Over the past decade, when Cleveland police employees faced discipline, they ended up with a suspension about half of the time. But in the past few years, the number of officers and other staff facing discipline has fallen by more than half.
Those are among the insights from Signal Cleveland’s review of discipline cases decided from late 2016 through mid-2026. We explored what gets police officers and other division employees in trouble and what happens afterward.
Here’s what stood out.
What are common reasons officer face discipline
Charges relating to officers using force against residents appear in less than 10% of hearings, though that fluctuates from year to year. Those can include accusations that officers used excessive force, improperly handled a firearm, or failed to report force was used. In more than half of those cases, an officer was suspended.
In September 2025, an assessment from the team paid to monitor police progress under the consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice found that while the total number of times police used force against residents had ticked up. 97% of the time when police used non-lethal force they did so constitutionally. The report also showed that citizen complaints about officers using force had dropped by 55% from 2018 to 2024. Injuries to officers also dropped during that time by 40%.
Since 2016, the most common type of misconduct involves department employees not doing their job. That could be failing to properly investigate a case, sleeping on duty or not taking a police report from a resident.
In 2025, a detective was punished after an investigation found he failed to thoroughly investigate an incident and requested a warrant based on unreliable information, resulting in an unjust arrest. The detective received a 5-day suspension.
Cleveland police discipline, explained
Unprofessional behavior is also a common reason officers receive discipline. These include cases where officers are written up for making offensive marks, being discourteous or engaging in behavior the force deems "unbecoming" of department employees. Cases range from a dispatcher livestreaming her shift on TikTok while taking calls for the department to more serious violations.
In 2024, a patrol officer ignored a complainant’s safety concerns and became riled, yelling and acting aggressively, according to an internal investigation. He received what the division calls non-disciplinary reinstruction for unprofessional conduct. This is a letter from the chief of police advising him of his misconduct and directing him to review specific policies, procedures or rules. It’s often paired with corrective training.
The same officer was written up for unprofessional conduct again in 2024, this time for a social media post of himself in CPD uniform, next to two patrol cars, pointing a firearm at the sky. The caption referenced a social media meme claiming “that police pointed their weapons at the sun during a solar eclipse because it was turning black,” according to an OPS investigation. He also posted several images taken while on duty, including a video of an accident scene, the inside of a patrol vehicle, official forms, and photos of recruits and instructors. He received a nine-day suspension.
Another common reason officers face discipline relates to body camera violations, which appeared in more than one in five discipline cases. However, the yearly number of hearings involving body camera violations has decreased since 2023.
One reason for the drop is a change in leadership, said Cleveland Police spokesperson Sgt. Freddy Diaz. Calvin Williams served as chief from 2014 to 2022. Body cameras were introduced in 2015, and Williams had a zero-tolerance policy for misusing the new technology, Diaz said.
According to Diaz, the department’s zero-tolerance policy resulted in low morale and hostility toward the technology among officers, so Chief Dorothy Todd, sworn in in 2024, took a different approach.
Now, unless there is “blatant” or purposeful misconduct, the first body camera violation almost always results in a verbal warning. If one occurs again within 12 months, the discipline escalates to a more serious consequence, such as reinstruction or suspension.
Those verbal warnings aren’t recorded as formal discipline that is made public – and aren’t reflected in the data – but the department tracks them internally, Diaz said.
The most common discipline outcome is a suspension
When employees are disciplined, they receive either a written reprimand, suspension, demotion or termination. They can also be found not guilty of misconduct and have some or all charges dismissed. In nearly a quarter of hearings, at least one charge was dropped. Another quarter of cases resulted in a letter reminding officers of the rules or policies.
Below you can explore disciplinary outcomes for specific charges.
Almost half of discipline hearings resulted in a suspension. Suspensions ranged from one to 30 days
Fewer than 4% of all cases – 71 – ended in termination. Untruthfulness was the most common charge among those cases.
In general, the police unions fight discipline cases where employees are terminated, and some of those are overturned. The police unions declined to provide information on which terminations were overturned. Signal Cleveland requested the outcomes of those challenges that went to arbitration. The city supplied some cases, but the records are incomplete and were not included in the data we analyzed.
Sometimes, employees will leave the force by voluntarily separating or retiring before discipline is handed down. In 21 of these cases, the departure followed an arrest or criminal charge.
This is just a sample of what the records hold. The search tool lets you go deeper:
- Look up a specific officer and trace their discipline history.
- See which violations get suspensions versus reinstruction on a rule or policy.
- Find out whether the cases that sound the most serious get the toughest penalties.
Start with whatever you're curious about — a name, a penalty, a rule — and follow it.
Cid Standifer contributed data editing to this story.
