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Health & Fitness

Cleveland Heights police

I want to get feedback on people's experiences with the Cleveland Heights Police department.

I have to admit the Cleveland Heights police have really irked me over the years. Whether it was not processing rape kits that could have helped put an end to serial killer Anthony Sowell much sooner, not having the professional courtesy of telling residents what they are doing in their comunity, aggressivley ticketing people it seems more in the pursuit of generating revenue as opposed to keeping us safer or solving serious crimes, and not reassigning caseloads of officers on vacation or responding to residents who tell them when evidence is available to help them solve crimes.

I have lived on and off in Cleveland Heights since I was in third grade. There have been multiple incidents over the years that have really made me question what it is our police are doing. The Sowell case was probably the case that pushed me over the edge of wondering to really doubting we have a professional force. This is not saying there are no good officers in the department. I'm not saying that at all.

The other night the police and a fire truck were at a house two blocks from my house after dark. I had just arrived back home from the movies and they appeared to be pulling a girl out of a house that I thought was vacant. So I walked over to inquire what was going on. The fireman was especially rude, acting as if I didn't even have the right to ask the question, but two police officers also declined to answer anything. I want to know what's going on in my community and on my street and I feel I have that right. I'm fed up with this attitude that they don't owe the community any answers.

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I have heard from other residents similar and worse experiences, such as residents being mocked by officers who appear to check out a potential home invasion.

I see them parked in their favorite spots to ticket people for their precious revenue-generation activities and yet they won't return a phone call to my father about their investigation of a burglary at his home. So I call, and I am told the detective is on vacation. So I ask who is taking his cases, and a sergeant tells me nobody. She says the department is too overworked to reassign someone else's caseload. I inform her that there is evidence in someone's front yard linking them to the burglary but the department never sends anyone and the garbage is picked up the next day. I found this experience very distrubing because it seems they lack even a basic professionalism... that they don't even care.

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I could go on and on... and the Internet is full of statements on Cleveland Heights police, many of them unflattering, even comparing them to a criminal enterprise.

I really want to hear from others here about their experiences so I can know whether my perception is flawed or if there is some more meat to this situation.

Thanks for your consideration and responses in advance.

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