Miracle Mile: ‘I think we’re dealing with a different scenario,’ says chief

MANSFIELD — Today’s Park Avenue West between Trimble and Home roads is not your father’s “Miracle Mile.”

It may not even be your grandfather’s.

The current Friday and Saturday night dangers on the popular stretch of four-lane road was the sole topic of a Mansfield City Council safety committee Tuesday evening, a session that included police Chief Keith Porch and Assistant Chief Jason Bammann.

The committee meeting was to discuss potential “cruising” legislation that could reduce the amount of repeated traffic on the road.

The idea, taken from a similar law used for two decades in Wooster, was first proposed by the MPD in early summer. But no action has been taken to this point, though council members seemed supportive of the idea on Tuesday.

A second potential ordinance to prohibit loitering could create constitutional issues, according to city officials.

“The mile and the cruising has been (part of) the history of Mansfield since the 50s and 60s,” said Porch, a police officer in the city since 1999. “That is just going to continue to happen, year after year.”

But it’s not the same as it used to be, the chief said, including out-of-town residents coming from as far away as Cleveland and Columbus to participate in the weekend evening activities.

“I think we’re dealing with a different scenario, especially when we have blatant street races and motorcycles doing excess of 100 miles an hour and a different flavor of (participants) trying to bait officers into chases,” Porch said.

The chief updated local lawmakers on traffic crime statistics since the weather turned warm in April.

“We’ve had 216 traffic citations issued, 126 warnings issued (and) have made eight physical arrests. We obviously investigated one fatal crash out on the mile, recovered a stolen vehicle and conducted 12 ‘ step details’ (three-hour blocks in which officers on overtime are assigned to the location),” Porch said.

The chief said the department is using available technology. The MPD has placed license-plate reading Flock cameras in the area and has also placed its portable camera trailer along the strip.

“Members of the public think that that may be a speed camera, which they can continue to think (and) that is fine with me, but it is not. It is more of an overt camera system to maybe have people think twice before they act stupid out on Park Avenue,” the chief aid.

Porch said officers in his short-staffed department are not eagerly signing up for additional voluntary overtime needed to crack down even more on Park Avenue West violators, who drive and race on the road and also congregate in shopping center parking lots along the strip.

“That has caused me to then force officers from second shift over to work night shift to cover Park Avenue. That’s obviously the last resort that I want to do, but we obviously need enforcement efforts out on Park Avenue because of the numerous complaints and obvious traffic issues we have out there,” Porch said.

“So the night shift, along with second shift, continues with their enforcement efforts. Now second shift, on one day, the whole shift volunteered to stay over to go out and work Park Avenue. So they’re definitely wanting the issue solved as much as myself and the command staff,” the chief said.

Other parts of the city also need coverage, Porch said.

“You have got to remember with night shift, we have five patrol officers assigned to work the city of Mansfield, with typically one supervisor. So if I would take two officers from night shift and assigned them out to Park Avenue, then I have three officers to respond to any other calls within Mansfield,” he said.

Porch said MPD has been assisted this summer by the Richland County Sheriff’s Office, the Mansfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Ontario Police Department.

“They have been more than gracious to come out and help us with the issues that we’ve been dealing with, which I’m sure every council members is aware of at this point,” Porch said.

The chief said the anti-cruising legislation, which would allow police to ticket motorists for repeated trips on the road within a specified time limit, would be a tool for law enforcement. But he said it would not solve the problem completely.

“I want to be very clear, it is definitely a tool for our tool belt for officers to be able to get a handle and a grip on enforcement action out there with the crowd. Not only do we have motorcycles doing 100-plus in speed down Park Avenue, along with vehicles, we have vehicles that will take off their license plates that will try to provoke officers into chases out there.

“So it’s at sometimes quite hectic of what our officers are facing in dealing with the traffic enforcement on Park Avenue,” the chief said.

In Wooster, “cruising” is defined in the ordinance as “driving a motor vehicle on a street past a traffic control point as designated (by police) more than two times in any two-hour time period.”

According to the draft legislation MPD circulated in June, such activity would “constitute unnecessary repetitive driving” and would be a misdemeanor offense that could escalate in severity with subsequent infractions.

The ordinance would not apply to public vehicles or vehicles being driven for commercial purposes, according to the draft.

Council members expressed support for the MPD’s efforts in making the Miracle Mile safer.

“I was one of those kids that came over from another county,” At-large Councilwoman Stephanie Zader aid. “It it wasn’t what it is today. We just cruised up and down the road. We may have gone 10 (miles per hour) over, but we weren’t doing 55 (mph) over.

“Since we’ve been talking about this, I try to drive down Park Avenue on Friday and Saturday nights if I can. I have definitely seen an increased police presence. I see no less than two or three cruisers usually when I’m driving between Trimble and Home Road. I do think that it’s made a difference. So I want to thank you guys for putting a concentrated effort on that,” she said.

Zader recalled the fatal accident in July.

“Less than two weeks later, I was out there driving down Park Avenue and I saw kids flying down on their motorcycles. So I don’t know what the (solution) is. Is it the cruising thing? Is that gonna fix it? No, probably not. But I do think that eventually they’ll get tired of getting pulled over, tired of getting yelled at and getting ticketed and having to go to court,” Zader said.

2nd Ward Councilwoman Cheryl Meier asked Porch about other potential strategies, including talking to business owners in the area about closing their parking lots after hours.

“Could we have the street department bring out the barricades in the beginning of the weekend so that it didn’t give places for them to park? I don’t know. I’m just spit-balling,” Meier said.

Porch said he wasn’t opposed to the idea, but added different business owners have different ideas during different years about usage of their parking lots at night.

“Every we used to go out and contact every business owner out there. One year business owners don’t want anybody out there because they’d have the trash (left) in their lots and they’d have to clean it out. And then the next year, it’s okay that they park there,” the chief said.

“The other portion of that, when you’re writing these tickets and they make it to the law director, and then they’re not prosecuted or (the tickets are being) thrown out. So I’m not interested in wasting time either and or money for the police budget for wasted efforts,” the chief said.

5th Ward Councilman Aurelio Diaz said he has also noticed a change on the “Miracle Mile” on weekend nights. He agreed with Zader that “cruising” on the strip was traditionally a fun thing.

“But the times I’ve been out there (recently), there’s this electricity in the air, it a lot of aggression. A few weekends ago, (I saw) young people, maybe in their 20s, with (anti-police slogans) just looking to have some sort of like conflict,” Diaz said.

“It’s very unsettling when we know that people from all over are coming, not for the fun part of it, but just (for) no consequences. That’s not on our part. I mean, there’s not enough (police). Also, these drag races, as most people in the boulevards know, they don’t just stop there. They go all the way downtown to the square. I hear them,” Diaz said.

1st Ward Councilwoman Laura Burns asked Porch to identify the stiffest consequences violators could face. “I think maybe we need to consider what we can do to make the consequences really unappealing to people,” she said.

Porch said it was a difficult question to answer.

“It depends on the activity, the violation. The stiffest is that you can be arrested, incarcerated and have to post a bond for your charge,” Porch said.

“So if you’re drag racing, driving under suspension (or) DUI, it carries more of a stiff stiffer penalty than a speeding ticket (or) squealing your tires,” the chief said.

“Clearly we have had numerous fatalities over on the mile over the years. It’s tragic. I feel for the citizens that live off Park Avenue. Believe me, I take their calls. Nobody wants to listen to that at 1, 2, 3 in the morning.

“I feel their frustrations. I definitely want to slow the leak. I don’t know if I could stop it, but at least slow it so it’s not so constant,” Porch said.