Federal judge asked to halt Cleveland Clinic policy of detaining people who transport gunshot victims to ER

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Federal judge asked to halt Cleveland Clinic policy of detaining people who transport gunshot victims to ER

The Cleveland Clinic’s police department instructs officers to detain any person and vehicle accompanying gunshot wound victims to the emergency room. A lawsuit filed last week argues the policy is unconstitutional.

by Celia Hack
June 4, 2026


Cleveland Clinic Credit: Fionnula Conlin for Signal Cleveland

Update: A U.S. District Court judge rejected this request on June 4. Read more on that decision.

A federal judge is being asked to immediately order the Cleveland Clinic to stop detaining people who bring gunshot wound victims to its emergency rooms while a legal challenge to the policy moves forward.

The request is part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of Ibrahim Alim, who was detained last May after he drove his friend with a gunshot wound to the emergency department. Signal Cleveland reported on his story last December. At the time, three legal experts questioned whether the policy — which instructs the hospital’s police to detain people and vehicles accompanying gunshot wound victims to the emergency room — might infringe on constitutional rights that limit how and when officers can detain individuals. Cleveland’s branch of the NAACP also called on the Cleveland Clinic to pause and reverse the policy last year.

In addition to detaining Alim, the lawsuit says officers also unconstitutionally searched him, seized his car keys and used excessive force against him, even though they had no evidence he was involved in a crime. Alim is seeking $10 million in damages, according to the civil rights lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court.

Alim and his attorneys argued that part of what makes the hospital’s gunshot policy unconstitutional is that it does not require officers to detail why they think an individual was involved in a crime before detaining them. The Supreme Court has ruled that reasonable suspicion is required for police to detain residents.

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