Original reporting · The Marshall Project
Years After Scrutiny, Black Drivers Still Dominate Bratenahl Traffic Stops
What happened
For years, Black Clevelanders said they bore the brunt of traffic tickets in Bratenahl, a wealthy village of about 1,400 people inside Cleveland’s borders, and they nicknamed the citations the “Bratenahl tax.” Reporting from Cleveland on Oct. 28, The Marshall Project found that village records now back them up: Black drivers made up roughly 70 percent of stops and citations in 2024, roughly 65 percent in 2025, and roughly 70 percent again through September of this year.
Those records exist because of earlier reporting. According to The Marshall Project, police were not recording drivers’ race in 2022, so its investigation that year used Mayor’s Court records to estimate the disparities. Chief Charles LoBello then ordered officers in early 2023 to log the race of every driver stopped. Tracking became comprehensive in 2024, and officers took mandatory anti-bias training. The outlet reported that the Mayor’s Court, which mainly handles traffic cases, has collected close to $400,000 in fines, court costs and other revenue since 2024.
Village officials deny racial profiling, The Marshall Project reported. LoBello, whose officers patrol a 3-mile stretch of Interstate 90, said, “It is truly based on the demographics of people who drive through the village.” Mayor Keith Benjamin promised a thorough review and said, “Racial profiling is unacceptable, and a concern about it deserves a careful, respectful review.” He said any analysis must account for the race of the tens of thousands of drivers who use I-90 daily. “That’s an important missing piece,” Benjamin said.
Cleveland Councilman Kevin Conwell, who represents areas near the village, told the outlet he wants to meet with the mayor. “This must stop,” he said. On a Sept. 29 visit to Mayor’s Court, The Marshall Project found most people there were Black or Hispanic residents of other cities. One Cleveland man, leaving with a $260 payment plan, said, “I just put my hands up and live.” The mayor’s review has not reported findings, so how stops compare with who actually drives through is still unknown.
Our reflection
Sit with that man’s sentence: “I just put my hands up and live.” He left with a payment plan and a lesson that costs more than $260. The lesson says the rules lean one way and a wise man stops expecting otherwise. Fathers pass it on without a word, in how they grip the wheel when lights come on behind them. Sons learn it before they ever take a road test.
The reporting does not establish why the numbers look this way, and we will not invent a motive. The mayor named what is missing. Then go find it, and do not let “we don’t know yet” become a permanent address.
Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, a respected man who did not want to be seen asking. Jesus told him that light exposes deeds, and that whoever does what is true comes to the light (John 3:21). He did not shame Nicodemus. He invited him. And Nicodemus came, slowly, until he was carrying spices to the body of the crucified Christ in daylight (John 19:39). For years nobody in Bratenahl wrote down a driver’s race. Not looking is its own sin, and it lives in us too. Every one of us keeps a ledger we would rather not total, the money and the grudges alike. The way out starts the same for a police department and a heart: turn the light on and stay in the room.
To the man with his hands up, and the young people watching him: Jesus told of a widow who kept going back to a judge who did not fear God, so that people “ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). She prayed, and she showed up.
The data exists now, and data can be carried into a council meeting. Residents and pastors can ask:
- Will the review compare stops with who actually drives I-90 and the village streets?
- Will stop and citation figures be published every year, without a reporter having to ask?
In our JCVI work we meet young people at first contact with the system. A ticket in a village court can be that contact, and the posture a young man carries out of that room lasts.
This week, pray for the people in that courtroom line and the officials now holding the numbers. Then find out whether your own police department publishes its stop data, and if it does not, ask why.
But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.
John 3:21
Your move
Source: The Marshall Project, “Years After Scrutiny, Black Drivers Still Dominate Bratenahl Traffic Stops”