The Cleveland Community Police Commission approved a new set of standards for police discipline that it hopes will improve fairness in determining when violations have occurred and what the consequences should be.
“The goal was more consistency and fairness, so officers know clearly what corrective actions they face will be,” said Commissioner Piet van Lier, who leads the commission’s Policy Committee.
The policy spells out what actions violate the “values, rules and expectations for conduct while on and off duty” and what punishments are warranted.
Officers had told the commission that the existing discipline policy, in effect since 2019, gives the city’s police chief and safety director too much discretion to increase or decrease the severity of charges and punishments “depending on relationships and other factors, including race,” van Lier said.
The new policy is based in part on recommendations the commission made in 2020, before it had the oversight powers. When voters approved Issue 24 the following year, the commission got final say over police policy and discipline. Before the new policy can take effect, it must be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Monitoring Team that tracks the city’s progress on consent decree requirements.
A disciplinary policy with ‘as much clarity as possible’
The police discipline policy has different levels of offenses based on the seriousness of the rule or law violated. The new policy creates two categories in addition to the three that already exist. The result of this change is less harsh penalties for some minor violations and more certainty of termination for the most serious offenses.
The first new category is “non-disciplined violations,” which includes tardiness, uniform and equipment violations and first offenses related to rudeness or improper use of a bodycam. Non-disciplined violations can be addressed with coaching, letters of reinstruction, re-training and/or referrals to the Employee Assistance Unit.
The goal is to correct certain behaviors “without escalating right away to punishment,” van Lier said. Some of the offenses in the new category currently require a hearing and discipline ranging from verbal correction to a five-day suspension.
The second new category is for “the most egregious and heinous misconduct,” including alcohol or drug use on duty, sharing confidential information, lying and retaliation. Officers found guilty of these will be fired. Some of these offenses currently carry penalties ranging from a 10-day suspension to termination.
The new policy also limits and specifies when the chief or public safety director can consider aggravating factors (circumstances that suggest the strongest punishment is warranted) and mitigating factors (those that call for leniency).
“We tried to specify things so that there is as much clarity as possible,” said Kayla Pincus, a sentencing expert who helped the commission write the new policy. “We didn’t remove all discretion” but tried to limit its use, she said.
‘Rebuild trust in the system’ for officers
Last year, former Cleveland police officer Richard Jackson told the commission’s policy committee that inconsistent disciplinary decisions were a major reason that officers leave Cleveland for other departments.
“[The city] will tell you that it’s about Issue 24, but it really isn’t,” Jackson said. “It’s about the application of discipline as they’ve known it to be.”
The new policy creates a Fairness and Consistency Committee made up primarily of patrol officers from Black Shield, the Hispanic Police Officers Association and the Greater Cleveland Emerald Society. Committee members will review discipline recommendations (with names redacted) and offer their input to the chief before the decision is made.
The committee was created “to rebuild trust in the system,” Pincus told Signal Cleveland.
The commission passed the new policy at its Wednesday meeting with six yes votes, two no votes and two abstentions. The commissioners who voted no and abstained did not ask questions about the policy or explain their opposition.
Read the new policy:
