Black-Led Organizing Topples Ohio's Police Quota System:
How Grassroots Exposed Revenue Policing
This didn’t happen because politicians suddenly grew consciences. It happened because Black-led grassroots orgs spent years exposing how quotas weaponized policing against marginalized communities. They documented how cops in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati flooded Black neighborhoods with low-level citations just to hit numbers, fines that trapped people in cycles of debt and surveillance. Their "Traffic Stop Justice" campaign? That’s what forced this onto the legislature’s radar.
Police unions flipped the script! Surprising? Maybe. But groups like the Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association publicly backed the ban. Why? Because their rank-and-file officers were tired of being used as "revenue agents" for cities budgeting off fines. FOP President Ken Kober called quotas "a betrayal of community trust.” A line that landed in every committee hearing . (Still, critical to note, these same unions resist accountability elsewhere. This was a tactical win, not a redemption arc.)
The legal warriors: The ACLU of Ohio and Ohio Justice & Policy Center didn’t just testify, they armed lawmakers with data proving quotas targeted queer folks, unhoused people, and disabled drivers. Remember that 2023 case where a Black trans woman in Akron got ticketed three times in one week for "window tint"? They made that pattern visible. Their lawsuits threatened cities financially, turning quotas from a "policy preference" to a liability.
Groups like Surj Ohio and Faith in Public Life mobilized white constituents to flood GOP reps’ offices with calls. The message? "Quotas criminalize poverty—and we see it." This pressured suburban conservatives who’d otherwise dismiss "anti-cop" rhetoric. Key move: They amplified OOC’s demands without centering themselves.
The bittersweet reality: Even in victory, notice who isn’t in the headlines: the families who've lost loved ones to police and whose deaths underscored why quota culture kills. Their grief built this leverage and orgs like Ohio Families Unite Against Police Brutality, Ohio Families Unite for Political Action and Change, and Black Lives Matter Cleveland had to fight just to get victims’ names uttered in hearings.
The AG’s new quota-reporting system?OCJRC and Bread & Roses Legal Center are training communities to document violations.
People’s Justice Project and BYP100 Ohio are pushing to reroute saved quota-enforcement funds toward mental health crisis teams.
Solidarity economics: Columbus Freedom Fund now covers fines for tickets issued under pre-ban quotas.
What you can do:
Report shady "productivity metrics" via the AG’s portal (live by October 2025).
Pressure prosecutors by demanding your county DA (like Zach Klein in Columbus) drop pending charges from quota-driven stops.
This win? It’s pavement, not paradise. But it proves, when we attack the mechanics of oppression, not just its symptoms. We can pry whole gears out of the machine. Keep building.
“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” - Audre Lorde, whose spirit fuels this work.