CLEVELAND — New numbers are out from Cuyahoga County about traffic stops by sheriff’s deputies in Downtown Cleveland.
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After a series of violent crimes this summer, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office partnered with Cleveland Police to help patrol.
Last Friday, News 5 Investigators revealed deputies stopped dozens of drivers for window tint violations.
The most recent numbers from the operation show almost twice as many.
Sheriff Harold Pretel spoke with News 5 Investigators about the criticism by some calling it over-enforcement.
Pretel saw his deputies at work under the new partnership with Cleveland.
“Not only are we getting very positive feedback, the deputies and supervisors on the ground are getting countless amounts of people walking up saying, 'Thank you,'” Pretel said.
Eight deputies and a sergeant are assigned to the Downtown Safety Patrol to deter crime and build trust.
They work in the evenings and overnight.
"It’s an opportunity to be an ambassador as well as enforce the laws to say, 'Hey, you know what, we don’t want any nonsense Downtown,'" Pretel said.
Before the partnership, there was a mass shooting in the Warehouse District, a deadly shooting near Progressive Field, and three people hurt from gunfire outside a bar in the flats.
Last Saturday, Pretel said that he was out with the patrol for noise enforcement.
It was the day after News 5 Investigators revealed some criticism over the kind of traffic stops by people who live nearby.
"These seem like pretextual stops. And we’re not trying to look to have citizens of the city going about their daily lives being over-enforced here,” Warehouse District resident Sunny Nixon said.
In new county data since the partnership began, there have been 371 traffic stops, 59 drug seizures— mostly for marijuana— and 95 stops for window tint enforcement.
“I know a couple cases were cited where we’ve seen... the entire front windshield is tinted; clearly, that’s a safety issue,” Sheriff Pretel said.
News 5 Investigators asked the sheriff if these were pretextual stops.
“Not pretextual stops. A traffic stop for a violation of the law,” Pretel said.
Pretel said that his deputies act professionally, respectfully, and constitutionally.
"And that's going to continue,” Pretel said.
Mike Benza is a criminal law professor at Case Western Reserve University.
“The sheriff is correct. As long as there is a traffic violation, the only thing the constitution cares about is that,” Benza said.
According to Benza, window tint believed to be too dark gives officers grounds to stop a car but not to search it.
“What you really want to address or try to figure out is there an improper motivation or enforcing these types of particular traffic laws that have an undercurrent of race or other bias,” Professor Benza said.
News 5 asked Pretel if he believes his deputies are helping reduce violent crime by going after tint enforcement and marijuana.
“Absolutely,” Pretel said.
Pretel said that his deputies have seized 24 guns and made seven felony arrests— a small dent in Cleveland’s violent crime problem.
Although not governed by the consent decree, Pretel said the deputies have the same training as Cleveland Police officers when it comes to bias race enforcement and constitutional policing.
