Posted on 07/14/2016 1:57:45 PM PDT by Covenantor
Why Cleveland Police, Not Outside Officers, Will Be Handling Arrests During RNC
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Thousands of police officers from departments around the country will help Cleveland police provide security during the Republican National Convention, but those police officers won't be arresting anyone.
While those officers can detain anyone they feel has broken the law, a Cleveland police officer will actually make the decision whether to make a formal arrest, Deputy Cleveland Police Chief Ed Tomba told cleveland.com Wednesday.
Cleveland police will take the lead, partly because it's Cleveland's convention, Tomba said. But it also makes more sense to have Cleveland officers filing reports, complaints, and testifying in court, rather than officers from a patchwork of departments around the country.
"They are going to do what cops do, they're going to take action," Tomba said of the outside officers. "But it's going to be our job to get there and do any type of follow-up and make that arrest."
Tomba, Chief Calvin Williams and Assistant Director of Public Safety Ed Eckart outlined the plan in a meeting with cleveland.com reporters and editors Wednesday.
Here's how they say the plan will work:
Police have divided downtown into quadrants. The 500 Cleveland police officers and thousands of outside officers will be split between those quadrants. Each agency that sent officers also sent their own supervisors to oversee those officers.
Those outside supervisors will report to a Cleveland police supervisor.
A Cleveland police commander or captain will be in charge of each quadrant. All command-level decisions about deployment will come from either Williams, Tomba, or deputy chiefs Wayne Drummond or Joellen O'Neill.
If any outside officers see a situation unfolding that threatens the safety of someone or property damage, they are expected to respond immediately. They can handcuff a person and detain them. But the Cleveland police supervisor will respond to the scene, conduct any follow-up investigation, interview the detained person and the officer, and decide whether to arrest or release them.
The Cleveland police officer will file the report of the incident in Cleveland's record system, and any charges will be filed through Cleveland Municipal Court. The Cleveland officer would testify during any court proceedings, to avoid having to subpoena an officer from out of town to testify in court.
The outside police officers will effectively become a Cleveland police officer during the four-day convention, which begins Monday. They will be under the command of Williams, and will be covered by the city's insurance policy if they are injured or are accused of excessive force.
Every department that agreed to send officers here had to sign a memorandum of understanding. The agreement, among other things, required the departments to train their officers in Cleveland's mass arrest policies, which were altered last year to settle a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of dozens of protesters arrested following the acquittal of a Cleveland police officer charged in a 2012 deadly shooting.
"We want to put the agencies that are assisting us in the least amount of vulnerability as possible as far as arrests," Williams said.
Current news regarding status of forces in Cleveland RNC....
Bring back Nate Sowa, he’ll handle everything
Careful, Obama wants to federalize every State and local police department in the country, based on Obama’s notion that only the federal police agencies can protect any citizens civil rights.
Obama will have operatives in the crowds to prove his civil rights take over position on the ground.You do not believe?
Obama has done this before in Kenya in 2006/2007 ( genocide resulted), Libya, Gaza, Egypt, Syria Arab Spring.
Police officers involved should be briefed on this Obama initiative, and everyone who breaks the law should be arrested, regardless of what racial extraction they might be, including the Obama apparatchiks who will be there to cause violence.
Someone is playing a dangerous game here.
Just curious.
Never mind...issue is addressed in article. Missed it...
Yep... BLM types where invented/funded mostly for that one reason. Obamalaw
It will be interesting if the demonstrators break into the convention and beat the delegates causing hundreds to run screaming. We may have reached a further degree of closeness to the coming Social War.
Why does free speech always come with the possibility of arrest for Democrats?
I don’t know enough about this but the open carry in Ohio, wouldn’t they have to have an Ohio permit? I mean can any of these activists show up armed?
Second paragraph states that out of town LEO assitance can detain those they deem violators of....? but Cleveland cops will make decision to charge or not charge, proceed or not with arrests.
Sounds like the making of a fine mess
Article and comments.
“...but those police officers won’t be arresting anyone. “
Can they shoot the thugs when necessary?
Dangerous game indeed.
Before home rule in Washington DC, SOP was to remove demonstrators from site to a more remote large scale holding facility, in DC that would have been NG Armory and adjacent DC Stadium for assessment and processing. Purpose was to run out the clock with paperwork knowing many could not be charged on serious counts. Oddly there was a shortage of clerks doing the processing.
Non violent holds were released outside the gates, “you can find your own way home” sendoff.
Don’t know that that will be the case in Cleveland though...local politics.
;>)
my ROE would say yesssss!
A little late don't you think. I mean Obama mapped out the violence with black power groups at the WH, I have to think brandishing will be the least of our problems.
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