A couple of months ago, near the end of July, seven Cuyahoga County Sheriff Department deputies and their sergeant sat around a conference room table on the sixth floor of the Justice Center to discuss, and prepare themselves to address, the state of downtown crime. It was 6 p.m. roll call, a Friday.
A couple of months ago, near the end of July, seven Cuyahoga County Sheriff Department deputies and their sergeant sat around a conference room table on the sixth floor of the Justice Center to discuss, and prepare themselves to address, the state of downtown crime.
These deputies and their sergeant, officer of the Cuyahoga County Downtown Safety Patrol, were called a year previous as a response, both in Mayor Bibb’s and Sheriff Harold Pretel’s mind, to escalating concerns for gun violence in the center of the county. A “shooting could be for anything,” Deputy Cody Hutchinson said at roll. “Sometimes it’s the silliest thing you could ever imagine.”
After tasers were checked, and K-9 dog Felix’s nose was warmed, Scene joined Hutchinson, who the guys appropriately call Hutch, on his patrol. Like all of his fellow deputies, Hutch opted to join the DSP following an email from the county last July. A bulky stoic who transferred from CPD’s Fifth District, Hutch’s policing philosophy seems connected to leader Comerford’s.
“See what I told you?” Comerford told Scene. “Law enforcement is the fine line between safety and chaos.”Deputy Cody Hutchinson preparing for his overnight shift downtown, at the Justice Center in August. Yet negative elements popped up. In April, two men shot at each other in front of the Frozen Daiquiri Bar off Bolivar. In March, 36-year-old Juan Ruiz Lopez died on Public Square from numerous gunshot wounds at four in the morning. In April, a Corner Alley bartender’s hand was grazed by the bullet fired by a man irritated in conversation. And in May, the asphalt under the GE Chandelier was lit aflame by teenagers who drifted in cars for minutes around it before police eventually arrived.
“When my GPS took me here today, I was kind of, like, ‘Crap, we’re going downtown.’ I got a little nervous,” Nicole Falbo, 37, told Scene as she watched her two children play in Public Square’s splash pad. “I mean, I would say, if there was a police officer somewhere here, I would feel safer. Maybe just one or two. A patrol car even!”:
Unless, of course, Taylor said, he sees more cops. “At first, they would be around, lurking, doing circles on Public Square,” Taylor said, about the DSP. “You know, showing their face more.”When asked about DSP’s foot patrol policies, Comerford said that it’s better to allocate the few officers he has with fast mobility options. “Foot patrol is good for small areas,” he said. “But when you’re dealing with an area like Downtown Cleveland, you need vehicles to be more effective.
Comerford maintained the goodwill of his deputies—he loves to use the phrase “constitutional policing”—yet is still unsure of the right police threshold. “Some might say, ‘Holy shit! It’s like an army out there!’ Or, ‘Oh wow, is this a bad area?’” Comerford said. As Comerford walked east on Euclid, he narrated a kind of background to his policing philosophy. He wrestled in high school, became a corrections officer in Grafton at 18, a Put-in-Bay cop at 21. He joined the county in 2001. When asked if he takes his nieces and nephews downtown, if he himself finds it safe, Comerford deferred to his job as if he were in sales. “Do you go to the office on your day off?” he said. “This is work.
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