East Cleveland's City Council president is asking for Cuyahoga County's help following a shrinking police force.
On Tuesday, Twon Billings told the Cuyahoga County Public Safety & Justice Affairs Committee he wants the East Cleveland police to merge with the county sheriff's office.
"I would like to try and have conversations in regards to the potential of merging our police department — taking our budget and merging it over to the county to take over our police department."
He told safety committee members continuous gun violence in the city of fewer than 14,000 residents makes it dangerous for the three officers patrolling the city each shift. The city budget calls for nine officers to patrol per shift, Billings said.
"I just received a phone call over the weekend of some young people threatening to shoot one of our police officers because he's actually doing his job, running people away from the gas stations and everything like that," he said.
Billings said a corruption scandal in the city's police force has affected morale and the city's ability to recruit.
In recent years, more than a dozen East Cleveland officers have been indicted in Cuyahoga County on charges including felonious assault, interference with civil rights, tampering with evidence and dereliction of duty.
Last year, two were sentenced to prison for pulling people over and robbing them. Two others were found guilty of taking bribes. Some cases are still working their way through the courts.
In March, former East Cleveland Police Chief Scott Gardner pleaded guilty to a single charge of failing to pay taxes. He was initially indicted on 24 counts, including theft in office, money laundering, passing bad checks and other charges; 23 charges were dismissed.
Billings said low staffing levels mean if an officer calls in sick, others have to pick up the slack.
"They don't even get a chance to really take a break, they got to eat in their patrol cars," he said during the committee meeting. "I had literally to stay up until 3 o'clock in the morning and cook for these men and women, have them come over to my house."
Cuyahoga County Safety Committee Chairman Michael Gallagher said a merger between East Cleveland police and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department would be a huge undertaking.
"Because once you're talking about police, you're talking about fire. Once you're talking about fire, you're talking about EMS. Once you're talking about EMS, you're talking about everything," Gallagher said.
The committee said it may consider bringing back "impact units" in the county, which temporarily sent deputies into communities where they were needed.
