Two riders on unregistered electric bikes, their faces hidden behind ski masks, blew through a red light onto Brookpark Road and led Brook Park police on a chase that topped out at 62 mph before officers called it off for safety reasons. The riders, described by police as males in their teens or early twenties, were never caught.
According to Cleveland.com, officers first tried to pull over the two e-bikers on Smith Road, where they were headed northbound. Instead of stopping, the pair peeled off, with the riders going left of center as they fled. The bikes carried no registration plates or tags of any kind, making identification even harder for pursuing officers.
From there, the chase split briefly. One e-biker ran a red light and turned southbound onto Henry Ford Boulevard, while the other cut through the parking lot of the Phoenix Lounge before also ending up on Henry Ford Boulevard, per the same account. The two then regrouped and continued south together, eventually turning westbound onto Hummel Road as the pursuit stretched through Brook Park's commercial corridor.
Speeds Far Beyond Any Legal E-Bike
At points during the chase, the riders reached 52 mph and later hit 62 mph, according to the report. Those numbers matter beyond the obvious danger: under Ohio Revised Code § 4511.01, legal electric bicycles are capped at under 750 watts of motor power and maximum assisted speeds of 20 mph for Class 1 and Class 2 bikes, or 28 mph for Class 3, according to Velotric. Speeds of 52 to 62 mph place these machines well outside any legal e-bike classification, suggesting the riders were on unclassified, high-powered electric two-wheelers or unregistered motor vehicles rather than true e-bikes.
Beyond the speed itself, e-bike and micromobility riders in Ohio are legally held to the same rules of the road as drivers, including stopping at red lights and staying right of center, according to the City of Hilliard. The Brook Park riders allegedly violated both of those standards during the pursuit, on top of failing to stop for police altogether.
Why Officers Broke Off the Chase
Police ultimately terminated the pursuit rather than continue chasing the pair through Brookpark Road and Henry Ford Boulevard, a stretch that forms a major commercial and industrial corridor near active freight rail lines and employment centers, according to NEOtrans. That decision tracks with state guidance: the Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board recommends officers end pursuits of non-violent traffic or property offenses when high speeds and traffic conditions raise the risk to public safety, according to Sunny 95, which notes the board's research documented 352 pursuit fatalities statewide between 1982 and 2014.
That caution reflects a broader shift among Cuyahoga County law enforcement. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office overhauled its own pursuit policy in October 2025 to restrict high-speed chases to suspects wanted for violent felonies, requiring deputies to abort pursuits without supervisory approval or if they lose visual contact, per WKYC. In April, the Cleveland Community Police Commission followed with revised rules requiring continuous supervisory reassessment and mandatory reporting for every pursuit, even those that end without an arrest, as reported by Signal Cleveland.
None of that eases the potential legal exposure the riders still face if identified. Willfully fleeing or eluding a police officer's signal to stop is a fourth-degree felony under Ohio Revised Code § 2921.331, and it can be elevated to a third-degree felony if the flight creates a substantial risk of serious physical harm to people or property, according to the Patrick M. Farrell Co. L.P.A. law firm.
Part of a Pattern on Brook Park's Streets
This is not the first time unplated two-wheelers have tested Brook Park officers this month. Two unplated motorcycles hit 100 mph fleeing police in Brook Park in a single day earlier in August. Smith Road in particular has become a recurring flashpoint: in June, Brook Park police chased a driver going 110 mph with fictitious plates on Smith Road, a pursuit that ended when the driver crashed into a Cleveland shopping plaza, according to WKYC Channel 3 footage of the incident.
The Brook Park chase also lands amid a wider Northeast Ohio reckoning with high-speed e-bikes and similar devices. Suburban departments including Mentor-on-the-Lake police have begun impounding non-compliant e-bikes and citing the parents of minor riders, while fire officials in Solon have warned about e-bike crashes sending kids to the hospital. Those cases, along with a Westlake e-bike collision with a semi-truck, point to a regional pattern of rising crashes and 911 complaints tied to fast-moving electric two-wheelers on suburban streets.
For now, the identities of the two Brook Park riders remain unknown. Police have not released further details on the investigation, and the ski masks that hid the riders' faces during the chase have so far kept them one step ahead of accountability.
