The City of Cleveland says that more than three dozen workplace complaints against police officers, some dating back to 2019, are closed.
The 37 cases closed last year were complaints against police officers by other officers or other city employees. Almost all of them involved accusations of discrimination, harassment or workplace violence. Nearly all had been filed between 2019 and 2024.
The Cleveland Community Police Commission first called attention to the backlog of uninvestigated internal complaints last year. The city said at the time that it had “identified procedures that can be better refined to ensure a more efficient process moving forward.”
Signal Cleveland recently reported that as many as 20 old cases remained open this year, but that was based on a document that was out of date. It was an update obtained by the commission last year. The city did not respond to questions about that document until after Signal Cleveland reported on it.
This week, the city provided updated documents showing the internal human resources investigations were closed in 2025.
Eleven cases were closed because either the officer or the person who made the complaint was no longer employed by the city. In one case, the complainant had died. Seven were closed because the complainant withdrew the accusation or did not respond when contacted by a human resources investigator.
The delays matter because the city’s contracts with the unions that represent Cleveland police set limits on the time frames in which officers can be disciplined after a complaint.
In September, the city reached settlement agreements with two officers and a lieutenant accused in 2022 of harassing a fellow officer. The officers faced suspensions of 10 to 30 days, and the lieutenant could have received 20 to 40 days, under the discipline guidelines in effect at the time. Instead, they received three days and five days, respectively, in the settlement agreements.
The agreements state that they “fully and finally resolve” the 2022 complaints. The city charter gives the Community Police Commission final authority over police discipline matters. In November, the commission asked the inspector general of the city’s Department of Public Safety to investigate how the settlements were reached.
That investigation is ongoing, a city spokesperson told Signal Cleveland this week.
The spokesperson also said that the city had reached another settlement agreement with an officer. The city did not provide details, but the officer’s name appears to match one who was accused of workplace violence in 2024.
