Menacing a healthcare worker on the job in Cleveland will now carry a mandatory minimum sentence of three days in jail.
The new law bumps up the offense to a first-degree misdemeanor, with up to thirty days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Cleveland public safety and local hospital officials said increased penalties will make employees, who have been dealing with a deluge of threats in recent years, feel more supported to report the incidents.
Council President Blaine Griffin says he expects the prosecutor and police to enforce the law "when necessary."
"We do want to make sure that it's within caution," Griffin said at a Monday committee meeting. "We know that it is a very sensitive time when people's loved ones are in the healthcare system. So, we know that there's heightened sensitivities."
Data from the Center for Disease Control shows that healthcare workers make up 10% of the workforce, but experience 48% of nonfatal injuries from workplace violence.
The CDC also reports a 7% rise in reported harassment from healthcare workers between 2018 and 2022.
Councilmember Stephanie Howse-Jones voted against the legislation, citing concern about who will be prosecuted. She also says the hospital systems should beef up their own internal protections.
Howse-Jones applauded MetroHealth, the county-owned health system that serves many low-income residents, for providing a suite of benefits and protections she said the other privatized systems in the city don't.
"To have the system that has the least resources, doing the most to show up and provide protections for their employees when it comes to menacing... I just don't think this this legislation is necessary," she said.
Akron passed a similar law last fall.
