police car during a pursuit."

So far in 2022, there have been 164 pursuits involving East Cleveland police. Gerhard said since taking over as chief in September, there have been 11 car chases as of Oct. 12.

“I’m not going to have my officers witness a crime that’s serious and sit on it so someone else can get hurt, but they’re not going to be chasing tinted windows, somebody running a stop sign," he said. "They’re not going to worry about crap like that. We’ve got enough technology now, we can actually get plates and find the car."

He wants the chance to enact change, but Blochowiak said the solution is temporary help from outside agencies like the county sheriff and FBI. 

Crenshaw believes it’s time to start over.

“I would just really like to see everything shut down and rebooted in East Cleveland," Crenshaw said. "I would like to see a clean slate."

The FBI has a hotline set up to collect information regarding any public corruption or civil rights violations happening in the city of East Cleveland. The community is urged to call 216-583-5343 with any information.