Freshly released 911 recordings from New Year’s in Cleveland lay out a midnight residents will not soon forget. Callers can be heard begging for help as bursts of celebratory gunfire crack through neighborhoods right at the stroke of midnight, describing bullets coming through windows and officers who did not show up right away. The recordings, and the anger they have stirred, have the city’s public safety chair pushing for legal changes so police have clearer authority to act when people fire into the air.
Midnight calls caught on tape
The recordings obtained by the FOX 8 I-Team capture one caller saying, “a bullet came through my window,” while another reports “gunshots right outside my window.” In one clip, a call-taker tries to reassure a panicked resident with, “OK sir, it is New Year’s so there’s going to be a lot of shooting,” a line that prompts callers to interrupt and demand officers. According to FOX 8 I-Team, dozens of 911 calls flooded dispatch right as the new year began.
Neighbors say 911 is not working
Residents from Collinwood to the near west side told investigators that long hold times and slow on-scene responses are nothing new, with some callers saying they were left on hold for more than 20 minutes before help arrived, according to News 5 Cleveland. Past reporting has documented wide variation in response times for “shots fired” calls and chronic strain at dispatch centers, problems that advocates say chip away at trust between residents and police. That frustration is easy to hear on the latest tapes, where callers repeatedly demand to know why officers are not being sent.
Council looks for tools, but questions remain
City Council Public Safety Chair Michael Polensek has asked city lawyers to “test” the law and draft legislation that would close what he views as loopholes that keep officers from stepping in during holiday gunfire, the FOX 8 I-Team reports. Ideastream Public Media has previously detailed Polensek’s push to expand nuisance-property rules as a way to hold property owners and businesses responsible when trouble keeps flaring up at the same locations. Civil-liberties advocates and some council members caution that any rewrite will get complicated fast, with thorny questions about how to enforce new rules and what evidence would actually stand up.
State law, suburbs and what comes next
At the Statehouse, Sen. Casey Weinstein is reviewing whether Ohio law should be tweaked to give cities clearer power to outlaw reckless gunfire, even when it happens on private property. The WJW/FOX 8 I-Team notes that suburbs including Euclid, Elyria and Westlake already have local ordinances that officers can use to crack down on celebratory shooting. City Hall, however, did not respond to multiple requests for comment on how Cleveland might move forward. For now, lawmakers and council members are weighing their options: push for a statewide fix that clarifies local authority, tighten city codes and enforcement on their own, or pour more resources into dispatch and response so the next New Year’s does not sound like a war zone.
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