Cleveland retired ‘supercop’ gets low-key patrol

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

The 40-year police veteran known as Cleveland’s “Supercop” retired last year but has returned to work patrolling a community of about 400 people.

Sixty-four-year-old James Simone now patrols Grand River, a low-key Lake County community where he says people wave with all five fingers.

Simone developed a tough-cop reputation during a career in which he killed five suspects, all ruled justifiable. He’s been shot multiple times.

He tells The Plain Dealer that he has an “ATM” policy with suspects: “Ask them. Tell them. Make them.”

His critics questioned whether some of his shootings could have been avoided.

Simone has arrested three people since going to work part time in Grand River last August. He used to arrest that many people on a busy day in Cleveland.