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Lakewood police wrote more red light and stop sign tickets than any other suburb.

(Patrick Cooley/NEOMG)

LAKEWOOD, Ohio – If you're driving through this West Shore suburb, make sure to come to a complete halt at stop signs and don't roll through traffic lights unless they are green.

Lakewood police wrote 2,627 tickets for red lights and stop signs violations in 2012 and 2013, more than another suburb, and 17 percent of the city's total traffic tickets in those years.

Police in no other Cleveland suburb came close to that 17 percent, according to a Northeast Ohio Media Group analysis of ticket records, broken down by violation, for 23 communities.

Red light and stop sign tickets ranged from 3 percent in Broadview Heights to 10 percent in Westlake.

For more than a month, NEOMG has reported on the ticket-writing practices of surban police by analyzing records for 2012 and 2013 from municipal courts, mayor's courts and the Ohio Supreme Court.

About half of the courts gave us a breakdown of violations, and that included the Lakewood Municipal Court.

The records show most suburban police target speeding. Speeding tickets make up between 20 and 25 percent of the total tickets.

But Lakewood police wrote only 1,147 speeding tickets in 2012 and 2013, about 8 percent of their total.

Nearly all traffic tickets written by police in neighboring Rocky River in 2012 and 2013 were speeding tickets.

Lakewood finished 34th in NEOMG's traffic-stop rankings. Linndale topped that list.

Lakewood is relatively compact. Cleveland's third most populous suburb, it covers less than seven square miles.