Filed
6:00 a.m. EDT
10.23.2025
The move follows a Marshall Project – Cleveland analysis that found police searched Black people more often than White people in stops in 2023.
Cleveland officials have contracted with a data analytics firm to help department leaders monitor potential bias and discrimination by officers.
Amid public perception that Cleveland police target Black drivers, city officials have contracted with a data analytics firm to help department leaders monitor potential bias and discrimination by officers.
The move comes one year after a Marshall Project – Cleveland and News 5 analysis of 17,000 police stops found police searched Black people more than three times as often as White people during 2023 stops — despite finding contraband at similar rates.
Leigh Anderson, executive director of Cleveland’s Police Accountability Team, said the contract delivers on a promise that city leaders made in October 2024 to engage outside experts to review traffic stop data.
“Our commitment is really to the community to make sure that that wasn’t rooted in racial bias,” Anderson said. “I recognize the weight of public concern when it comes to trust in law enforcement.”
The new partnership with Sigma Squared adds more oversight to a department under a federal consent decree since 2015, following years of excessive force complaints and paying millions of dollars in lawsuit settlements and judgments for police misconduct.
A preliminary analysis of 2024 traffic and investigatory stops by Sigma Squared found that Cleveland police did not target Black drivers, records show.
The analysis also found that police recovered contraband at similar rates regardless of race, records show. The city expects to release a final analysis once it is completed.
Harvard economists Roland Fryer and Tanaya Devi founded Sigma Squared in the wake of nationwide social justice protests in 2020. Police departments in Louisville and New Orleans also hired Sigma Squared recently.
Sigma Squared will provide the city with a dashboard where Police Chief Dorothy Todd and her command staff can see the number of police stops in any area of the city. The data will help them analyze whether the encounters triggered an arrest, a warning, a citation or a search and seizure, officials said.
Todd said she looks forward to being able to examine practices in near real time and make necessary adjustments instead of waiting a year for data.
“This is our commitment and dedication to compliance with the consent decree,” Todd said. “This shows that what we’re doing is working. This shows the changes that have been made.”
As shootings continue to make headlines, the biggest task is to reduce violent crime and keep residents safe by targeting crime hot spots — regardless of the location, Todd said.
Enforcement numbers like traffic stops will rise in neighborhoods with increasing crime, Todd said. She argued that such efforts are not evidence of biased policing or selective enforcement, but rather proactive police work.
The contract with Sigma Squared is a one-year deal for $289,000.
Sigma Squared software will track traffic and pedestrian stops and then test that data for signs of bias using formulas developed by social scientists and economists, Fryer said.
The company said it will use different tests to look for biased policing.
One test examines stops where police recover contraband. The cases are then compared by race for evidence of bias.
Another test examines the bar or circumstances an officer uses before deciding to search someone. If different racial groups face different thresholds, that points to bias, Fryer said.
Prior to 2022, it was impossible to analyze Cleveland traffic stops because the city did not record data. But under the federal consent decree, the city is now required to collect detailed data.
The news outlets’ previous analysis showed officers often used low-level offenses like broken taillights or tinted windows to search Black people, who were stopped overall at twice the rate of White people.
Fryer, who has researched disparities in policing at Harvard University, said the chief will now be able to address issues before they become real problems.
“That’s what the community, in my opinion, should be excited about,” he said.
In the coming weeks, Anderson said, federal monitors are expected to release a separate assessment of stop data for 2024. She stressed it is another layer of transparency for the city and police force.
“I will be really trying to convey to the community that this is progress,” she said. “They are coming along with us on the ride. This isn’t the final stop.”