I-Team: Cleveland police ramping up water patrols, ticketing boaters

CLEVELAND (WJW) — The FOX 8 I-Team has found Cleveland police are cracking down on boaters and giving tickets on the water.

This comes as we’ve seen people often left waiting for police when they call 911.

So we investigated what this means for boaters and everyone on the streets.

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Cruise the Cuyahoga River and you’ll see boats tied up by hot spots in the Flats.

But we’ve found Cleveland police have ramped up the number of officers patrolling in a police boat.

They’re suddenly writing what amounts to parking tickets for boaters, citing them for docking their boats “in a safety zone established by the U.S. Coast Guard.”

Tim Kiernan got one of the tickets.

“On the boat, there were four policemen,” Kiernan said. “The boat came down. He asked me to move my boat. I said, ‘I’m waiting for someone.’ He said, ‘OK, you’ve got five minutes.’

“Then, in the mail, about a week later, I get a summons to come to criminal court. I was just kind of — I was floored.”

Kiernan told us he never saw this kind of enforcement before.

In fact, we checked. The Cleveland city Clerk of Courts Office found no record of any of these tickets in 2023. Now, in just over a week, eight boaters have been ordered to court.

Back to court in a moment.

First, we took a closer look at devoting Cleveland police to the water that’s already patrolled by the Coast Guard, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department and others.

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Cleveland police said they’ve expanded the Harbor Unit from five to 20 officers.

But a spokesman said they work the water on days off or after regular shifts, earning comp time or overtime.

A Cleveland police statement said, in part:

The Marine Patrol is currently scheduled to operate on specific days and times each week during boating season, depending on the weather. They are also scheduled to patrol during special events or as needed for incident response. We assist the United States Coast Guard, MetroParks, and ODNR in enforcing safety zones. The boat has been in service for some time, with the exception of a maintenance period a few years ago. The addition of these members ensures the team is fully staffed and trained to provide service to our boating community.

In court, Kiernan found out the boating tickets could put someone in jail. The penalty can go up to 30 days in jail and a fine up to $250.

Kiernan thinks police have more important work to do on the streets than on the water.

“I would assign my manpower more to the city of Cleveland than on the water. I’ve seen very few problems down there,” he said.

We also called and e-mailed the Coast Guard for comment about all of this, and we did not hear back.

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