Cleveland Vice: Life on the streets

On a Thursday night last month, Cleveland police watched two teenage boys buy marijuana. When police approached, the boys ran down East 112th Street, into back yards and down a wooded ravine.

The police chased the boys into the darkness. It was a routine thing, another night in the life of a beat cop.
A few weeks later, a few miles away, Cleveland Patrolman Derek Owens and his partner spotted four teens drinking beer in an abandoned garage. The teens ran and the police chased.

This time, a 19-year-old pulled a gun and squeezed the trigger, prosecutors say. The slug hit Owens in the abdomen. He died in surgery six hours later, leaving behind a wife and two children.
Whenever police stop a car, kick down a door or confront people on a street corner, they don't know what lurks.

Plain Dealer reporter Mark Puente and photographer John Kuntz spent several days and nights last month riding along with vice units in the city's six police districts. They hoped to get a glimpse of what Cleveland police face.