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Video shows police cruiser taking up two lanes on the interstate

Posted at 3:13 PM, Sep 12, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-12 15:13:14-04

CLEVELAND-- Social media has been buzzing about a video posted by a truck driver showing a Cleveland police cruiser hogging two lanes on Interstate 90, according to WJW.

Joe Gerhart said he was traveling east on I-90 towards downtown Cleveland on Sept. 7 when he noticed a police car get onto the highway and jumped into the center lane of traffic and almost immediately began straddling two lanes of traffic while traveling at 10 mph below the posted speed limit of 60.

Gerhart recorded video on his phone and posted it later on Facebook.

"I see people do kind of stupid stuff all the time, but I just don't see why that was necessary for him to do that for no apparent reason. There was nothing in the road, there were no obstructions. He didn't have his lights on so it was just like, 'Wow, I can't believe he's really doing this,'" Gerhart said.

He said other cars and trucks began passing the cruiser.

"That's kind of a dangerous thing to do to play around in traffic like that. The speed limit is 60 miles per hour. Everybody is doing at least 60 miles per hour and you just want to slow down traffic like that. That's very dangerous. I mean, you could have got into an accident," Gerhart said.

When asked if the officer may have been talking on the phone or texting, Gerhart said he never got close enough to the cruiser to find out. He said he knows that he may have put himself in jeopardy by recording video and driving, but he felt the officer's conduct was so unusual that it needed to be investigated.

A Cleveland police spokesman told WJW the patrolman straddled the two lanes as a tactic to slow traffic behind him while responding to an accident.