Cleveland Police Looking For A New Home For Horses

Cleveland police officials are scouting out new sites for the horses serving in its mounted unit. 

Officials from the city’s capital projects office and police presented their preferred sites for new stables to city council’s safety committee this week.

The 70-year-old stables they use are outdated, according to safety director Michael McGrath,

"The current facility and location there’s no question that it needs to be improved," McGrath said. "It’s been there a long time and it doesn’t meet the needs of the mounted unit, the horses, riders, et cetera."

A mounted patrolman heads west on Euclid Avenue in Downtown Cleveland Aug. 14. [Annie Wu / ideastream]

The city’s preferred new site is six acres of vacant land in the Central neighborhood near East 55 ^th Street. The runner-up is part of the lakefront Kirtland Park, not far from the current location.

The project is estimated to cost around $6 million, but the city is also considering building public stables and a riding area on the same site. That would drive the cost up to $10 million or more. Officials estimate the projects will take between 2-3 years.

LED Lights

Later in the meeting, City Council President Kevin Kelley criticized the city’s new LED lights. He said he’s received complaints from residents of his ward who say that the lights shine sideways into houses instead of down onto sidewalks.

Kelley read off the city’s response to a resident complaint.

"'It’s a different kind of lighting and it’s something we’re all going to have to get used to.' Well, I'm going to say, 'no, it's not what we are going to have to get used to'," Kelley said. "Citizens should be able to sit on their front porch. And it's unfortunate I’m having to address this here but it's not something I do unless I’ve taken the proper steps beforehand."

The city's chief operating officer said officials will go to Kelley's Ward 13 to see the problem for themselves.

Council last year approved a plan to replace the city's existing sodium- and mercury-vapor streetlights with more than 64,000 LED bulbs. The bulbs are longer lasting and brighter than those currently used.

So far, LED lighting has been installed in Wards 1 and 13 but will eventually be installed citywide.

Shotspotter

Cleveland is moving ahead with a pilot program to install gunshot locator technology, often referred to by the name of a company that makes it — ShotSpotter. 

Council's safety committee on Wednesday approved legislation to accept a grant from the Cleveland Police Foundation for a two-year test run of the technology in a 3 square mile area on Cleveland's East Side. It goes to the full committee next.

The area selected for the pilot program had 3,100 shots-fired calls from 2016 to 2018. By comparison, the entire 4th Police District — which includes the pilot project area but is five times larger — had 8,500 shots fired calls during the same period.

Police Chief Calvin Williams told the council the technology will help the city get a more accurate count and map of gunshots fired in the city, which has been a challenge because, in some parts of Cleveland, gunshots don't necessarily lead to a call to the police.